Dark Shadow and Tokoyami tore across the landscape, dueling Aria Lin for a second time. Aria slashed a huge claw down on Dark Shadow, slamming it into the ground. Before she could follow up, however, Tokoyami flew past her face, the claws in his gauntlet slashing across her face causing her to reel back as blood flew everywhere.
Dak Shadow took the opportunity to flip Aria over, pinning her beneath his immense form.
"I COULD USE SOME HELP EVENTUALLY!" Dark Shadow screeched.
"KEEP TRYING! SHE CAN'T KEEP IT UP FOREVER!" Tokoyami shouted back.
Aria screamed with an animalistic fury and a huge array of spines exploded upward, pushing Dark Shadow off of her. She broke the spines off of her body, then immediately started growing to an even larger size, before clamping her enormous jaw around Dark Shadow's "neck" area and trying to deliver a killing blow. Of course, Dark Shadow being made of solid shadow made that impossible. Even AFO hadn't managed to physically damage Dark Shadow, which had caused Tokoyami to re-evaluate his quirks power.
Dark Shadow merely reached up and started wrapping Aria in a cloak of shadow, attempting to smother her. In response to her rapid loss of movement and control, Aria turned a portion of her external body into blood and slipped out of Dark Shadow's grip.
The battle was playing out similarly to how it had gone in the caverns before. Her multitude of mutation-type quirks and the combined instincts of dozens of animals made her a powerful and unpredictable foe. Not to mention the strange blood-related powers that all her mutations revolved around. She didn't fight according to human logic or combat norms. She was, at least at the moment, a cornered animal that had gone out of control.
Aria reconstituted her form as fast as she had broken it down to escape but with new mutations showing from before. Cursing, Tokoyami made some distance, angling to explore the new powers before committing to a hard engagement.
Instead of running or charging at him as she had previously, she lept. Then, at the peak of her leap, there was a whooshing noise, and she shot like a bullet from mid-air, smashing into Dark Shadow in an explosion of earth.
Dark Shadow, like Aria before him, let his defined form collapse and instead turned into a whirling vortex of shadowy tendrils, wrapping around Aria's new form and constricting like snakes. Entire limbs were severed from Aria's external body in an explosion of blood. The shadow tendrils then wrapped around a closer piece and repeated the process. Despite Aria's attempts to free herself, however, the constricting vines of shadow slowly closed in around her.
Tokoyami thought they might have finally caught her when the situation suddenly started to reverse. Aria's external body morphed into dozens of blood-like vines of her own and started to battle Dark Shadow for dominance. Before long, it had devolved into a mass of black and red tendrils constantly constricting the other. The situation suffered another setback, however, when there was a loud booming noise and Ochako slammed into the ground not too far away from himself.
Ochako righted herself and saw Tokoyami.
"SHADOW!" he roared and Dark Shadow immediately ceased fighting with Aria to return to him. Just in time to wrap itself around his body when Ochahko blurred up to him and kneed him into the air. The blow was blocked by Dark Shadow, but that didn't deter Ochako. With a scream, she followed him into the air, grabbed him, and then simply threw him to the ground.
Bokugo and Todoroki had come to a horrifying and disturbing realization early in their fight with Ochako. Firstly, she was completely nude, with only the barest strips of clothing clinging to her body. Secondly, they could tell she bore significant injuries all over her body, scabs, welts, and more covered every inch of the front of her body, which wasn't even including the massive burn scarring along her right side. They'd known of the burn scars she suffered in the first assault on Mufustafu, they'd never seen them though, never knew how encompassing they had been. While that was disturbing enough, most of it looked horrifyingly fresh, and based on his own experience with burns... he didn't even want to contemplate the pain she must have been in, or could even still be in. It was hard to judge accurately in the dark, even if his contacts did provide with him excellent night vision.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly for their current situation, Ochako was sick, suffering from some kind of malady. She coughed often, and by the sounds of it, painfully. She vomited blood as well and was now thoroughly covered in it. In the darkness of night, it looked like she was covered in black ink. They had scaled back the scope of their attacks, to avoid injuring her further, but with her going all out it was difficult to not do the same.
Bakugo let loose a chaining explosion in an arc toward Ochako, but she flew under it and slammed a foot into Bakugo. He was sent flying backward, and she followed up with a huge piece of earth she ripped out of the ground. His armor protected him, but had it been a chunk of concrete rather than dirt and loose rock he might not have been so lucky.
Shoto covered him with a giant wall of ice, before blasting forward with his fire and distracting Ochako. Only to have Ochako grab him and hurl him through his ice wall, joining Bakugo. Ochako didn't follow up her advantage though, as she doubled over and started coughing. She clutched her chest as the coughing continued and started to vomit copious amounts of blood. They took advantage of the reprieve to catch their breath while Bakugo's mind raced.
"We need to wrap this up sooner rather than later. At this rate, she's more liable to damage herself than us." Shoto said.
"If only it were so easy..." Bakugo growled back.
Their discussion was interrupted by Ochako recovering from her fit and flying at them again, if not a bit slower than previous times. Shoto let loose a pillar of flame at her, but her gravity armor let her just push through it without issue, forcing Bakugo to zone her out with multiple explosions. Undeterred, however, she shot out of the smoke cloud on his left. Todoroki shot a cascading wall of ice at her, pushing her out of the way.
Bakugo blasted himself toward her, letting loose multiple explosions in every direction, battering her from all sides. Ochako snarled and upper-cut him, sending him skyward then followed him up. He let loose a large flash explosion, followed by a regular, staggering and blinding her. Seizing his opportunity he opted to use his blood as a catalyst for his next explosion.
He blasted toward her, wrapping his legs around her waist, then placed a palm on her sternum and released a point-blank explosion with a little of his blood mixed in. There was a loud boom like artillery and a flash of orange and red fire and Ochako was blasted back toward where Tokoyami was fighting Aria.
He was about to go after her when he heard someone shout his name.
"BAKUGO!" came a voice from somewhere to his right and above him.
He looked up and saw Izuku, in his vigilante attire staring down at him from a floating piece of rubble. He didn't have time to contemplate why Izuku was here, or how he got up there, he just blasted himself toward him. As he drew close to the piece of rubble, Izuku held out his arm and they grabbed each other's arms before he blasted past the rubble and then back toward the ground.
"STAY OUT OF THE WAY!" He shouted at Izuku as they got close to the ground.
Rather than drop him gently, he banked up as he got ever closer, blasting parallel to the ground and he let Izuku go. Izuku dropped the remaining few feet, rolling and sliding along the ground before coming to a stop. Bakugo didn't slow though, only sped up toward Ochako who had just thrown Tokoyami to the ground.
He was spared having to intervene, however, when Aria lunged at Ochako from the ground, tackling her out of the sky and the two crashed to the ground where they started fighting. Ochako's speed allowed her to dodge most of Aria's powerful strikes while letting her get in multiple hits of her own.
Bakugo arrived next to Tokoyami at the same time as Todoroki. The three faced the ongoing fight between the two women.
"You and Shoto take Aria, I'll take Ochako," Bakugo said.
The two looked at him, "Are you sure?" "Can you handle her on your own?" Asked Shoto and Tokoyami respectively.
He narrowed his eyes at the fight. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure. She's starting to slip, she can't keep up a fight of this intensity for much longer, I can outlast her easily enough. Just means I have to get serious for a bit. Besides, your quirks together can handle Aria better than I could with either of you." He said.
The others turned back toward the fight.
"Understood," Tokoyami said, Shoto nodding beside him.
"Get them separated, and I'll take it from there," Bakugo said.
Tokoyami and Dark Shadow flew towards the fight, Dark Shadow's immense power breaking up the fight easily. Todoroki stepped in next, sending a massive cascading wall of ice into Aria and burying her in a miniature avalanche of ice. Bakugo shot toward Ochako, crashing into her from the side. He spun around her back as she tried to backhand him with her right arm, missing him. Then he followed up with another minor blood blast, shooting her diagonally back where they had come and he followed after her.
He sent blast after blast into her, blasting her higher and higher, until they were at least 50 meters above the ground, where Ochako broke free of his assault.
The two floated in the air, staring each other down.
"Stop fighting me Ochako, you can't keep this up!" He shouted at her.
He thought she might burst a blood vessel from the fury that overtook her.
She let out an inarticulate scream, that transitioned to a single shouted name.
'SHIGIRAKIIIII!" She screamed at him and clapped her hands together.
All around him, the floating pieces of rubble shot toward him, an entire industrial warehouse's worth of concrete, steel, and wood bearing down on him from every angle. There was no escape from the attack, but he'd already expected this. For all her power, in the state Ochako was in, she wasn't capable of complex strategizing.
He took a deep breath, and as the pieces of rubble closed in, pops and small flashes of red light came from him. When the rubble was about to crash into him, Ochako shot herself toward him. A move he'd seen her use more than once, first she traps the target/crushes them with rubble or other objects then smashes into the target full tilt, using her gravity armor to protect her and deliver a devastating impact.
Bakugo was banking on her doing this though, and with less than a second to spare he detonated the blood and sweat he'd stored in his suit.
Izuku gazed at the battle taking place before his eyes. He'd never seen some of the more intense skirmishes with the League with his own eyes, but he imagined this is what it must have been like on a smaller scale.
While Bakugo exploded high up into the air, Todoroki and Tokoyami clashed with Aria Lin. The fight went back and forth constantly, but he started to see what kind of strategy they were angling for. While Dark Shadow fought to immobilize Aria, Todoroki would often follow up with copious amounts of ice. Instead of the ice walls, however, he concentrated on freezing Aria, slowing her down, chilling her into submission. With every clash, Aria grew just a tad slower, and more of the environment froze solid.
Izuku switched his gaze skyward and saw the battle taking place, a series of explosions traveling further and further up until they eventually stopped. They were far enough away that he couldn't see much in the darkness, but he did see the floating pieces of rubble starting to move, faster and faster toward a singular point, the sheer amount of debris formed a huge sphere around the target point, compressing closer and moving faster with every passing moment.
He knew Bakugo would be at the center, and that Ochako was responsible, even if she wasn't aware of it. It tore at his heart to see her, so far gone in her madness that she could kill her friends, and he hated to admit, her boyfriend.
Right as it looked like the giant accumulation of rubble would impact, there was a flash of red light, and then an immense explosion followed. The shockwave slammed into him less than a second later, sending him to the ground and making his ears ring given he was practically underneath the blast. Then he felt rather than heard something impact the ground nearby.
He got to his feet and saw in the sky above him a giant smoke cloud billowing outward, a truly impressive display of power. He'd never understood just how strong Bakugo was, it put into perspective just how much Bakugo held back in any encounter he had. He was thankful that Bakugo was on their side, the amount of destruction Bakugo could have wrought had he become a villain was incalculable.
He glanced around him, searching for what it was that had hit the ground. He saw a small dust cloud slowly rising into the air not too far away and moved towards it. As he moved closer, he saw the impact had created a small crater around the object, but then the dust cloud moved away completely and he saw what had caused it.
Ochako was on the ground on all fours and as his hearing returned, he could hear her hacking and coughing and the sound of something splattering on the ground. He moved even closer and he could see her vomiting/coughing up copious amounts of fluid, enough to form a small puddle in front of her. He watched her, horrified at the sight as more fluid spilled from her mouth. Eventually, the coughing started to subside but she stayed kneeling, shaking all over.
After a while, she started to stand, her legs shaking, and tried taking a few steps forward. Before he even realized it, he was running to her, and as she took a step forward and started to collapse he turned his sprint into a slide and caught her before she hit the ground.
"I've got you..." He said to her, hoping that she might have heard him.
"Izuku...?" he heard her reply.
"I'm here," he said, relief flooding him.
"Wh- where... where are... you..." she said weakly.
Izuku repositioned her so he was holding her in his arms. Meanwhile, Bakugo touched down nearby, but so wrapped up as he was with Ochako that he didn't notice.
"I'm here." He said again, looking into her eyes.
Yet, even while her eyes were no longer empty voids, the sclera had turned red and blood leaked from the side of her eyes.
"I'm right here, don't worry, you're safe," he said, trying to keep his voice steady.
"We have to run... Shigiraki is here..." she murmured, slowly losing strength.
"Ochako?" Izuku asked.
"Run..." she murmured once more before going entirely limp in his arms.
He stared at her limp form for a couple of seconds before laying her on the ground and putting his ear above her heart, while he put two fingers to her neck. He could hear, and feel her heartbeat, though they were very faint.
He picked her up in his arms and got to his feet, and turning around he saw Bakugo walking over to him.
"She alive?" He asked worriedly.
"Yeah, but she's extremely weak, she needs help," Izuku said, trying to walk past Bakugo, only to have Bakugo stop him.
"I've already called for extraction, she'll be fine." He said.
Izuku felt relief at that, though it was short-lived as there was a screeching roar from behind him. He turned around and the two of them saw Todoroki flying backward towards them, while Dark Shadow and Tokoyami flew into the sky, pursuing a fleeing Aria.
Todoroki used his fire to right himself and lowered himself to the ground, where he collapsed to one knee. Bakugo rushed to his side immediately.
"You alright?" he asked.
"Y- yeah, but my left arm and a couple of ribs are fractured, maybe broken but they haven't pierced the lungs fortunately," Todoroki said wincing, holding his left arm.
"What about Ochako?" he asked, looking up at Bakugo.
"She's unconscious and very weak, but I've already called for extraction," Bakugo said.
Todoroki sagged in relief, for a moment before straightening with a wince. Izuku made his way over, still holding Ochako and Todoroki did a double take upon seeing him. While surprised for a moment he just shook his head.
"I thought you might show up at some point." He said.
"Speaking of which, how the hell did you get on top of one of the floating pieces of rubble?" Bakugo asked.
Izuku grimaced, he looked at Ochako, at her tortured and blood-covered body, and then started explaining everything. When he finished his explanation of events, they could hear the helicopter approaching.
"As bad as things got, at least the one responsible is dead. Had he escaped, who knows what he might have been able to do." Todoroki said with a sigh.
"I'd have blown his limbs off one by one if I had gotten a hold of him," Bakugo growled.
"If the Demon Mask was dead, and no longer had control over them, why didn't Aria just run?" Todoroki suddenly posited.
Izuku thought about it for a bit, but when an answer came to him the helicopter was touching down, and loud enough to drown out their discussion so they let the matter drop. They made their way over to the helicopter, where a team of medics hopped and made their way over to them.
Izuku handed Ochako over to two of them and they immediately set to work on her. Meanwhile, the remaining two looked them over. They insisted Todoroki go with them to the hospital and almost as soon as they arrived the helicopter was flying off towards the hospital.
They stared at the retreating form of the helicopter for a minute, before they noticed movement off to their right.
They turned to look and saw Momo, Kirishima, Mina, and the QSU squads approaching.
Izuku debated trying to run, but that would probably just prompt the QSU to chase him down and given his injuries they'd probably catch him. Especially since one of the squads happened to be the general's. Even if he wasn't injured, he doubted he'd be able to escape them. So he stayed put as they approached.
He felt rather than saw Ahmya's stare at him. He sighed, this wasn't going to be pretty.
