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The armor that Bakugou requested certainly had its work cut out for it as he now was dodging twice the enemy attacks from before. It kept a few stray slices from piercing his body as Katsuki flew through the air while launching whatever counters he could against the twin mercenaries.
Dodging twelve high speed tentacles equipped with blades was easier said than done. He had his work cut out for him as the strikes relentlessly pelted Katsuki in the air.
While being attacked by the maniacal duo equipped with bladed arms, every action they took had been carefully analyzed by Katsuki. Each attack had his mind calibrating the speed and range of each move they made. Letting them do an excessive amount of damage before he ended the fight was an inexcusable action to take. These villains had no right into his memories, let alone injuring Bakugou and leaving behind debilitating injuries.
A new attack he's been developing seemed to be perfect for his current predicament. What he needed for it to work against his opponents was for them to both be in range of the one attack.
It was an extremely taxing attack for him, even from range. His concussion shot didn't even measure up against the damage this next attack could do.
After the villains empowered themselves with the drugs that Humarise provided them, Katsuki could tell how uncoordinated the villains were right out the gate. His one advantage was how much more coordinated he was in comparison to their physicality. Their wild flailing lacked the precision Bakugou's movements had in comparison.
He led them on a wild goose chase to guarantee his one chance being a successful attempt against these two nutcases.
Katsuki flew across the cliffs to corral the villains back into the cave that they fought to protect. Their enhanced state of being caused certain finer nuances of human judgment to go right out the window. As he predicted, their berserk states didn't lend the mercenaries a lot of mental acuity to utilize as he then launched the one attack he knew would end the fight in his favor. An experimental move that would cost him the fight, had he not gone through the proper steps beforehand.
"Demolition Wave Charge!"
Right as Katsuku corralled the villains back into the cavern, A single blast from his hands radiated out and ruptured all the rocks lining the cave that made the Humarise base of operations entrance. It was an explosion that exceeded the reaction speed of all other explosions he produced in the past. Its force had so much speed in it that he still couldn't produce it as a ranged attack, no matter how much effort he poured into making it so.
It affected Katsuki as he collapsed the entire entrance on the villains. Several tons of rubble piled onto the villains that thought they were invincible after doping themselves with the enhancing solution given to them by Humarise.
They couldn't escape from the falling boulders, since the initial blast even stunned them enough to pop the blood vessels in their eyes. The fight ended before they even realized it was over.
Looking at the collapsed entrance filled Bakugou with pride over his victory. A pride that lasted all of nine seconds before he passed out from the stress of the last attack he launched.
Elsewhere
Trapped in the underground waterway, Todoroki had been captured by the villain far too mutated to even remember that they were human. It used its tendrils to keep Shoto submerged underwater long enough to drown the teenage hero as they both were being carried downstream.
While the mutant thought itself the victor already, Shoto was already working to create his counterattack.
Closing his eyes and relaxing helped to conserve oxygen for the time being. This also allowed him to think clearly enough to reevaluate his current situation. Shoto needed to get this villain to let him go; otherwise drowning would be a serious possibility.
There was something that he could do to not only escape his predicament, but also possibly take down his opponent. What he was about to do would require a lot of his personal stamina and mental fortitude if he wanted to use this move without killing himself. The water itself would assist him by stabilizing the excess temperatures before he gained enough momentum. Keeping his eyes closed, Shoto committed to using his new move. Something this experimental didn't even see success in practice.
As the villain smugly grinned at its current advantage, the water started to feel a bit off to it. It was like the right half of the current was getting hotter while the left started to get even colder.
By the time the villain noticed the temperatures of the water, it was too late.
Using the laws of thermodynamics allowed Shoto to reach temperatures normally inaccessible. The principal came to him after Haru took Shoto to a hardware store for the lumber that was used to renovate his room back at the dorms.
Pointing out the refrigerators, Haru quizzed Todoroki on what made fridges cold in the first place. Only after failing to answer the question properly did Shoto get the real answer as to how these appliances functioned.
Turns out that there were heating elements on the back of the fridge that actually radiated all the heat that the cooling elements absorbed. He saw that the process of removing excess energy could cause both a decrease and increase of temperatures all at once. This stuck with him as he started to practice the ability to use both his quirks all at once. By using his body as a conductor, he applied the physics of thermodynamics to produce both heat and cold all at once.
Things were starting to get a bit precarious for the villain at the two extreme temperatures that Shoto started to produce. Now half the river reached past the point of boiling while ice froze both the villain and Shoto in place with the other.
Both sides of the villain's tentacles were starting to react violently to the extreme temperatures. One side started to freeze and crack while the other looked like it was blistering and boiling. He needed to kill this kid now if he wanted to stop Shoto from unleashing whatever move he was about to pull. Winding up the appendages on his head, he was about to impale the teen when Shoto's eyes shot open.
Wrenching himself loose from the tentacles trapping him was child's play after the damage he did. Both his left and right arms swung towards each other as Todoroki unleashed his finisher.
"Thermodynamic Impact!"
Molten temperatures along with below freezing temperatures sandwiched the villain from both sides. A violent reaction that caused an explosion strong enough to blow open the cliff the river flowed out of. Several tons of rubble came crashing down into the bottom of the waterfall as the villain fell to the bottom. Pulling himself up and out of the way of the waterfall, Shoto fell flat on his back as the rain kept drizzling all around him.
Taking the gamble paid off. He managed to pull off his new move in the nick of time.
His eyelids felt extremely heavy after launching such a taxing attack. Falling unconscious, he hoped that Izuku managed to reach the objective in time.
Humarise Main Cathedral
Fleck still couldn't believe how much trouble he was having with his opponents. Every time his quirk was about to unleash a wave of energy against Izuku's powerful blows, The other one would then throw Fleck with some sort of takedown to throw off his aim. On top of the man's speed and technique, whatever power was reflected back at him wasn't enough to even phase them.
Reflection returned power aimed at its user. The more powerful the attack, the deadlier it was for the attacker. All Nakamura did for the entire fight was use takedowns and submission holds. Neither the hero or Haru were giving the cult leader enough room for him to redirect his power at the man rendering his mobility to a standstill.
His patience reached a boiling point that threatened to tip over the edge. He would be damned if he let his life's work be foiled by some strangers he never knew even existed before today.
"... Izuku."
"Yeah, I noticed…"
Both father and son stood next to one another when they realized something about their opponent. It felt subtle in the way it influenced the fight, though it revealed itself like a sore thumb to the two combatants taking on the powerful quirk user.
He was getting weaker as the fight kept stretching on.
Haru noticed how much easier it was to get a solid grip on Fleck now versus the beginning of his encounter with the cult leader. Izuku could see he had larger windows of time to dodge the incoming damage after a few minutes of trading blows with Fleck. If they wanted to win, they needed to work on their endurance over trying to end the fight immediately.
They already knew the strategy between them without exchanging another word. Facing off against Fleck felt much less intimidating for Midoriya with someone he could trust besides him.
There was a strange moment of deja vu for Izuku right before he and Nakamura got ready to fight. He couldn't help the strange feeling that he already had been in this situation, or something similar, already.
What mattered now was taking down this deranged cult leader. Midoriya didn't want to put his dad in harm's way any longer than necessary, while a similar thought process took place in the referenced person's mind. Kicking off round two, Izuku and Haru charged forward in unison to throw Fleck into a moment of panic at the sudden shift in strategy. A tactic that gave Nakamura the space to get in close again after Izuku kicked himself off on Haru's left hand.
Giving Izuku a means to accelerate his first sprint was the least Haru could do to help out the teenage hero. The momentary distraction shifted Fleck's attention far enough from Haru to allow him to slide in and trip up the man with his own legs. Falling to the ground, Fleck then found himself pinned by an armbar that threatened to take out the elbow of the arm that had the still painfully throbbing wrist.
Never did Fleck, in his entire life, feel something as powerful as what he felt right before his arm got violently dislocated by said joint.
Two seconds of screaming could be heard before another attack came down on him.
"California… Smash!"
That ground slam unloaded an unprecedented amount of force directly into Fleck's abdomen. As predicted, he couldn't produce enough of a repelling force in time to counter the attack. The blow partially connected and caused a decent amount of power to still reach the cult leader. Screaming with all his might, Fleck attempted to redirect the energy that his quirk did manage to counter into the other arm still able to move. His attack failed to hit its mark as Haru threw the villain by the remaining front of his robes into the wall. A quirk unable to aim just caused the room to be enveloped by an almost deafening wave of air.
Collapsing to his knees, Izuku coughed painfully and caused his wounds to bleed profusely. Nakamura checked up on the teenage boy now doubled over in agony.
"M-my sto… S-stomaccchhh…"
"You've already suffered puncture wounds! We need to get you out of here!"
From out of the hole in the wall that Fleck caused, he returned with vengeance and charged at the debilitated Izuku with bloodlust permeating his widened eyes. Haru intercepted the villain and prevented the villain from closing in onto the young hero still immobilized with pain.
"N-Naka… Mura…"
Watching his dad protect him against the powerful villain caused his heart to despair. Nakamura put himself in the line of fire for someone who was a son to him. Letting him die now was not an option to Midoriya. Every single cell of his body begged for him to stop, yet still he attempted to get back up. The pain felt secondary in comparison to watching Haru die protecting him. That same stalwart back he saw since childhood still looked so invincible as the energy of Fleck's attack poured out from Fleck and produced a cone against Haru as he shielded Izuku.
"DAD!"
?
Deep from within, One for All came to life from deep within Izuku. A star of light leapt from one colored star to the next. Landing on the ninth star, it shone with a glorious brilliance before leaping off to its next destination.
After launching itself off of the ninth star, all that surrounded the traveling light was utter blackness. Not a speck of light existed past the point of the previous star.
From that darkness approached something that could only be felt as it emerged from that inky darkness. The light illuminated from the traveling light was slowly being enveloped by the thing that looked to be made of the darkness it lingered in. Even the way it moved made it seem like it was as large as the titan, Chronos, itself; coming to swallow all that came its way as they traveled through the void.
Something of such unknown origins being inside of a quirk like One for All could lead to all sorts of unknown or terrible consequences. Izuku failed to understand this as he reached for something inside of the quirk that would help him protect the one he wanted to save.
Humarise Main Cathedral
In reality, Haru still remained unmoving between Izuku and Fleck. Neither side could move as Nakamura still technically didn't provide enough power by himself for reflection to move him out of the way. Whatever attacks came his way didn't move Nakamura from where he stood. Blocking Fleck with their hands being forced apart by the quirk that plagued the cult leader for most of his life, Haru said something that caught more than the attention of Fleck.
"... You absolute pussy."
Thinking it to be another baseless insult, he was about to respond with an insult of his own when Haru cut him off once more.
"All this useless shit… All of it, you're doing… Just because you're too much of a fucking spoiled brat."
What Nakamura said after this dug far too deep into Fleck. It shook his spirit to the core of his very being.
"You have never known hardship."
Before he could retort with the same sob story he gave Izuku, Nakamura kept on going after his brief pause.
"You expected to be given things in life. You never once thought that the good things in life were worth earning…"
Haru remembered the sight of Keigo as the child cried for the very first time in their life. It was the same moment where the child realized that there was such a thing as unconditional love.
"Worth working for…"
Bakugou's entire life had been him trying to earn his place in the world. What Katsuki carried on his shoulders was something far heavier than any boy should have carried through their childhood. A kindness that bound the one in possession of it to a weight of unimaginable weight. Burdens of that caliber would break lesser people.
Yet that child still sought to be more than that. To prove his worth as a champion in the world that sought to break him in half.
"Worth enduring for…"
All those children who still could fight after being faced with challenge after challenge. Those kind faces thanked him day after day as he took care of them to the best of his ability. It provided more than enough evidence for Nakamura that they were indeed going to be better for whatever help he could lend them.
"Worth suffering for…"
Seeing Izuku go through all he did voluntarily filled Haru with both pride and agonizing pain for how dutiful the boy was towards the true meaning of their goals. Even he knew that Izuku would become a man that would be the best they could be in the face of challenges never thought possible.
Someone he felt he himself was unworthy of calling son.
"You've never suffered for your dreams. You don't know what it's like to work so hard that your body screams for you to stop. You couldn't even imagine the pain of trying to overcome your personal demons. None of the things that make a person stronger…"
Looking deeply into the blue man's eyes, there only remained deep black hatred for Fleck. Hatred that even shook the cult leader for how hostile it felt. He could practically feel the teeth of that hatred sink into his neck under that unpleasant gaze.
"... Are within you. You're nothing. Just an empty husk that never had anything to offer. You're empty, and nothing will ever fill something as empty as you…"
Right as the words were making their mark deep within Fleck, something occurred that caused both himself and Nakamura to turn towards the severely injured Izuku.
A burst of white lightning suddenly erupted outwards from where Haru left Izuku to rest. His eyes widened at the sight behind him as Izuku started to get up slowly back onto his feet.
Nothing but white light emanated from Midoriya's eyes. More concerning for him was the sudden discoloration of the boy's hair. A slim lock of hair that sprouted from Izuku's hairline began to turn into a different color before the men who still were locked in their struggle. While it was lost on Fleck, the meaning of the color hadn't been lost on Nakamura. His eyes widened in horror as Izuku's hair turned slightly white in front of him.
Disappearing in a bolt of white lightning; it was only when Izuku then reappeared next to Fleck that the villain realized something had happened. Izuku already had his leg halfway into the kick he launched against Fleck.
"Second Seraph-"
Even with his superhuman reaction speed, Fleck couldn't react quickly enough to the speed of the reawakened Izuku. Nothing but instant teleportation could explain how it was that the boy moved so quickly from one spot to another to the somewhat battle hardened doomsday cult leader.
What then swept Fleck away had felt nothing short of a powerful force that possessed a force dozens of times more powerful than the previous Detroit Smash from Izuku earlier. This actually sent him flying into the opposite wall hard enough to bury him several meters into the solid rock behind the bookshelves. Which were, on a side note, protected by anti ballistic armored plates. His consciousness didn't survive the excavation that his body had been used for.
Had he still been conscious, he would have seen that the one who was his previous opponent had actually seemingly stopped the attack before it could extend halfway through the swing.
Nakamura had actually caught the attack that Midoriya tried to launch at Fleck just now. What he didn't manage to stop still almost killed Fleck. Even what should have been an adequately blocked attack sent the villain into a solid rock wall; hard enough to bury him in what should have been his grave, as well. Only Izuku and Nakamura were still active on the battlefield after the villains were neutralized.
To the naked human eye, all that happened after that was a shockwave that covered the entire room with dust. A cloud of the stuff obscured the vision of the entire room.
All around the room, a new sort of conflict seemed to rise as the dust started to get caught up in a cyclone that took over the room. An endless amount of snapping sounds echoed through the large room housing this new fight taking place. Enough time passed for the center of the room to become the eye of the storm. This space was where Izuku re-emerged from the cover of the dust to launch a final attack at his original target.
"United… Nations… Of-"
Before he could launch the attack, someone else came out of the dust and grasped Izuku in a clinch that had the young man's neck trapped. Izuku quickly fell unconscious in the hold that choked him out.
It took a decent amount of time for the violent winds to die down enough for Roroy to reopen the doors that led into the bomb command deck in the science department of the Humarise main base.
The instructions he followed needed some critical thinking on his part to follow. Navigating the UI wasn't as intuitive as first thought, so the young man had to improvise a little as he slogged through the multitude of different options that were keeping him from his target. A little of his father shone through him then and there as he finally found the proper options to start the upload.
Inserting the data stick into its appropriate slot, the first sequence initiated and rendered the bombs now inoperable. Rory fell on his ass as he breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that the bombs would no longer hurt his brother and sister.
When he managed to exit the door, he needed another few moments until the wind died down enough for him to see again.
After the wind cleared out, Rory saw Nakamura cradling Izuku in his arms with a solemn look on his face. Midoriya was out cold in his arms as the light from above cast the features on his face into shadows.
Rory could feel the atmosphere without having to investigate what had happened just now. It was as clear as day that Nakamura had something he deeply regretted that put Izuku in the state that he was.