A/N: Just a reminder that time is measured in "clicks" where one click = one second.
Therefore…
Hectoclick = 100 seconds
Kiloclick = 16 minutes, 40 seconds
Megaclick = 11.6 days
Gigaclick = 31.7 years
Teraclick = 31,700 years
One of H'zashi's feathers fell out. One of his tail feathers, and he seemed very embarrassed about it, so Izuku tried to refrain from prying.
Izuku thought that H'zashi would just put it back in like the others, but H'zashi walked over to Shigaraki, handed the feather to him, and then, very pointedly, made sure that he used all five fingers on it to decay it, to make it disappear.
When the same thing happened two more times, Izuku felt he had to say something. The strong glare from Shigaraki to find out what the hell is happening was also a strong nudge in the right direction.
"H'zashi, what's happening? Are you okay? Are you healthy?" Izuku asked.
"It's just stress," H'zashi answered. A'zawa put a supportive, comforting hand on H'zashi's shoulder.
"Is there anything I can do to ease your worries?" Izuku asked. "We have a solid plan in place, plus the back-up plan to come back through this way if our first plan fails. Even if they shut the bars again, remember that the electricity doesn't bother Shigaraki, so he'll be able to decay the bars like nothing, then decay the door, so we're just back to where we are right now."
"It's the arena," H'zashi said after a long moment and a squeeze to A'zawa's hand. "You Terrans are valuable, so when we said that the deathworlder won't be allowed to kill, we meant that it wouldn't be allowed to kill you Terrans, not that it wouldn't be allowed to kill us."
"Oh," Izuku said. "I'm so sorry you've been worried about that, but when I said that we were planning on teaming up and nothing would interfere with that, I was including both of you in there as well."
A'zawa and H'zashi's eyes fixated on Izuku, like they could hardly believe what they were hearing, like it didn't quite make sense and they were trying to look at all the evidence they could find to try to piece it all together.
"You're our friends. We're in this together. Shigaraki and I decided that from the start that you two might be able to help us escape, even before we could communicate, because we found ourselves all in the same predicament. It's us, all four of us, against anything Kulphea can throw at us. We aren't leaving you behind or letting anything bad happen to you. I'm sorry if anything we did made you think that."
H'zashi let out a half-wail, half-squawk, and threw himself forward on top of Izuku and Shigaraki.
Shigaraki quickly curled his hands into fists to prevent himself from accidently decaying anyone in the confused pile he found himself in. "Uh, what's this?" he asked Izuku as he met his eyes through the feathers that surrounded them as wings gathered them closely.
"H'zashi was scared that he might be injured or killed because he and A'zawa are not a rare species among the universe like Terrans are. The stress was causing his feathers to fall out and this is his response when I corrected his thinking," Izuku answered, occasionally blowing in between words to prevent feathers from getting in his mouth.
"Oh," Shigaraki said. "Makes sense."
"Danger Sense," Izuku said when he felt the flare come to life at the base of his skull.
"No," Shigaraki said, raising his voice a little above the noises that H'zashi was continuing to make. "I said that it makes sense."
"I know!" Izuku said. "And I said that I felt Danger Sense!"
"Oh, shit!"
"I think it might be go time! My quirk that senses danger is flaring up!" Izuku warned.
Looking out into the stadium, there were numerous people in the seats already, still more filing in.
"Why didn't we hear them?" Izuku asked, frowning, then frowning deeper. "Why can't we hear them even now?"
"They have a sound barrier up to prevent additional stress to the participants ahead of time. They like to try to control for that sort of thing," A'zawa answered.
"I wonder if it actually makes any difference."
"It's not going to for when we kick their ass!" Shigaraki screamed after Izuku translated the conversation for him, going over to the bars and pressing himself against them to yell and make obscene gestures toward the gathering crowd.
"Does he know that the sound barrier works both ways?" A'zawa asked. "They cannot hear him."
"I'm not sure he would care either way," Izuku stated fondly with a bright smile. "Besides, it looks like they can see him."
Small sections of the crowd started pointing or gesturing in his direction when they happened to glance over and notice him carrying on, and soon the whole arena was out of their seats, trying to get a better view of the Terran right against the electrified bars that had no effect, seemingly yelling and screaming, trying to communicate something to them.
"You shitty fucks! Once we cause panic and the stampede happens and you get trampled, I'm going to laugh in your smashed-in faces! You all deserve it! You voyeur freaks!" Then, dropping down to a whisper, "not to kink shame or anything… actually," then, back to yelling, "yes I do, if it's you! Do you get off on this? You're a freak for it! I hope your children are ashamed and your grandchildren spit on your graves, you fucking bastards!"
Izuku imagined the individuals up in the crowds, wondering what words of wisdom the screaming Terran had to offer, and laughed, knowing that their imaginations would never even come close to the truth.
Soon, the reason for his Danger Sense flare came to be known as the hulking canine-looking alien was lead out to the arena. The canine-alien had two massive tusk-like teeth protruding from its bottom lip with a mess of both sharp and dull teeth with seemingly no pattern to them in its mouth. It was covered in short hair or fur that was brownish orange, the perfect color to easily blend in with the landscape of the arena if it wasn't so fucking big. It towered over its trainer, which was a ucuh, the kind with the face finger used for dating purposes apparently. It must have been three stories tall. It was hulking and wide, too, reminding Izuku of a bulldog's stature.
The crowd looked like it was going wild, and the canine startled, trying to go back the way it came, probably from the noise. With a jerk, it was left twitching on the ground before being talked to, commanded, by its trainer, probably being encouraged to get up and keep moving.
Was it shocked? That's what it looked like.
"Does it have a fucking shock collar on?" Shigaraki asked, echoing Izuku's thoughts. "It looks like how that dollun looked when I threw an electric stick at it, or the dreto when I electrified it with the bars, but it recovered a lot quicker."
"You what?" Izuku deadpanned.
"Not important," Shigaraki waved off. "But I didn't see the trainer hit the dog with a stick, so it has to be some kind of wireless collar or something, right?"
"Or an implant," Izuku said, touching his own implant with a shudder. "I hope not, though, poor thing."
Shigaraki laughed. "Are humans the only species that would look at our opponent, a hulking, massive, drooling dog-alien, and think, 'oh, poor thing'?"
"No!" Izuku protested. "Surely not." Then, softer, a little less sure, "no." Then, "Hey H'zashi and A'zawa, what do you think about that alien?"
"That's what we're going against?!" H'zashi asked, fluttering his wings with anxiety.
"They shocked it just a few clicks ago," Izuku informed.
"Good," H'zashi said, relaxing a little. "Maybe we might stand a chance if they weaken it first."
"That ugly thing is going to be the death of us," A'zawa stated firmly. "Weakened with shocks or not. Unless some of us distract it while some of us take over the announcer's box and we can get out of here. Are we going to divide tasks?"
"Well, there's no ladder up to the announcer's box, so I should be one of the ones assigned to that task, correct?" H'zashi asked.
"Yes, and I think I should stay behind then. If both of us go, they won't hesitate to use lethal means to take us down because we're expendable. One of the Terrans should go with you."
"Are either of you able to climb?" H'zashi asked. "I think you'd be too heavy to carry."
"I can," Izuku said. "Very easily using one of my quirks."
"Shigaraki should be able to kill off that alien easily with his quirk, then, after I sedate it with my venom from my tail," A'zawa said, "but who knows what they have to send in next."
"You were right," Izuku said to Shigaraki. "They do not find that canine-alien to be a "poor thing" at all." Then Izuku explained the plan to Shigaraki, who was absolutely horrified.
"I can't kill that dog!" he objected, pointing at said 'dog.' "I'm on board with everything else. That's whatever. But I'm not killing Sparky!"
"You named that alien after the nickname you call Chargebolt?" Izuku asked, like that was the important take-away in the whole situation they had found themselves in.
"I might have to rethink the name," Shigaraki agreed with a loll of his head, like it really was the most important aspect of the weird situation they had found themselves in.
"You could name it after the color, like Fulvous or Russet or Tawney."
"My intention was to give it power over the situation that once controlled it, so I would like it to have a name that reflects that."
"Some people might find that insensitive."
"Fuck some people."
"Okay. I was thinking Volt, but what about taking it one step further… What about Revolt?"
Shigaraki turned to him with a gasp, wide-eyed. "And you named yourself Deku of all things?! When you had this naming ability inside you all along?!"
"I… gave myself power over a situation that once controlled me," Izuku said, but it sounded almost like a question.
Shigaraki stared at him for a long moment. "Well, I can't fault you for that. C'mon Deku. What's our plan to make it to the announcer's box to send that message out, but to also not hurt Revolt in the process?"
"I–"
The electrified bars turned out to be a gate, and that gate lifted before their eyes.
"-don't think we have time to work it out, but I agree! No killing Revolt! I'll pass it on!"
He did pass it on.
"Who's Revolt?"
Then, frantically, "What do you mean no killing the opponent that is literally there to maim us for research points?!"
"Not even hurting it?! Are you crazy?!"
"We are in a soundproof room! You did not overhear its name!" … "Why did you name it?!"
H'zashi and A'zawa probably had a few more questions, but Izuku said, "I'm glad we're all in agreement!" and he and Shigaraki bolted through the open gate into the arena.
"We are not in agreement!" but they followed out after them. In Izuku's book, that's called being in agreement.
The announcers were probably confused that they didn't need to even start the back wall moving inward to force the subjects out, that all four came running out at full speed instead of even creeping along the walls cautiously. This was especially odd for the thretuil, the feline species who are particularly adverse to the canine deathworlder that they had chosen as the stressor.
The trainer, the ucuh, yelled out "attack!"
And the canine-alien did indeed start to come after them, so they scattered, but kept a close eye on each other.
When Revolt got too close to H'zashi, A'zawa had leapt in front of him to shield him, tail lashing in threat.
"Revolt! Yoohoo! Over here! I bet you can't catch me!" Shigaraki had yelled out in a light-hearted, playful voice, catching the canine-alien's attention so that he would bound in Shigaraki's direction instead.
"Stop getting distracted and get one, you dumb animal!" the trainer complained, but it wasn't quite a command as much as a complaint if Revolt's unchanged behavior was any indication.
Izuku realized then, though, that he was hearing a different language. It wasn't Standard. But Izuku could understand every word.
"What language is the ucuh speaking?" Izuku asked quietly when he set to running next to H'zashi.
"Sobachiy," H'zashi answered. "It's used specifically for canine-species."
"Well, I can understand it, and I can now speak it, too, thanks to this thing," Izuku said, flicking the transplant in his head as they ran.
H'zashi winced at the gesture, but didn't say anything about it, deciding it was probably more urgent to question, "You can understand Sobachiy?! After already being introduced to Standard! But it's impossible to pick up more than one language with the UTD unless your home planet has more than one natural language!"
"H'zashi…" Izuku tried to go for a long pause for dramatics, but it was more of a huff for breath from all the running. All of that being in a cell without being able to exercise because your cellmate thought you were dying if you were sweating was really catching up to him. "Terra has over 7,000 languages."
"Oh, my stars."
"I'm going to give Revolt a command and see what happens!"
"Are you crazy?!"
"Probably!"
It was good timing, Izuku changed course and headed toward the hulking canine-alien as the massive thing cornered Shigaraki. Shigaraki whirled on it, but kept his hands curled tightly into fists, not daring to reach out his hands in even the gesture of placation in fear that he might accidentally hurt Revolt should he rush forward unexpectedly.
Izuku could hear Shigaraki's nervous laughter between huffing breaths as he neared. "Ha! Ha-ha! Good dog? Yeah? You're a good dog, aren't you? I don't look so delicious, do I?"
Once Izuku felt like he was close enough to be heard, he yelled with all the breath he had left, "sit!"
Revolt sat. And then looked in Izuku's direction for his next instruction.
But Izuku didn't have another instruction.
No.
Izuku had nothing but praise.
"Oh, my! Such a good boy! What a good dog! What a good boy! Such a smart dog!" Izuku gushed through pure habit alone.
Revolt's little stub of a tail started to wag ferociously.
Breathing hard, Shigaraki stopped beside him after abandoning his cornered location and sneaking past the distracted giant to join Izuku's side. "I think he likes it. What are you saying to him?"
"It's his trainer's language."
"You got another language?" Shigaraki asked.
"Yeah, because it's a Universal Translation Device," Izuku reported smugly. "Not an STD!"
"What's the new language called?" Shigaraki asked.
Izuku frowned, knowing where this was going.
"Sobachiy."
"Sounds like that starts with an 'S' to me, so now it's a double STD!" Shigaraki said, turning as if to announce it to the crowd, then back again to say, "Sorry Midoriya, I don't make the rules."
"But you literally do," Izuku complained under his breath.
"What are you doing?! Why aren't you attacking?!" the ucuh asked in a yell from off to the side, out of the way of any danger.
"This one told me to sit," the canine-aline said. And then after a moment of consideration added, "And then told me I was a good boy!"
"Oh my God," Izuku breathed, tears rushing to his eyes as H'zashi and A'zawa joined them. "Revolt can talk!"
"You are!" Izuku yelled. "You're such a good boy! So smart!"
"Why are you talking to it?!" A'zawa asked urgently.
"He's following my commands just like he's following his own trainer's," Izuku quickly explained under his breath.
"Stop talking to my mutt!" the trainer yelled at Izuku.
"Maybe better than his trainer's," Izuku pondered aloud. "Do trainers get training here, or do they just wing it? They don't seem very effective." Disgruntled with how the trainer's yelling was making Revolt sink lower and lower with every yelled word, Izuku turned his attention back on the trainer. "Come over here and make me!" Izuku challenged. "I'll break your face finger right the fuck off!" he screeched.
Revolt whined.
"Oh, but I would never hurt you, good boy. No," Izuku cooed up at the giant canine-alien. "Not the good boy, right? Such a good boy!" Izuku was relieved to see the tail giving hesitant wags again.
"Okay, what did you say?" Shigaraki asked, side-eyeing Izuku as he wiped the spittle from his mouth with his arm from the force of his scream.
"Told the trainer I'd break their face finger off."
Shigaraki gasped. "Can I help?"
"Let's do it!" Izuku declared and they both took off toward the trainer.
"Woah! I'm off limits!" the trainer tried, stumbling over their feet in their haste to start running away from the quickly approaching Terrans.
"Says who?" Izuku goaded as they chased them around. "I was never told the rules, unfortunately. And even if you tell them to me now, I'm a prisoner. I don't fucking care!"
"No one else can control the monster!" the trainer tried. "He's a deathworlder!"
"So am I!" Izuku rasped, eyes wide and smiling widely, knowing full well that he looked absolutely terrifying to the poor ucuh.
Suddenly, the canine-alien jerked again, like he was being electrocuted. They heard it this time. It wasn't the low buzzing of the bars, but actual, high levels of electricity that could harm a deathworlder's body, a body like theirs.
"I said attack!" the out of breath and panicking ucuh said to the shaking and limp canine-alien. "You listen to me! Not some random Terran!"
"Too bad he's now out of commission for the next few clicks," Izuku said. "Now who's going to help you?!"
The ucuh ran to an emergency exit that opened in the wall as they ran toward it, and Shigaraki and Izuku could have gone through after them, but that was not in their plans. They turned to the canine-alien whose neck was now on the ground after he had collapsed instead of being two stories above them.
"Here," Shigaraki called when he found the metal implanted into the alien's neck.
Izuku rushed over to help him examine it and they called A'zawa and H'zashi over, too, who did come over to help inspect, though reluctantly. "We wouldn't ask if we were more familiar with their technology," Izuku explained as he beckoned them over. "He's a good boy. He won't hurt you. He wants to be a good boy."
Once A'zawa and H'zashi both independently confirmed that the implant wasn't connected to anything vital, Shigaraki cackled as he laid down his hand on it and decayed it away, taking away the ucuh's, and Kulphea's, ability to electrocute the canine-alien any further.
"No more pain," Izuku promised as he petted the canine-alien's head. "Because you're the best boy. Do you have a name?"
"Don't ask him that! I already gave him one! A cool one!" Shigaraki objected when Izuku let the group know what he was asking.
"I already asked him," Izuku said. "And he said he doesn't have one. He liked the one you gave him."
Shigaraki beamed with pride.
"Why didn't you tell us that you could understand us?" one of the researchers, a dreto, asked, voice projected with some kind of technology from the announcer's box.
"Why don't I come up there and show you?" Izuku yelled back.
And thus their escape attempt began.
They rushed over to the wall, and the crowd seemed a little agitated at this, but not too much, probably believing that they could not reach them.
"Revolt," Izuku called, "can you help A'zawa over the wall?"
Revolt sat down at the wall, directly facing the announcer's box, putting his nose to the wall. That's when the screams started and the aliens in the crowd started to move out of the way, most urgently where Revolt's nose met the wall and a little more calmly moving outward from there.
"I am not using that deathworlder as a staircase," A'zawa objected.
Then A'zawa stared in open horror as Shigaraki did just that without hesitation.
"What? Are you scared?" Izuku taunted.
A'zawa did use Revolt as a staircase. As did Izuku, because even though he could have used Float or Black Whip to get him up and over the partitioning wall, he wanted to save his quirks to be a surprise to take his opponents off guard for if he needed them later. The less they knew about him the better.
H'zashi flew himself up, "thank you very much."
"Such a good boy! The best boy!" Izuku praised, patting his head.
"No," A'zawa said. But when Izuku turned to see what he was protesting, he wasn't looking at him. He was looking at H'zashi who was looking between Revolt and A'zawa with longing in his eyes.
"But he really is such a good boy," H'zashi said. "He doesn't seem to have any aversion to you."
"Well I have an aversion to him!" A'zawa protested.
"And why is that?" H'zashi asked in a very clinical tone. "We are researchers, so maybe we should–"
"Oh my stars."
"You want to keep him?!" Izuku exclaimed. "That's such a good idea!"
"I'm a little rusty on my Sobachiy," H'zashi said, "but it won't be a problem to study up and get back into the swing of it. I understood the gist of everything you were saying after all."
"Everything?" Izuku asked with a blush, remembering the threats he was throwing toward the trainer.
"Let's find a way out, first," A'zawa said, gesturing toward the announcer's box. "We'll see if our rescue team even has a ship big enough to bring Revolt with us."
"He used his name!" H'zashi said excitedly, feathers shaking. "That's a great sign!"
"Let us in!" Izuku said, pounding on the door to the announcer's box.
"Uh, no," one of the dretos inside said, like Izuku was stupid for even suggesting that. "You should surrender before reinforcements come and take you back to your cells. You shouldn't have hidden our scientific advancements from us."
"Uh, no," Izuku repeated, using the same tone that the dreto had used with him. She flinched at that, the mimicry of her tone just a tad too perfect. "Last chance to come out peacefully before we just come on in ourselves," Izuku warned.
"I hope they don't, I hope they don't, I hope they don't," Shigaraki was chanting under his breath, practically salivating at the chance to use his quirk, let them see him use his quirk, see their reactions in real-time, see the fear and know that it could be them next.
"Don't say I didn't warn you," Izuku said with a shrug and gave Shigaraki the go-ahead.
Shigaraki put his hand on the door and the door dissolved under his fingertips. The dretos slammed backwards to get away, eyes wide with terror and horrible realization.
"Please exit this area," Izuku said. "We have business here."
"I hope they don't, I hope they don't, I hope they don't," Shigaraki chanted.
One by one, hesitantly, then hastily, they moved past the group toward the safety of the exit, leaving the announcer's box free, Shigaraki's scowl deepening as each one willingly complied with Izuku's commands and Shigaraki did not get to decay any aliens to dust.
"Was tearing the wing off of a dreto not enough?" Izuku asked as the aliens half-hesitantly, half-rushingly shuffled past them and toward the exits.
"After all they've done to us? I could decay this whole planet, make it disappear from existence, and that still wouldn't be enough," Shigaraki grumbled, but Izuku was pretty sure he was being hyperbolic because he didn't make a move to touch any of the retreating aliens as he glared at them menacingly.
H'zashi and A'zawa took over from there, using technology that was completely foreign to Shigaraki and Izuku.
Soon enough, the reinforcements came.
Not H'zashi's and A'zawa's.
They weren't that quick.
The reinforcements that the dretos had warned Izuku about.
They heard a door open and shut and suddenly there was a hawk flying above their heads.
Well, not an Earth hawk, but a hawk-like alien.
"Shit!" Shigaraki exclaimed as he ducked when the alien swooped down, just barely missing them.
"Are you guys okay?" H'zashi asked.
"We can handle this! You keep working to send out your message! We'll keep this guy entertained!"
"Would be easier to focus if we still had a door to close and lock!" A'zawa complained under his breath, but his eyes didn't leave the screen and his claws didn't stop typing.
"You make it sound so easy and relaxing!" H'zashi fretted from the doorway that had no door, eyeing the hawk-alien overhead.
"Maybe it's just a Terran thing," A'zawa said, eyes still not leaving the screen as he typed away, despite the noise the hawk-alien was making as it made its battle cry and swooped down toward them, trusting that the Terrans would do as they said.
The hawk-alien landed on the satellite, tilting it in the opposite direction, then took off again.
"Stars!"
That didn't sound good!
"I'll fix it!" Izuku was quick to assure, setting his sights upwards to the satellite.
Shigaraki worked on running through the aisles of chairs, taunting the hawk-alien and then dropping to the floor to be out of reach before repeating the process again and again as Izuku activated Float and quickly scaled the satellite, using Black Whip to reposition the satellite and keeping his attention on Danger Sense in case the hawk-alien redirected its attention on him. Danger Sense flared and without looking back, Izuku deactivated Float and let himself fall, only activating Float again once he was close enough to the ground to put his feet down and deactivate Float again for good. He saw that hawk-alien had just barely missed him.
"Thanks for the warning," he said lightly in Shigaraki's direction.
"I knew you had Danger Sense to look out for you," Shigaraki said. "I think it's best to keep it guessing. It probably thinks you have eyes in the back of your head now."
Izuku laughed. "Maybe. If we could get it to speak, if it can speak, then I could try to negotiate with it."
"And maybe gain another language," Shigaraki said. "Until then we run and distract?"
"Until then we run and distract!" Izuku agreed.
After a kiloclick of that, Izuku, huffing, in his hiding spot in the seats just an aisle away from Shigaraki's current one, asked, "what do hawks like, typically? Maybe we can find an easier, less dangerous way to distract it?"
"How would I know what hawks like?" Shigaraki asked, nose scrunched in distaste at being asked a stupid question.
Izuku leveled him a blank look and sighed. "Everyone knows that Hawks and Dabi have a thing going on," he said. "It's got its own hashtag online."
"No it doesn't," Shigaraki deadpanned.
"#hotwings."
Shigaraki winced. "It's the worst! They can't be discreet at all! Running around like fucking teenagers in love! It's been years!"
"So what does Hawks like?"
"Like I would know what he likes?"
"Shigaraki." Shigaraki gave him a blank look. Izuku sighed. "Were you not the one who said that when something is yours, you take good care of it?"
"God fucking damn it!" Shigaraki screeched, catching the attention of the hawk-alien, who flew right toward them, sending them running again.
Once they lost it and were near each other again, Shigaraki admitted between huffing breaths, "he likes music. All birds like music! You couldn't have figured that one out yourself?"
Izuku smiled and grabbed onto the back of the chair above him, ready to heave himself up when Shigaraki spoke again, "but especially drumming. So find something to hit these chairs with that will make a satisfying noise."
Izuku and Shigaraki made another round of running around, yelling and distracting the bird when it got too close to one of them or the other as they found objects that would work well enough as drum sticks.
It took a while. Eventually Izuku had to make passes by the announcer's box and yell what they were looking for and H'zashi handed out four writing utensils that would work perfectly as drum sticks. They were wooden and everything. H'zashi would later explain, at a less dire time, that they were for the dretos who had lower dexterity with their wing arms and needed wooden utensils for the grip.
Izuku took his place behind some metal chairs and Shigaraki took his place against the brick partitioning wall.
"What do we–"
"Come on, people, now | Smile on your brother | Everybody get together | Try to love one another right now," Shigaraki drawled, immediately getting the attention of the hawk-alien. After a few beats more, he started drumming, stopping the hawk-alien in its tracks.
Instead of attacking, it circled above before landing on the roof of the announcer's box, head tilting.
Shigaraki half-sang, half-screamed some more before a line caught Izuku's attention.
"Just because you're paranoid | Don't mean they're not after you," he sang, looking over at Izuku, smirking.
Izuku laughed out, smiling, and started in with his own drumming that probably was not correct for the song at all, but it had all the heart necessary, and the hawk-alien seemed to like it as it started moving its head back and forth.
And so did H'zashi, if his own movements were any indication.
He did not seem thrilled.
"What is this witchcraft?!" he asked, startled.
"It's music!" Izuku answered.
"This is not music!" H'zashi objected. "None like I've ever heard!"
Izuku laughed. "Do you like it?"
"I… I don't know!" he wailed.
A'zawa glanced up before glancing back down at his work, trying to hack through the system before stopping all together to look at his lover.
"When did you learn moves like those? And what is this sound?"
"It's the Terrans noise! They call it their music! It makes me move like this and I don't know why!"
"It looks good on you, baby! It makes me want to dance with you!"
"After!" H'zashi insisted, but he seemed happy enough if his fluffy feathers were any indication. "First, get us a ride out of here!"
Izuku's and Shigaraki's arms hurt from drumming so long and their throats hurt from singing loudly enough to be heard over the drumming. They tried to just drum, but they would quickly lose rhythm and the hawk-alien would be less enthralled with them, so it was safer to have a song to lead their drumming with.
They were tired and sore by the time the rescue ship touched down.
"I'd hate to send Revolt to attack and have him get hurt=" Izuku was saying loudly to be heard over Shigaraki's current song, staring wide-eyed at the ship that he feared was sent by the dretos to get them in line now that the hawk-alien had failed to do so.
"No need!" H'zashi said. "Those are our reinforcements!"
When the door opened and H'zashi and A'zawa were safely inside after being helped down by Revolt (and Revolt was also inside, because the ship was more than large enough to bring him along, H'zashi had pointed out), Izuku and Shigaraki nodded at each other, and booked it like hell was on their heels to the ship. As soon as they got there, they started drumming on the sides of the ship, once again stopping the hawk-alien in its tracks and placating it once again until the door was closed fully.
"If you think drumming is bad, try it while making sure you don't touch the sticks with all five fingers," Shigaraki complained, dropping the sticks and rubbing at his arms and hands, trying to find relief.
"I think you also had to drum harder than me, too," Izuku admitted, sliding down against the wall to rub at his own arms. "Metal is a whole lot louder than brick."
"I don't know how we managed to get out of there without killing anyone, including the stressor of the damn experiment," A'zawa said, glancing back at Revolt who was splayed out on his back, getting praise and petting from H'zashi and hesitant introductions from the rescue crew, "but we did it because of you. We were able to escape from Kulphea where we were falsely imprisoned without giving them a reason to imprison us later. And I just–"
A'zawa closed his eyes and purred.
"Oh! I've been wondering if he could do that!"
Instead of that being what stopped A'zawa, A'zawa instead moved toward Shigaraki and rubbed his face against Shigaraki's face.
"Wow," Shigaraki said, smiling. "H'zashi better watch out! I think I love A'zawa!"
"I'm not translating that for you."
"You have to!" Shigaraki objected. "It's your honor as a translator!"
"You just want the drama and to start a fight!" Izuku accused. "I never asked to be a translator, first of all. And second of all, I'm not giving them any reason to say fuck it, and kick us out of the air lock into space instead of taking us home!"
"Okay, that's a good point," Shigaraki acquiesced. "I'll let it slide this time."
"You know where Terra is, right?" Izuku asked as A'zawa backed off of Shigaraki. "Because you researched it? You can get us home, right?"
"Oh my stars! He speaks Standard!" one of the rescuers said as they made their way over. They seemed to be coming over cautiously at first, but came rushing over as soon as they heard the Standard come out of Izuku's mouth.
"This is N'muri," A'zawa introduced. "She's been vaguely interested in Terrans for nearly a gigaclick, but never had the opportunity to study them herself."
"A dreto," Izuku recognized.
"So smart," N'muri praised.
"Kulphea is full of them," Izuku explained with a frown. "Dretos are the ones who gave me my UTD."
"Oh," N'muri said, wings drooping. "I'm so sorry. That's can be such a rough process, even when the recipient knows about it and consents. I can't imagine how it was for you without the proper notifications in place."
Izuku relaxed. She seemed like a good person, despite all previous experiences with her species so far.
"You must join up with us at UA! It'll be–"
"N'muri," A'zawa interjected softly. "You know as well as I do that UA cannot recruit from a planet that First Contact has not yet been made."
N'muri pouted. "Well, hurry up and make sure First Contact gets made soon, A'zawa! And you keep on H'zashi about it, too!" she demanded.
"Oh, I plan on it."
She turned to Shigaraki and introduced herself. Izuku translated for him, and then translated again back for her.
"Oh… he doesn't…?"
"Midoriya made a plan to prevent Shigaraki from having to go through the same thing, hoping that his plan would last until rescue, and it just so happened that it did," H'zashi said after catching the tail end of their conversation, coming up behind them, probably having heard his name mentioned earlier and wanting to see what they were talking about.
"That's wonderful. What good friends you must be," she said.
"They're not actually–"
"The best of friends," Izuku said before A'zawa could correct her, shooting A'zawa a small, knowing smile before translating the conversation for Shigaraki.
"Ha! You called me your best friend!" Shigaraki teased. "I mean, if I'm competing with Bakugou, I can see how I can come out on top…"
Izuku punched his arm.
"Midoriya!" Shigaraki objected. "You can just go around punching people now that you have your quirk back! That's like if I offered you, bestie, a high five… Would you like a high five?"
"No," Izuku said. "How about a fist bump instead?" Izuku offered, holding out his fist, green lighting flickering around it.
Instead of backing down, Shigaraki held out his fist, too. At the last second, before their fists met, Izuku deactivated his quirk, and Shigaraki opened his hand, fingers splayed wide, so that Izuku's fist hit his open palm instead of a closed fist.
"Turkey," Shigaraki said.
Izuku scrunched his brows.
"No, you get it, right? My hand is the feathered tail and your fist is the body of the turkey."
"No, yeah. I get it, Shigaraki," Izuku assured. "I just didn't expect that from you."
"Toga taught me that," Shigaraki said proudly. "Expect the unexpected, bestie," he declared, spinning around with his hands out to his sides, palms up, smug as hell.
Izuku would miss this, he thought, when they got back to Earth and were no longer allies, no longer friends.
"So, about getting us home," Izuku tried again.
"We're already there," A'zawa said, turning Izuku by the shoulder to look out of the small, round window.
And right there was Earth, in all of its beauty. They just needed to land, in preferably the right spot, and they'd be home.
"You're just going to send the only two Terrans in space home?" Izuku asked. "For real? No questions asked? No strings attached?"
"How would I attach strings to you? Those would be long strings." Despite himself, Izuku laughed. A'zawa continued, dismissing his sentiments as the Terran nonsense that it was, "the Hyperspace Protection and Security Congregation would probably object if they knew…"
"But no one likes the HPSC," H'zashi said cheekily, passing by them on his way through to go talk to some rescuers on the other side of the ship, bringing Revolt along with him.
"He's right. No one likes the HPSC. In some ways they'd be better to you than Kulphea, but in other ways worse, and we'd rather just get you home."
Shigaraki came up behind them. "What are you looking at? Some kind of nerdy constellation or– oh. Would you look at that. Looks like they are doing the right thing and taking the only two Terrans in space back home to Terra," Shigaraki said. "Maybe they were imprisoned there under false pretenses after all." He stared out of the window. "We sure got here fast."
"Superluminal," Izuku said.
"Superluminal," Shigaraki agreed, not mocking at all.