Chapter 8: Lindworm
All Might stomped through the door as soon as he kicked it down, the enraged expression on his usually smiling face not wavering for even a moment as he looked down at the absolute travesty that was allowed to occur in his absence.
These villains, they hurt his comrades, terrorized his beloved students! He would make them pay, and dearly at that. He'd be sure of that—that was a promise!
'If they thought I was scary before, then they've never seen me angry!' The mountain of muscle thought before he surged forward, tearing through the villains like they weren't worth his time as he made a beeline to where Izuku, Erin and Tsuyu were.
He pulled the kids away and dashed away just as quickly. He had his back to the villains as he set Aizawa and the kids down.
"I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong when Aizawa and Thirteen didn't answer my calls." The man growled as he got up. "So I rushed over, running into young Iida on the way, he told me of the villainy at work here." He continued through gritted teeth. "Do not worry, my students." He said as he rubbed Tsu and Erin on the head, standing. "Because I am here!" He exclaimed, tearing his tie off as he faced Shigaraki, Kurogiri and Nomu.
Two of the three in question weren't in great shape. Shigaraki was clutching his wounded arm in agony as he shivered, the venom Izuku injected him with spreading throughout his body. Nomu, meanwhile, looked like it went through a shredder and was still regenerating, the progress hindered by the many poison covered snake blades from Izuku.
The only uninjured one was the Teleporter. And he could see that things were not looking good, especially given the current situation and circumstances.
'This does not look good.' The mist villain cursed mentally.
"N-Nomu… Kill h-him!" The decay using villain stuttered, his entire body now being affected by the pain inducing venom which made just standing up difficult for him. Obviously he was determined to see All Might dead at his feet.
The golem of quirks groaned before he rushed at the Symbol of Peace, who dodged the wild attack and countered with a right hook to the side of the beast's abdomen—only to be shocked that his attack seemingly had no effect on his opponent's body.
"What… do you think of our… bioengineered… anti Symbol of… Peace?" Shigaraki panted as he fell to his knees, unable to stand upright anymore. "We call him… Nomu." He rasped.
"All Might, he has regeneration and shock absorption!" Izuku called as he remembered how the hulk performed. "But I think I hampered his performance enough with my snake tsunami earlier!" He added.
"I certainly hope so!" The man exclaimed as he continued to ruthlessly attacked Nomu, punching and decking the giant quirk meat puppet like a living punching bag—which was actually fitting given the power set Nomu had.
After a bit, the hero began to see the fruits of his serpentine successor's labor show. Nomu's performance was sluggish, likely due to the poison from earlier and explained why dodging attacks was easy.
"So, your quirk is shock absorption, big guy? That means that you have a limit to how much you can take. So I'll just strike you until I pass that limit!" All might said as he started punching him at blinding speed, and with targeted precision.
As each blow landed, Nomu's condition only worsened. This was shown by how he slowed down in response to the barrage along with Izuku's venom still affecting him, making this a short fight. All Might decided now was the time to wrap this fight up.
"You've heard these words before! But now it's high time you heard their real meaning!" The man growled as he readied the finishing blow. "Go Beyond! PLUS ULTRA!" He boomed before he sent his attack forward.
Nomu didn't have a snowball's chance in hell at tanking it, and was sent flying out of the USJ and into the distance. It wouldn't come back from that.
After sending Nomu off Team Rocket style, All Might turned to Kurogiri and Shigaraki with a vicious grin on his face as Izuku walked up behind him.
"I just demolished your so-called weapon." The No. 1 hero began. "Do you really think you two can take me?" He taunted. "Of course, if you think you can, you're welcome to try." He continued.
"Yesssss. By all meansssss…." Izuku picked up, trailing off as he transformed into Jormungandr once again. "Give us some ideas." He finished, looking down on the two villains with a nightmarish serpentine grin that made Shigaraki shiver more in fear in addition to the pain from the venom.
"... K-Kurogiri?" The hand wearing man child began with a gulp.
"Y-Yes?" The teleporting villain responded as he too shivered in fear.
"G-Get us out of here!" Shigaraki yelled in fear, wanting to get as far away as possible from the impossible snake boy causing him distress.
"No you don't, you stupid villains!" Katsuki yelled as he and Kirishima came flying towards the two to try and hit them, forcing Kurogiri to pull Shigaraki away while Todoroki tried to freeze them, only for them to avoid that as well—the warp villain disappearing with his partner.
"Damn! They got away!" The redhead cursed before looking at Izuku, who returned to normal upon seeing it was safe. "Well, Midoriya must've really given 'em a scare." He added with a shrug.
"That he did." All Might nodded, his time limit nearing. "Now, all of you, make your way back to the entrance. And take Aizawa with you." He added.
"Right." Shoto nodded as he started making his way to the entrance, the others following suit minus Izuku, who stayed behind to have a brief word with his mentor.
"If part of being a hero involves learning how to scare villains, I think I have that part down." The snake-like teen remarked.
"Indeed. You did well, young Midoriya." The man replied as he slowly started to deflate, right as a cement wall popped up.
"Everyone! I have returned, and I fulfilled my duty—." Iida called from the entrance. "By bringing reinforcements!" He added.
"You guys are late to the party, then." Erin commented. "Villains are dealt with and the leaders have retreated." She added.
"Well only the ones we can see. *Ribbit*" Tsu amended with a croak.
"We'll take care of the stragglers. You kids can take it easy from here on out." Snipe told them.
With that, everyone that wasn't a student quickly got to work and started dealing with the stragglers all over the USJ. From the Entrance to the far off mountain zone, they swept through the entire building, not letting one slippery villain get past them.
(Later)
After the police had taken statements from the students, they had been given leave to head home since they had a long day. Izuku in particular actually felt rather spent, something Apophis noticed when his student returned.
"You overtaxed your powers." The small snake chided in the kid's head, slithering around his neck to the boy's ear.
"It was due to an unexpected villain attack." The boy replied with a groan. "I had to. If I didn't, I'd be dead." He added.
"Don't do it too often. If that happens, you'll turn into a serpent permanently and die soon after." The white serpent hissed warningly.
"Noted." The boy sighed as he sat on his couch and looked at the ceiling. "That aside… I think I did well, for my first fight-to-survive situation." He mused.
"You being alive now is proof of that, it's true." The ancient snake mused in agreement.
Izuku had dinner with his mother soon after this talk. The boy had Katsudon while Apophis had his usual ration of sake, meat and rice. Not really acting indignant like before, the small reptile was actually quite gracious to Inko instead. It seemed the snake was seemingly becoming softer towards his caretakers.
(Meanwhile)
-With Shigaraki and Kurogiri, not long after the USJ failure-
In a bar in an undisclosed location, Kurogiri appeared.
"Damn… That child was a force of nature, I swear!" The warping villain cursed as he tried to calm his racing heart from the horrific image of a giant, grinning snake.
"Child?" A voice from the other side of a TV screen as Shigaraki came out, convulsing from the venom Izuku hit him with.
"Yes. One with potent serpentine based abilities." Kurogiri replied with a sigh. "He was able to transform into any snake on record, even the fabled World Serpent." He continued.
"Interesting." The voice hummed with intrigue. "Is there anything else?" He questioned.
"Yeah! Th-The little b-bastard hit me with some v-v-venom, and it hurts!" The crusty skinned villain gasped in pain. "Get me the damned antidote for this shit, now!" He added.
"Unfortunately unless we have samples of the venom. We can't." Another voice told him.
"Kurogiri, do you still have the medicine that we had synthesized?" The first voice questioned.
"I do. Shall I administer it?" The warp user asked in reply.
"Yes. It may not cure the effects completely. But it should help alleviate the symptoms until he can fully recover." The voice replied.
"Understood." The butler-like villain nodded as he went to fetch the medicine in question.
Tomura, meanwhile, had a few thoughts going through his messed up noggin. First, seeing so many snakes looking ready to kill him had frightened him to no end. It was going to take a bit to get a lid on that jar.
Second… He was going to enjoy murdering the brat that put him in this state, and laugh at his corpse.
Dragon Emperor0: Sorry if this chapter is a bit short. But since the last chapter ended the way it did, we figured that it wouldn't really make sense for this one to go the same way as in canon. So this was the result of our chosen courses of action.
ThermalsniperN7: Plus we kinda lost our step with this story, so that's probably gonna make this chapter look lackluster to a point, so we're sorry if that happens for some of you. It doesn't help that I think we forgot if Apophis was present for the USJ attack or not… Oof.
Dragon Emperor0: We'll try not to get so behind next time. Anyway, be sure to check in next time for season 2. See you all then.
