"We can beat him right here! Right now!" All Might pointed into the air where Geus's chopper hovered. "We can't let all these kids' efforts tonight mean nothing! Show me young Geus! Your true strength!"
The photos Geus was shown of All For One in the prison was nothing close to what he saw today. A heavily scarred man, nearly melted face, oxygen required to live. Now was a healthy and young person high in the sky.
That fight from months earlier was a show of useless power compared to this. This version of All For One showed no signs of slowing down, or that he was hurt in any way. For the first time in Geus's life he was a super villain. Not just any bad guy he had to fight or watch, but a true monster of power.
Every fiber in his body told him to run, that this wasn't his fight to commit to. But that little voice in his gut told him to stay, that this was the moment he had to prove. It wasn't selfish, it wasn't out of greed, that all of this was for them.
"Come on, roll out." Gaz patted his boy's back and pushed him back.
Geus skipped backwards to the far wall. His gas fully wrapped around his legs and took a sprinter's stance. Gaz stood by the open doorway to the world. His nostrils furiously plunged out his own quirk and filled his chest. The old man, face full of red and head shook like it was being tazed.
Right when he nodded Geus took off with an explosion from his feet. His body launched faster than his legs could and right through the door. He made sure to grab his grandfather's reached out arm and pulled.
Gaz turned to face the camouflage called a locker room and exploded the pressure on his chest. The speed tripled in an instant, everything in their vision was essentially a blur. Just random blobs of gray tones. Luckily for Geus, he already had his target locked.
Gaz grabbed Geus's arm and locked his quirk around it. He punched Geus's thigh and released from the body. Geus knew the signal and pressed on Gaz's back before he was too far out. The rest of his prepared gas exploded and torpedoed him straight. The heat produced burned at Geus's body, obviously this speed wasn't for a normal man to achieve. Yet this heat wasn't on Geus's mind, it was the thin amount of gas around him.
"Mak Zero!" Geus felt All For One's presence right in front of him. His right arm extended out forward, cleanly slammed right through the cavity and out the end.
The gas around Geus's arm launched out into a dart and into the rubble of a building ahead. The new reserve around his feet exploded again to regain whatever lost speed occured. Both his body and All For One's connected.
"Reverse Iron Maiden!" Both of the men's gas exploded from the point around Geus's arm.
Thousands upon thousands of spikes ejected from the single point to cover the rest of his body. Geus jumped from the location, the gas on his feet shot to the ground and kept him in the air. He waited for the air to become clear once again, not sure if the move even did anything.
"I! Am Here!" All Might shouted from the top of his lungs.
A small shine of light came from the smoke. "Why!" All For One burst through the smoke and carried a ball of energy in his hand. "Are you smiling!"
Geus flicked his hand up and followed with a wall of gas to protect him. The lack of effort and lazily motion was to taunt All For One. Keep him open to any vulnerability that they could exploit.
Whatever it was in All For One's hand it broke through the wall like it only had to melt butter. The sheer speed and lack of resistance took Geus off guard.
"Hercules! Red!" All Might's voice was closer and even louder. A wall of metal flung around Geus and right in front of All For One. The blast was completely blocked by the wall of darkness, nothing more than force winds went through. "Not a problem!"
Gaz came right above and behind All For One. "You want a fight boy!" His broken and cracked voice echoed out. His gas all around his upper body, grabbed hold of All For One and whipped him into All Might. "Then fight!"
"Black whip! Chargebolt!" Black tethered rods shot from All Might's armor and penetrated All For One's body. Pure and unbothered electricity spiraled down the rods and straight into All For One's body.
Now Geus got a strong look, nothing that first attack remained on the villain. It was like that initial strike was worthless. No, it showed how powerful this guy was. His regeneration ability was something they had to slow down or nothing they'll do will matter.
"I may be in my sixties!" Gaz yelled out.
"And I'm fifty five!" All Might yelled back.
"I should be beating up a young lad!"
"I shouldn't be beating up a young lad!" All Might and Gaz yelled at the same time as they moved in forward.
A black void started to form inside AFO's hand as the two unleashed a flurry of blows. A large mass of a combination of quirks launched from it. Like the attack of Bakugo's kidnap, black lightning, rubble, and balls of power took up the street and covered high above the buildings.
Gaz clenched his fist and slammed his gas through the point AFO used. Small amount of blood mixed inside the tornado of power along with an annoyed ground.
"I don't need a hand." Gaz cackled. "I'm never letting go now boy."
"You are just worthless trash." AFO's voice was quiet, not afraid but agitated from the three heros. Black sword-like shapes sprouted from AFO's back and into Gaz. More stagnant lightning bolts can from All For One and impaled Gaz.
He ignored the man like he was a fly he hadn't noticed yet. The villain floated over to the wall All Might blasted through. "But for some reason putting on that garbage bag has given you some confidence. Is that it?"
Geus pressed himself up further, his attention scattered all around the area. All throughout the rubble he laid down his gameplan, for not a day to figure out everything felt natural. There was no hesitation in his steps, any second guesses.
All Might jumped from the broken skyscraper and into AFO. The three men flew straight back towards Geus's trap. The rubble all around them exploded in a second, gas and rock quickly filled the air around them. Geus felt his target inside the mist and tightened.
His training was on full display, he kept everyone else safe all while All For One became trapped inside the solid area. Geus's eyes filled purple, his blood boiled, his muscles tensed. He injected everything he had around All For One, sending every once of gas down his regenning throat.
"I don't need to put the final blow down." Gaz coughed, small spits of blood flew out from it. His breathing was heavy because his grip never loosened. "I just got to slow down that regeneration." He laughed.
Geus couldn't see inside his quirk, he felt every muscle that moved through his web. He felt All For One snap onto All Might's neck and whip him out. He reached behind Gaz and gripped his neck. Gaz latched onto the hand and wrapped both of them in gas.
"Release it!" Gaz screamed.
Geus did as he was told, anyone's safety was not in his mind. The gas inside solidified throughout AFO's body and started to expand. It was like slow motion for Geus, he felt his quirk suddenly become free from AFO. It didn't explode, it wasn't big enough to make a fatal shot to the man. A different mass came from AFO's arm and slithered him out.
"You're still not capable of being fast enough to hurt me." AFO's neck extended like a snake and wrapped around his and Gaz's body. "Everything you've sacrificed was and is for nothing." His mouth opened and unleashed a beam of light.
"You're an idiot for an adult!" Gaz smirked.
Purple smoke engulfed the light before it reached Gaz and hardened. The light faded into dust and became absorbed by the field of generated smoke. Gaz pushed off of All For One and hovered in the field. His fingers waved around, trails of the smoke centered into AFO's area and grabbed.
"I hid this for twenty long years. Oh how I wanted to expose this." Gaz cracked his neck and ripped the shirt from his body. "Come on boy." His finger prodded his chest and punctured into his chest. "I'll leave it right open for you." The rest of his fingers jammed into his chest and tore the flesh open. No blood came out, no grunt of pain. Just pure purple smoke flew from the wound.
"My ultimate measure, you're in my domain now."
"There was a reason I never studied you. You have always been a broken tool in my shed."
Both of All For One's wrist snapped completely backwards, then his arms, then his shoulders. A reverse broken spiral of his arms wrapped to his shoulders. Gaz jumped forward, his fists fired forward and shot balls of gas. They splattered over AFO's body and solidified on the joints. Each following punch exploded the gas into his flesh and exploded a second time in the flesh.
"All I needed was for the boy to be ready!" Gaz shouted, his eyes bleed out more smoke till his pupil became submerged.
The holes started to show in All For One's defenses. Small, millimeters big but they didn't disappear like the others. Gaz focused harder in one spot, dead center of the chest. His body screamed and ached in pain, his heart beat pounded harder than a heart attack, each muscle tore deeper and deeper.
"Probably wonder why you can't move huh!" Gaz laughed. "As long as you're in here! You're under my control!" A punch followed and cracked through for the first time. "No quirks!" Another punch caused a small cave in in the cavity. "No tricks!" A third cracked a slit in the skin. "Only the Sansei power is allowed to prevail!" He cocked his head back and forward with reinforcement from the quirk.
A giant mouth came from the hole in All For One's chest. It latched onto Gaz's eye and tunneled inside. Gaz pulled himself to the far wall of the orb and flew in the gas down his eye socket.
"You have always been easy to read. You think you can actually hurt me!" All For One's body stammered through the resistance placed on him. "A family of rejects! Could never hurt me!"
Whatever entered inside Gaz's eye seemed to die in the flush. The moment of defiance over and done with. All that remained from it was a gaping hole in Gaz's eye socket. And still that hole inside All For One's chest remained. This different sphere of different laws of nature managed to temporarily stop All For One's regeneration.
"One more." Gaz lifted his hand in the air, all the gas solidified around it. The sphere became small and squeezed the two together. Whatever was used to create this space wrapped and bundled inside the center point of Gaz's fist. "One more and you're gone."
"Does the entity holding this barrier know you're own move is going to kill you?"
Gaz froze, a moment in real time, faster than a blink. Yet in that time, both Geus and Gaz froze from the spill of words. The barrier system became slightly weaker and vulnerable. Just enough for All For One to take advantage of the situation. His chest instantly closed and his body shined like the sun.
"Of course the worthless shit wouldn't know!" All For One's arm in a flash stretched out past Gaz. It hardened into a blade and slashed down through Gaz's reinforced arm. "Not even worth the sweat my body releases."
Gaz's arm slid clean off the rest of his body. His body hovered in the sky as the hunk of flesh crashed and splattered on the ground. All For One blasted into Gaz and slammed his fist into the open hole in his chest. He held back just a bit to not pulverize clean through. But watch the helpless body crash into the ground and collapse a building above him.
"Pathetic." AFO couldn't muster the effort to give off anything but a blank face. He turned like none of this was anything and flew into All Might's direction.
Geus couldn't move, nothing stopped him but his own fear. Every word was true, nothing this monster said was false. Gaz's heart rate, the lack of blood flow that was just replaced with both their quirks. The pure adrenaline and instincts clouded his judgment. He knew from moment one there could be no second guessing.
"Daaaad!" Geus sprinted down, he ripped off the mask and built his quirk around his hands.
His moments were sporadic as he smashed and hurled any rock in his way. All he could do was scream out for his grandfather, only to be returned with nothing. He resembled a wolverine that tried ever so desperately to get its prey. Nothing around him mattered. The debris smashed into more buildings and caused other cave-ins, all while his radio pleaded for him.
A small patch of human skin glistened through the gray surrounding. The gas flowed through every crack and wrapped around whatever remained. It pulled everything back and dropped around them.
"Grandad!" Geus cried, his eyes full of tears. "What the hell." His unstable voice came closer to his grandfather as he knelt down to him.
Gaz eyes were barely open, his skin pale with every vein nearly in eye sight. His mouth gaped but didn't breath, his lungs didn't inflate, nor any breath came out. His body rested like it was slouched on a lazy boy. Rocks and rubble positioned him to look straight back out to the road.
Gaz's head didn't move, his bloodshot eyes remained frozen. A giant hole gaped where his heart should be, instead a swirl of purple smoke was in place. Thousands of thin strands stretched from it and expressed out through the rest of his body.
"Please... Talk to me!" Geus whimpered.
"You did good today, son." Gaz sounded like he wanted to gasp for air but couldn't. "You maintained that barrier well. Way better than any of my brothers."
"But you never told me that could kill you!"
"And you would've never agreed to do it then." Gaz smirked and chuckled. "There's only one thing that holds you back. Making people like you."
"That's what separates them from us! I'm not a monster that will let my friends die."
"Huh, too emotional, too. I remember hearing about the soulless boy not afraid to do what it took. Maybe that's on me."
"I just remembered," Geus sniffled. "to stay human."
"Human, huh? Yeah I let that side go years ago, acting like the good guy is what led me here to fail."
"Come on, we still gotta help All Might! He's going to die out there if we don't do something."
"Nah, that tricky bastard knows what to do. He won't die a stupid death like me. I didn't kill that freak but his healing factor is nearly gone with that move."
"Don't say that." Geus gripped his granddad's cold hand. The blood doesn't circulate and simply allows the part to slowly die. No movement, no spasms in the nerves, just emptiness. "I'll call for evac and get us out of here."
"You know why I told them we could handle being the trump card?" He didn't wait for Geus to answer. "Because I was going to do what my brothers did for me way back then. Look at me, boy."
Geus stood up and stood in front of him. His body looked even more decrepit now. His skin skunk into his flesh and bone. Both of his eyes looked as if it was one blink from rolling back. He was nothing more than a skin sack of bones. That last attack held whatever life this man gave away.
His heart of gas instantly launched down Geus's throat. The boy gasped for air, he dropped to his knees as he struggled and scratched at his throat. His veins pulsed a bright purple with each pump of his heart. Geus grabbed his grandfather's foot and clamped down on the boot.
"Relax. Don't fight it." Gaz's voice came through Geus's mind. "When my eldest brother did this to me, I also feared it. But I feared not having this power more. And so will All For One. I love you, Geus."
The flow stopped and Gaz's eyes closed right after. Geus's body still squirmed from the sudden attack, the rush, the burns, the mutilation of his body didn't stop. The heat this emminated felt the sun was going to melt his arteries, his skin would disintegrate into nothing. The years of pain rushed through in a matter of seconds.
His mouth opened to scream but was silent by the release of the quirk attack leaving his body. A constant flat screech filled his ears as his mind faded.
"What are you doing here, Geus?" Fumikage asked.
"You should go back to school, Fumi." Geus muttered, his face shoved into his arms.
"I'm not going back until I know you're safe."
"I'm fine." Geus lifted his head up to a dark sky and moonlit stars. The earth was cold and still, not a cloud in sight.
"Then what's with the shovel?"
"I remember this day." Geus stood up from the green grass and looked down at that granite gravestone. "This was a month after we buried Keena." Geus looked down at his hands, full of dirt. "I did it, but why isn't his grave dug out?"
"Trust me, friend. Nothing you did up there will bring you any closure or relief. The pain you feel now will never heal from it." Fumikage grabbed Geus's shoulder.
Geus turned his hands over, no scar, no dirt, as if it never happened. "Because I didn't do it. I took two swipes at it before Fumikage came to stop me. He never told the teachers or anyone else of tonight." Geus looked up to see his grandfather behind the stone. "So why am I seeing this now?"
"Because I get a very short time to say goodbye with the transfer of my power to you." Gaz unfolded his arms and stepped closer to the gravestone. "Your bird friend here told me all about tonight. Thought it was the best place to instill a memory for you to control yourself." Geus's head dropped to the grave. "To the place where I thought my final grasp here left. Where that bitch killed him, all because of what he and I carried in our blood."
"It wasn't your aunt's fault, she and the rest of your family was pressured till life's end to believe in this crap. You and I lost everything because of that belief. I lost a son, a grandson, a daughter in law, a wife, and brothers. And you lost all the same because of that man."
"What does this entail? What's happening out there!" Geus shouted, his hands flailing up and out of Fumikage's grip. "Why do I have to suffer this much to just feel free!"
"Right now your body is going into shock, like you overdosed on a bottle of drugs. But because of your relation to me your body will subside the pain and alterations. Anybody else surely would've died if I injected my quirk into them."
"This is why you wanted me seperated, who knows what would happen if any other hero stopped you."
"You wouldn't have the power to kill that man. But also at this current moment you have zero control of your quirk. Like back then."
Gaz looked at his body that was becoming clear. "I will always love you, no matter what happens." Gaz's eyes became full of tears.
His arms stretched open in time for Geus to crash into his body. They both cried, for the first time they let whatever emotions were held back out. Nobody to see, nobody to know, and nobody to learn of this moment
