Chapter 12

Fighting Back

Relm sighed.

This was bad. This was very very bad. Today was supposed to be rescue training, something Relm was seriously looking forward to, as was most of her class. She was excited to learn how to put her abilities to the test in rescues. Of course, villains had to be assholes, and now, instead of painting up creative solutions to rescue people in danger, she was instead probably going to dehydrate herself just trying to stay alive.

Even worse since she had lost her canvas when that shadowy asshole had warped everyone, and now she had to rely on walls and floors to paint on, which limited her mobility.

"How is he holding up?" She asked, turning to the two boys with her. Hanta was currently keeping watch over a very haggard and pale Mashirao. Relm tried not to linger too long on just how red his formerly white gi now was.

When they had landed, the three of them had been caught off guard, alone, each ambushed by a group of villains. While Relm and Hanta had gotten away with only minor injuries, Mashirao had gotten it far worse. A villain had transformed his hands into massive mouths filled with razor sharp teeth and before Mashirao could counter with his tail, he had bitten off his left arm above the elbow.

Relm had just finished painting up a tiger which had then proceeded to fight the villains, keeping them at bay long enough for the students to rescue their classmate. Though rescued was kind of subjective here considering how long they would be safe was starting to look shorter and shorter.

"Not good." Hanta said. Neither of them were especially skilled at first aid. That was what this class was supposed to be for after all. Still, they had been able to use Hanta's tape to make an improvised tourniquet, though it was only a temporary solution. "We have to get him to Recovery Girl, fast."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound so likely." Relm said, trying to sound neutral to cover how frightened she was. She wasn't anywhere near ready for this. She wondered how the others were doing. How Strelitzia was doing. Her best friend was a lot more powerful and skilled than she let on, certainly far more so than pretty much anyone else in her class. Still, she should be focusing on herself and her two companions now.

Especially as she heard footsteps elsewhere in the building.

"Come out, come out, kiddies." One of the villains taunted.

"That appetizer was nice, but now I'm ready for the main course!" That must have been the bastard who took Mashirao's arm.

"Guys… leave… save yourselves." Mashirao managed to croak out.

Relm hated to admit it to herself, but she was seriously tempted to just try and flee. But to leave her classmates behind at the mercy of these fuckers? "Not a chance!"

"Please, stay quiet." Hanta said. "You need to save your strength."

"They're not far from here!" One of the villains sounded.

Relm gripped her paintbrush, leaning against the walls. The footsteps were coming closer. She could also hear that watery sound of those shadow monsters appearing, apparently helping the villains now. It probably wouldn't take them too long to reach where they were holed up in. She suspected one of them had a scent enhancing Quirk.

During All Might's battle trials, she had been on the attacking side, though she wondered how it would be to defend. Looks like she was about to find out. Lucky her.

The footsteps drew even closer. It was now or never. Paint formed on her forearms and flowed down to the brush. She quickly ran it across the wall, the paint flowing into place at her direction to form into the image of a tiger. Once finished, the painting came to life, the great cat stalking directly off the wall.

And just in time too. The crude barricade they set up didn't last long, a hammer like fist punched through it.

"HEEEEEEERE'S- AUUUGH!" He never got to finish whatever quip he had been trying to make as 200 kilograms of feline fury leaped directly at his face with a deafening roar. At the same time as the tiger tackled him, another villain brandishing a machete managed to leap over the beast and came charging towards the students, cackling all the while.

Hanta attempted to strike at him with his tape, though it wasn't too effective, the villain cutting through it. However, it did buy enough time for Relm to paint up another beast, this one roughly resembling a lion. The lion tackled the villain to the ground, forcing him to drop his weapon.

Unfortunately, another villain rushed past him, quickly picking up the machete. He laughed as he charged towards Relm, who realized she didn't have enough time to paint anything else. She futilely threw up her hands, waiting for the pain.

Only it never happened, instead, she heard a shriek from the villain. Daring to open her eyes, she looked ahead to see the villain was now pinned to the wall by an inky black knife. The same went for the other villains in the room as shadowy weapons painfully pierced their bodies, holding them in place.

The culprit seemed to be a man clad in all black like a ninja. In a blur, he struck at the pinned villains with a loud crack as his fists and feet connected, knocking them out or worse.

"W-who are you?" She asked. The man said nothing, instead looking about the room. His gazed lingered on her noticeably longer than others before he disappeared with a flicker.

"So what was that all about?!" She asked.

Strelitzia kept up Flowmotion as she rushed through the ruined city training area, cleaving through wandering Heartless as she did so. She was followed closely behind by Reiko, riding on a flying carpet and telekinetically hurling objects at more distant enemies, the others having headed towards other biomes to help there.

Initially, she couldn't see any villains, though as she moved deeper into the training area, they started to appear. They were gathered around the entrance to a building. Some were backing off, while others were still eager enter. That was where her classmates had to be.

Not wasting any time, Strelitzia sprung into action.

"Aerora!" A ball of highly compressed air was shot forth from her Keyblade to land straight in the middle of the mass of Villains and explode. The resulting wind sent the enemy flying, to smash painfully against walls and rubble. There was no time to be gentle here, not when her classmates lives were at stake.

"I've got this." Reiko said, levitating the collection of handcuffs that Momo had given her. "Go give a scare to the ones inside!"

Strelitzia nodded and rushed into the building. As she did, however, she encountered few villains. Most had seemingly been outside. And curiously the villains inside seemed surprised to see her. Even though they were running in her direction, it looked more like they were fleeing from something.

In short order, she had made it to her destination, and she felt a chill run through her as she saw the bloodstains, and the bodies. Thankfully, none of them were of her classmates.

"Hello? Anyone there?" She called out.

"S-Strelitzia? Is that you?" A familiar voice answered.

"Relm?!" Strelitzia rushed towards her friend, entering the room she as well as Hanta and Mashirao were holed up in. The situation was not good. Aside from the bodies of the villains, her classmates were in bad shape. Relm had several bruises and cuts, as did Hanta, but the worst off was Mashirao who was missing an entire arm.

"Cura!" Not wasting any time, Strelitzia used the strongest healing she could, spreading it out across all the students. Still, while it closed Mashirao's wound, it wasn't strong enough to regrow the limb. At least it would prevent him from bleeding out.

"T-thanks." Mashirao said.

"What happened?" She asked.

"They had us cornered. I thought it was all over when suddenly this ninja looking guy showed up and did… that… to those villains." Relm explained.

"Ninja looking guy?" Strelitzia asked.

"I dunno. Maybe he was a Hero. Have Heroes shown up to help?"

"No." Strelitzia answered in confusion. "At least, not that I've seen."

"So who was that then?" Hanta asked.

"Dunno, but it seems they're on our side." Mashirao said, weakly.

Strelitzia turned to him. "I'm sorry. But you shouldn't be speaking. Try to conserve your energy, you've lost a lot of blood."

"So what do we do now?" Hanta asked.

"You should try to get him out of here. The entrance is cleared. Thirteen is down but the others are safe there." Strelitzia said. With Shoto having formed a wall of ice and Hiryuu shooting at any Villains that tried to approach, alongside Aizawa still fighting the Villains in the plaza, the place was safe enough now that the Darkness villain was gone.

"Y-yeah, yeah. All right. I can paint up something to carry us there." Relm answered.

"Good."

"What will you do?" Hanta asked.

"I'm going to try and rescue anyone else." Strelitzia said, before rushing off. "Is there anyone else in this zone?"

"No, we were separated first before we found each other." Relm said.

"Good, then, I'm needed elsewhere." Strelitzia said, before rushing off. She took off, exiting the building where Reiko had already made good on her efforts to bind all the villains. She gave her a brief nod before activating Flowmotion and heading towards the edge of the zone to observe what was-

Aizawa was down.

Aizawa was down.

Last she had seen he had been holding his own, but now, he wasn't. Instead, he was lying face down in a pool of his own blood. His limbs were twisted at wrong angles and were cracked and chipped somehow, exposing the muscle and bone underneath, and he wasn't moving, pinned down by the claws of that giant bestial Villain. The figure in the black cloak sat on the beasts back, while the bird masked man had remained where he had been since his arrival, seemingly observing.

The likely culprit was the Villain with the hands, who was walking away from him, headed towards the Flood Zone… where Izuku, Tsuyu, and Minoru were currently swimming near the shore. It was clear what he intended to do.

"Hastera! Aerora!" Strelitzia sprung into action, pain running through her body as the time magic pushed her past her limits. She was weaker now. Not as acclimated to time magic as she had been before, she couldn't keep this up long at all. Still, she grit her teeth and pushed through the pain, launching herself with air magic and Flowmotion, flying like a cannon from the Ruin Zone and across the plaza, making it just as the Villain was reaching out towards Tsuyu. Swinging as hard as she could, she brought down Starlight on him…

…and sliced clean through his right arm at the shoulder.

The Villain staggered back, shocked for a moment before he began to scream, gripping the stump with his remaining hand, blood running between his fingers.

Strelitzia placed herself in between him and her classmates, in a fighting stance, Starlight held out. She probably wasn't supposed to be feeling vindictive, and hadn't done it with that specific aim, but payback for Mashirao's arm felt good.

"Well, this is an interesting development." The bird-masked Villain said, he cocked his head as he turned towards her, seemingly unconcerned with his fellow Villains injury. She kept her guard up, waiting, but he made no moves to attack, simply leaning on his cane.

"Fucking stupid, ganking, bitch!" The Villain cursed as he staggered about. He turned towards her, his eyes glaring at her with pure hate from beneath his hand-mask. He then turned to the bestial Villain behind him. "Fucking bitch thinks she's more than a trash mob. Nomu show her what a real boss is! Kill her!"

At it's leader's shouts 'Nomu' let go of Aizawa and moved, the sudden motion even knocking the cloaked figure off his back as the beast stalked forwards, growling.

And things have gone differently here. It took a while, deciding what things had changed, who went where, what the outcome of their battles would be, but it was fun.

~Dragonexx