They were out of the tunnel before the sounds of destruction even registered in their brains. The ground cracked like fragile ice beneath their feet as they were thrown into the space above, and for a fraction of a second, a primal fear invaded Izuku's chest because he hadn't been able to grab onto anyone and now the sheer speed at which they were moving wasn't letting him get up.

But no speed was too great for the Hero Killer to get left behind. Especially not with Izuku's life on the line.

Stain's large hand landed on Izuku's back forcefully, the man grabbing onto his shirt and arm with admirable strength. Morse screamed to his left, her thin frame thrown against him without a once of gentleness. He held onto her immediately, feeling a secure layer of ice wrapping around them all in an attempt to keep them from separating.

"Hold on!" Spinner screeched, his voice getting drowned even with his face right next to Izuku's.

Green eyes squinted at first, then shot right open at the sight before them.

It was impossible to know how big the space had been initially, or how many rooms and hallways had been morphed together to create the giant space they were now flying through. The ceiling stood at least 50 feet high, the vents and pipes hanging from it telling Izuku that, unlike the walls and the floor, the ceiling had been designed and properly built.

Pillars of debris shot out from the ground, sprouting like weeds from a sidewalk and twisting in every direction, coiling like angry snakes that missed one another either by luck or careful design.

On the ground below them, standing protectively over 2 grey and white figures, was someone with a head of gold. About thirty feet from them was the unmistakable purple of Overhaul's collar.

The surface they were riding on got close to the ceiling, almost convincing Izuku that they'd be squashed against it like bugs, before it veered to the right and arched along the wall, starting to aim straight at Lemillion's dodging figure. Izuku felt himself start to slip despite the ice and the hands grabbing at him from all directions. All he could do was grasp the bodies around him fiercely.

They picked up speed and Izuku thought that they were going to hit Lemillion and the other two with full force and he panicked because every single one of the rock constructs was aiming for the same place.

The Hero Killer shattered the protective ice holding them all together, shoving Izuku and others off the speeding platform without a millisecond of consideration for his own safety. Izuku reached out, panicked.

"Stain!" His mentor didn't look at him.

Not two seconds later, every moving column collided against one another like hungry animals all attacking the same prey. The sound was deafening and long, large pieces of debris shattering against one another just behind them.

The brief moments that they spent in the air, just clutching at one another, were some of the longest Izuku had ever experienced in his life. In the middle of that eternal wait, all suspended in limbo, his mind conjured up the image of how their bodies would mangle and break once they hit the rock spikes below. He could hear the snapping of bones and the tearing of flesh in his mind. It would probably be a scene worthy of a horror movie.

Thankfully Shoto had the sensibility to create an ice ramp—haphazard and far too sudden to ease them down properly—so the actual impact was hellish but in no way as gorey as he'd expected it to be. Morse and he rolled over one another a few times, some debris getting him on the arm and the face and opening a gash over his left eye that started bleeding immediately. His ribs were bruised and his knee almost bent far enough to pop out of place. Shoto came to a stop by using Izuku as a speed bump, and poor Spinner slid right past them at top speed before crashing into the wide base of one of the spikes, practically wrapping around it.

They all groaned and sputtered, Morse rocking back and forth in Izuku's grasp while screaming, and every single one of them bleeding from somewhere.

All in all, a good landing.

Izuku scrambled to his feet, terror lighting a fire in his chest that threatened to consume him whole and leave nothing but ashes behind. He searched the large space wildly, eyes widening as they locked onto his mentor's figure. On his left arm was an open gash from which a steady amount of blood poured down to his hand, dripping down to the ground from his blade.

"Stain!" Izuku said urgently, his tone pleading and faint. He was shaking and his ear was ringing, but his mentor was right there and he rushed forward as if to hug the older man, but he couldn't even take a step.

"You're very lucky I respect Eraser Head enough to keep my word regarding his chosen allies," Stain said, cracking his back and aiming his knife into the clouds of dust still settling. "But do not think that puts me on your side."

Izuku exhaled roughly, squinting in the poor light. The floating particles that threatened to choke them all to death were slow to obey gravity, but once they did Izuku was able to locate a bundle of figures amongst the wreckage. Lemillion had managed to move them before the collision, but the damage had already been done, either by that or a previous attack. Lemillion's face and body were covered in small wounds, some of the fingers in his right hand not bending quite right. The man currently cradled in the young hero's arms was holding onto life only because God wished it so, the hole in his abdomen wide enough for Lemillion's entire cape to be stuffed inside, and one of his arms barely hanging on by some skin and a few tendons.

Next to Lemillion was the small child Izuku had crashed into a few days prior, her white gown pristine in a way that made her look more like a ghost than a person. Almost like she couldn't be touched by the chaos.

The smiles and easy demeanor Lemillion had shown Izuku back in Deika were nowhere to be seen, the young blonde's face twisted with frustration and anger and what might have been grief. He did his best to pull the child behind him without upsetting the injured man too much, but the latter still coughed up blood. The cape taking the place of his insides twitched.

"Hero Killer," Overhaul drawled out from where he stood. His silhouette was all wrong, the air clearing doing nothing to help fix it. Izuku only recognized him because of the mask and the voice.

The extra set of arms was new. Iuzku shivered as he thought of what Hara had said about 'spare parts' not being missed by the dead.

"You're not supposed to be here," Overhaul continued.

Stain narrowed his eyes, silent.

"No matter… That's irrelevant now." Overhaul exhaled, his shoulders sagging a little. He seemed out of breath, the state of the space they were in the testament of the fight that had been taking place. "I'm about done here, anyways."

"We're not done. Not even close." Lemillion gritted his teeth.

"Enough of your persistence, Lemillion!" Overhaul yelled, one of the arms sprouting from his back arching down to press a hand firmly against the ground. From behind the mob boss, a set of rock tentacles arched over him and toward Lemillion at the speed of sound. Anyone would have had a hard time reacting before being struck.

One of the knives at Izuku's waist was taken and thrown before he could even wrap his arms around Morse in an empty attempt to protect her. The blade cut the distance in a flash, forcing Overhaul to dodge the projectile aimed at his neck and breaking his contact with the floor. The constructs halted abruptly, one of them cracking at the stop in momentum. Had that not happened, most of them would have died.

Golden and blue eyes gazed at the Hero Killer in confusion, Izuku's green orbs blinking rapidly.

"What's the meaning of this?" Overhaul asked.

"You were with All Might back in Deika," Stain said, fixing the young hero with a calculating glare and thoroughly ignoring the villain. "And that must hold if you're here now. Am I correct?"

Lemillion was catching his breath, brow furrowed. He looked at Izuku as if the green-haired teen could give him the correct answer.

"Speak, boy," Stain commanded. "Are you two with All Might?"

"...Yes. We are."

"That's good enough," Stain said, cracking his neck. Red eyes met golden ones. It was like watching a lion focus on its prey. "For now."

"What is this? Are you so desperate to prove your point that you'd enlist the help of a–."

"I don't need help," Stain said, spinning the knife in his hand rhythmically. "I don't need anyone to take you down."

Overhaul looked furious, his mask looking ill-fitting as his face twisted with rage. Stain grinned wide, every tooth bared.

"You all get more and more annoying…" Overhaul growled, eyes shifting from person to person.

Traveling with the Hero Killer for so long had helped develop Izuku's instincts when it came to fighting and he knew right away that Overhaul wouldn't be an easy target to take down.

Not that Stain cared about that, mind you. He looked ecstatic.

Overhaul raised one of the hands attached to the odd, muscular arms extruding from his shoulder blades, one of his normal hands pinching the bridge of his nose—or at least the mask over it. From the palm, a mouth with a full set of teeth materialized.

"When did you decide on betraying me?" The mouth spoke ominously, Overhaul's voice reverberating. Recognition flooded Izuku and his mouth watered, nasua hitting him. He knew that quirk. Spare parts my ass.

"Since I laid eyes on you." Stain admitted with pride, his tongue peeking out the side of his mouth.

Izuku could hear the growl coming from Overhaul, the only prelude they had.

His teacher wasn't one to wait for the enemy to make the first move. He launched himself at his target with his knife clenched in his hand at top speed. The ground beneath his path split into sections, each one extruding upwards and smashing against one another like hands attempting to crush a bug. Stain bounced from one construct to the other with ease and Izuku just couldn't deny that he stared at his mentor in admiration for a second or two.

"Sir!" Lemillion called urgently behind him. Izuku turned to see the older man in Lemillion's arms attempting to get up, but either he'd lost too much blood or the hole in his back had taken part of his spine clean off because his legs refused to obey him.

Izuku wasn't sure if it was the horrible wounds or Lemillion's upset expression, but he felt sick at the sight.

"Y-you can't…" The man sputtered, reaching for something in his coat that looked like a chess piece. He lost hold of it and it dropped, cracking the concrete beneath. "You m-m-must…!"

"I know! Just save your energy. I…" Lemillion said, eyes going from one deadly wound to the other. "I got this! Power!"

The last word was strained and Izuku swallowed. Shoto stumbled forward to crouch by Lemillion's side and Izuku remembered how the blue-eyed young man had spoken to him back in Deika. How he'd stayed behind, let him and Stain go to try and save a life. Capturing the Hero Killer and the Disciple would have shot him up the charts like nothing else. And yet…

With Morse still clutching his side blindly Izuku made his way over to the wounded man. His mind was clear and his heart was light. Because yeah, it was stupid, impulsive, and counter-productive, but it was right.

Izuku pulled his remaining knife from his waistband and, to his credit, Lemillion caught his arm immediately. Fair enough.

"We need a clear look at the wound," Izuku said evenly, gently placing his free hand over Lemillion's to get him to let go. For a moment the blonde didn't ease his grip, but Izuku didn't struggle.

"We need to cauterize it. The chances of it being reattached go down, but the bleeding will stop faster. Shoto–"

"On it!" Shoto all but ripped the sling off. He stretched his arm and conjured a few flames, not even flinching even though a few days prior he'd barely been able to roll his shoulder without feeling pain.

Lemillion blinked a few times, looking torn but–

"Incoming!" Spinner yelled, throwing himself over Izuku and Morse. Izuku caught a glimpse of the stone tsunami just as it was about to hit and braced for impact.

A flash of white and red flew through them, all of them feeling like they'd been hit by a cold breeze, and Lemillion twisted to deliver a well-centered punch. The incoming attack disintegrated into nothing and Lemillion landed back by their side, his right hand still not closing all the way. The blonde looked back at them, determination shining in his eyes.

"I'll stick to them like glue," Izuku said with a nod, echoing something that Lemillion had told him back in Deika. It wasn't enough to bring back the dashing, confident smile, but a spark did return to Lemillion's eyes.

Behind the blonde, Overhaul roared in anger and Stain dropped from the ceiling—when and how he got up there were irrelevant—like a bird of prey.

Focus.

"Are you okay?" Izuku asked the little girl standing to the side, looking wide-eyed at the fight taking place. Considering both Overhaul's quirk and Stain's tendencies, it was better to get her eyes elsewhere.

She blinked at him and he smiled a little as he pulled out a shirt from his bag and expertly cut it into a long piece of cloth. The expression on her face was odd.

"I'm really glad to see you," Izuku admitted, using the now useless fabric to tie a tourniquet above the all-but-amputated arm. "I was worried about you."

She blinked again, silent. The dying man eyed him and Shoto in bewilderment.

"T-Todoroki… Mido–" A violent, wet cough. "Midoriya…"

"This is gonna hurt," Izuku warned.

Behind them, the room shifted and crashed and broke without end.

The stranger wheezed and nodded. Shoto concentrated his quirk onto the palm of his hand and pressed down on the wound, moving it this way and that to burn the entire surface. The man didn't seem to notice—he was either very resilient or numb to the pain by that point.

"There," Shoto said, eyeing his patient from head to toe. "We can move him now."

"Move him?" Spinner asked. "We don't have time, we have to help Stain."

"Stain can handle himself. We have to take care of the people who can't fight."

"We're not nurses. We're here to carry out the Hero Killer's will, we can't just–"

"He can kill whoever he wants himself," Shoto concluded. A piece of debris flew their way and even though Lemillion kicked it away, the chaos was getting too close for comfort. Izuku bit his lip hard enough to bleed. "We gotta move them out of here. Now."

"How?" Spinner asked, a rather valid question considering the place they were at. The different textures on the ceiling and walls made Iuzku believe that Overhaul's quirk had most likely hollowed out the space below a set of built rooms. That left the roof too far out of reach, and any constructed exists probably useless. Izuku looked around, seeing nothing but spikes and debris. Not a single wall showed an opening to it.

Lemillion landed about 40 feet to the right—well, landed wasn't fully accurate. He sank into the ground as if it were water, a sharp spike crashing onto the same spot. He resurfaced a little ways off and jumped back into action.

"We should be fighting," Spinner gritted his teeth. The girl looked at him with terrified eyes, but his pink irises were locked on Stain's form as the man bounced off rapidly moving surfaces. It wasn't easy for the Hero Killer to shorten the distance between himself and his target, and with Lemillion occupied making sure Izuku and the rest didn't get smashed by Overhaul's reckless attacks, there was no ground being gained. It was a stalemate.

A fire burned in Izuku's chest, his skin itching where he'd once had a cast over his arm, over a year ago.

"Midoriya?" Shoto asked, finishing up with another wound on the man's leg.

Stain avoided a spike aimed at him, but a metal rod sticking out of the construct caught him on the side. A fresh splash of blood bloomed from his mentor's torso. Izuku inhaled through his teeth sharply.

"A distraction," Izuku said, turning toward the others.

"What?"

"We need a distraction." And then, toward Shoto, "We need an opening."

Spinner grinned.

Izuku placed Morse and the girl behind him, watching his friend hold onto the child tightly in her fear. He kept one hand on each just in case, making sure to cover the injured man as best as he could; Izuku wasn't particularly broad or tall, but if something happened he'd be the first one to get hit. It was all he could do.

Shoto was already on his feet, rolling his shoulder with a tight expression as he followed the action along with Spinner. It was almost impossible to see through the coiling mass of sediment that Overhaul commanded, flashes of red, purple, and white coming in and out of view without any sort of consistency. The most regular sight was that of Lemillion, but Izuku wasn't aiming for him.

"I have a plan," Izuku said, nodding to himself. As he explained, the fight went on before them. Lemillion didn't let it show, but Izuku guessed that he must have been getting tired, little by little. Every wild attack against the Hero Killer put the bystanders in danger and he kept diligently reducing every boulder and construct that flew their way into dust. He was somehow staying on top of it all despite not using his right hand, all his fingers slack.

Stain's speed was still unmatched, his form but a dash of red as he went about avoiding attacks, looking for an opening. But every time he paused, to change directions or to maneuver around an incoming attack, however brief, you could see all the gashes and cuts on his body where sharp metal and pointed stone had managed to find their target.

The balance, however stable, was bound to tip to one side.

Izuku swallowed, nodding at Shoto. The other teen exhaled, a fine mist of crystals coming from his mouth as he lowered his body temperature in anticipation.

"Wait," Izuku said, eyes darting around at high speed.

Spinner rolled his shoulders, shifting his weight onto his bad leg experimentally.

"Wait…" Izuku repeated, watching as the Hero Killer came this close to Overhaul only to get thrown back by a wall. Lemillion dashed back to forcefully deviate a rising piece of floor curling in their direction.

The concrete was smashed away and Lemillion lost his momentum, staying suspended in the air. Stain landed far away from Overhaul, eyes flashing.

"Now!"

Shoto inhaled sharply and held his breath, imitating a hand movement that he'd seen Dabi make before. He had curled his fingers to make a sort of cone, a bright light emanating from his palm. The air around them went from frigid to hellish as Shoto opened his hand with a rapid twist.

The flame hesitated, flickered in place before it shot out in a thin straight line. Shoto aimed low, an expert in his craft, and the flames arched upwards as they went, the controlled start getting bigger and wilder as it went, consuming oxygen. The path was immaculate, the flame reflecting on every pair of eyes in the room.

A triangular piece of concrete rose from the ground hastily, the pointed front parting the flames as a boat would the ocean. The fire was so bright that the rest of the room was cast under the unnatural, pointed shadows of the constructs, the dark figures dancing on the walls.

If Izuku had looked around, he would have seen an array of expressions: awe, hope, horror, manic glee. But he was focused.

The fire stopped as suddenly as it's been created, the roar of the flames dying down. The wall Overhaul had built to protect himself split open down the middle. The bastard hadn't burned alive, but the shoulders and scruff of his coat were smoking and singed. Stain smirked from where he was.

Overhaul's eyes were wide, locking onto the spot where Izuku and the others stood. He watched Shoto with pure anger, eyebrows furrowed as low as they'd go and his head tilted as he began to speak.

And then he noticed the gun, all too late. Spinner fired two shots, not someone to leave things to chance. The echo of the blasts was loud, and an elevator full of broken glass flashed in Izuku's mind, making him shiver involuntarily.

Overhaul's eyebrows shot up, the extra set of arms moving to protect him. Izuku grinned. The skin was bare so it was–

From Overhaul's chest, a cloaked person with a mask shot forward. Thrown haphazardly, the body twisted mid-air, the bright red of the quirk bullets settling on the fabric over his back. And as the body fell downward, Izuku's eyes clashed with Overhaul's furious ones.

A spike rose in front of Spinner, the point coming in so fast that the gun's barrel shattered, only the butt of the gun staying in the mutant's hands. Spinner's trigger finger suffered the brunt of the attack and a pained growl escaped his lips as he stepped back. They would have all been impaled had Lemillion not rushed in to pull them all back, a well-aimed stomp putting an end to Overhaul's spike field.

Overhaul's minion crashed upon the floor like discarded trash, dead or alive wasn't clear, and it was like a stone landing through a window. Everything broke all at once.

The ground beneath Stain trembled and the man leaped in the air gracefully, only to get flicked off to the side by a piece of rock the size of a car. Stain managed to turn and roll on his shoulder before he stopped himself from tumbling further. It didn't take a doctor to know that the man was injured and bleeding from multiple wounds. He attempted to attack in return, but the ground beneath his feet sank, capturing his right ankle.

He had landed too close to Overhaul for Shoto to use his fire again, so the teen tried to use his ice, but its contact with the ground placed it at Overhaul's mercy and it shattered into nothing.

Lemillion sank into the ground for a surprise attack, but he ended up resurfacing right by Izuku's side, forced to hold up a whip-like rock tendril that had tried to kill them all. Morse shrieked, holding onto Izuku and the small child for dear life. Izuku pulled them both behind himself, a pebble awaiting a monsoon.

Stain bared his teeth like a rabid dog, trying to free his leg only to have the concrete holding it build up higher.

Izuku bit his tongue, panic surging in his veins.

"Do you think I'd let someone like you…" Overhaul growled, sounding like he was talking to himself.

"Midoriya…" Lemillion grunted, still holding up the weight of Overhaul's quirk so that it wouldn't crush them all.

"...put a dent into my life's work?"

Shoto rushed to Spinner's aid, screaming something about 'stopping the bleeding'. Izuku's eyes were frantically going from one person to the other, looking for something, or perhaps waiting for a sign.

"You're nothing but pests! Diseased vermin!" A new pillar rose up to the ceiling. Overhaul glared at them. "You weren't worth my time."

The pillar bent, coming down not only with the strength of tons of rock but with the added push that Overhaul's quirk provided.

Stain's knee hit Overhaul's face full force, knocking the man away brutally. The gold and red mask clattered on the ground, useless now.

Lemillion used the opportunity to knock down the pillar with a swift kick, rushing to protect Morse and the girl, and the other pro from the falling debris.

For one moment, no one moved. And for one tiny fragment of a second Izuku turned to look at his mentor, knowing full well that most of Stain's foot had been buried in cement not a moment prior, and finding a growing pool of blood growing under the man's leg.

His right boot had apparently been too trapped to free, the mangled remains of what had been a foot bleeding profusely. He'd been strategic about it, leaving the Achilles tendon intact so that he'd be able to support himself, but the front of the foot was unrecognizable. The fact that he could stand was enough to bring tears to Izuku's eyes.

"You criminals… who just wave around your power idily… Who would intimidate and harm an innocent… Should be purged." Stain hissed, planting himself defiantly despite how horridly painful it must have been. His eyes shone with hatred and bloodlust and justice.

"I'm going to kill you singlehandedly if I must." Stain spat, taking an agonizing, bloody step forward. "I must ensure that trash like you no longer breathes."

Overhaul, whose face and neck had broken out into hives, looked at Stain as if he'd never seen the man before in his life.

"Fight." The Hero Killer ordered. "And perhaps you can die as more than filth."

Overhaul snarled, opened his mouth–

Stain darted forward then, knife at the ready. Overhaul slammed his hand on the ground, a curtain of spikes sprouting from the ground and dividing the room, almost as if he'd wanted to isolate himself. But Stain was too fast. He made it past the barrier just before it closed and the last thing Izuku saw of his mentor was the splatter of blood that dirtied the newly built wall, fresh and bright.

The spikes grew upwards without control, and the ceiling cracked open like an eggshell.