Light and rain spilled into the room, the roof caving and crumbling from Overhaul's ridiculous barrier crashing into the street above. Suddenly left with no road, two cars plummeted into the void. A third one teetered on the edge momentarily before that street section also gave way.
Shoto's ice shot out in wild fractals, bending and twisting at the flick of the teen's wrist. It caught the falling vehicles at different points in their descent. A blur of white phased through the nearest vehicle silently, kicking off the driver's side door from the inside and carrying out a person.
Izuku eye's widened, watching as the wall Overhaul had conjured up cracked open, for the briefest of seconds. Spinner took a step.
The spikes forming the structure aimed outward, going for them all.
Move, Disciple.
Izuku jumped back, scooping up the small girl and pulling Morse and the injured man close in one movement, Spinner locking arms with him to keep that last one from moving too much. Their eyes met and Izuku saw his own infinite frustration and worry reflected on the mutant's face.
He held on tight as Shoto whisked them away, watching the spiked wall—and hence, his mentor—get further and further from his grasp. As if sensing their retreat, the wall bent down and split like ripping paper. It rebuilt itself without allowing even a peek behind, a section towards the middle peeling outwards and crashing down. Shoto's ice shattered, the cars going down just as Lemillion escaped the last one with two small bodies in his arms. The ground cracked and caved beneath the weight of it all.
The small girl in Izuku's hold trembled.
Shoto veered them to the right sharply, avoiding the spikes sprouting from beneath. Lemillion jumped back underground—the people he'd rescued deposited somewhere on the street above—and flew over their heads, creating an opening on the far wall with a swift kick. They flew through and into a long hallway, a wall of ice covering the improvised entrance.
"Is everyone okay?" Lemillion asked, making a beeline towards the injured pro. The man looked surprisingly awake, all things considered.
"We have to go back." Spinner said briskly. Izuku nodded.
"No," Lemillion said, resolute. His jaw was set tight. "I'm getting you out of here. Right now."
Izuku felt the small girl shaking her head against his shoulder, and he was momentarily confused. Would a child agree with the rescue attempt, or was this something else?
Despite his index finger missing the distal phalange, Spinner balled his fists and took a step forward to look the blonde in the eye.
"Stain gave you a pass, and Shoto was right about the injured man. You can do whatever you need to do about him." Spinner growled, eyes alight. Lemillion just looked at him. "But I'm not leaving without Stain, and neither is Midoriya. So stay out of our way."
Izuku felt a swell of pride and affection fill his chest. Out of all his friends, Spinner was without a doubt the most loyal to the Hero Killer's creed.
Lemillion watched Spinner closely, eyes narrowing. The young man studied everyone individually and Izuku did the same, not liking what he found. Everyone was hurt and visibly exhausted. Morse was clinging to Izuku with one hand and to the dying man's leg with the other, whimpering. Her short hair was caked with dust and blood that might or might not be hers. The man in the suit was watching Lemillion carefully, his ragged breaths shaking his frame. The child in Izuku's arms was looking back at where they'd come from with wide eyes and a troubled expression, her small face reflecting on the ice wall.
Lemillion swallowed and opened his mouth.
The ground trembled precariously. Everyone reached for something to hold on to, silent prayers alone keeping the place from crumbling all around them.
"It's okay," Izuku whispered, patting the girl's head as Stain had done for him in the past, "We're getting you out of here. You're safe."
Her tiny hands tightened their hold on his shirt and her head shook once more.
"I'm not asking anymore," Lemillion said suddenly, something in his stance changing. "We have to go. I'm getting everyone out right now."
"We're not going with y–"
"Yes, you are!" Lemillion yelled. Morse whimpered and the young hero winced, hesitating before trying a less snappy approach.
"My job is to rescue you all. I'm not leaving any of you here. I know what the Hero Killer means to you, believe me, I do." Blue eyes met with green, pleading. "But I can't just watch you put your lives in danger like this."
"We're more than willing to die for him." Spinner reasoned.
The ground shook.
"But I'm not willing to let you do it," Lemillion said. He smiled at them. "A hero's work is to save everyone. I can't–"
"Your work," Izuku corrected firmly, a gentle smile twisting his lips, "Is to save innocent people, hero. We don't fit that description."
It was not a jest, and Lemillion noticed.
A massive stone construct broke through the wall further down the hall with an echoing boom, not unlike roaring thunder. It was followed by another and another, all getting closer. All searching for them blindly.
Lemillion leaped forth and through the wall, the sounds of destruction on the other side painting a chaotic image in everyone's minds. A spike cracked the wall just to their left, but no others threatened to impale them alive for the time being.
Like dark smoke, a booming sound filtered through the gaps in the wall.
"E R I" A deep, callous voice called out from the other room.
The girl in Izuku's arms froze so completely that Izuku couldn't even tell if she was breathing anymore even though they were pressed against one another. The word echoed off the broken walls as Izuku widened his stance, shocked by the visceral reaction that the single syllable had gotten from the small girl. She had gone deadly pale—a feat, considering she was already as white as a ghost—and her eyes were so wide that Izuku wondered if they stung.
Such pure, unadulterated terror should never be seen in a face so young, Izuku thought.
Dust rushed into the hallway with such speed and force that they were all blinded, the hellish sound of the wall next to them crumbling almost too loud to bear. Izuku held onto the child and Morse tightly, trying to shield them from what surely must have been a cave-in.
At least, it would've been, in a world without quirks.
Instead of falling down and onto them, the debris from the wall shot outward violently, crashing into the open area from before like meteors and sounding like a horrible, hollow imitation of rain against a window.
"Enough playing." The voice growled, echoing in the empty space.
Izuku blinked away the dust, his eyes adjusting slowly. And then he froze, too.
Overhaul stood atop a pillar of debris and concrete, his mouth twisted wickedly. He looked different without the mask, more human but also far more monstrous. The hole in the ceiling was crumbling away, the corner of a house coming into view, and rain was slowly but surely inundating the subterranean space.
"The delusions of heroism have grown tiring…" Overhaul groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. He gave them a deadpan look, his eyes gleaming. "I'm going to kill every single one of them!" Overhaul roared.
Izuku noticed the use of the word 'them' rather than 'you', just as Overhaul spoke again in a mocking voice.
"Won't I, Eri?"
The child in Izuku's grasp whimpered.
The floor beneath their feet shifted, moving in the same way water would if you were to drop a rock in it; It rose and dipped in waves, pushing them all apart. Spinner called out his name, his balance aided by his quirk momentarily, and Lemillion quickly got a grip on Morse and the gravely injured man as she lost her grip on Izuku. Shoto started building ice, Izuku opened his mouth.
A hand wrapped tightly around his wrist. He looked up, fully expecting to be met with resolute blue, but the sight was much different. He was sure the man's eyes had been yellow before but the gaze that locked with his through the cracked glasses was a neon purple lost in a sea of black, and Izuku shivered involuntarily. It was too familiar, too close to the eyes that had watched him day after day in the white room, and Izuku felt as if he'd been burnt, his eyes flashing with pure terror. The man's expression showed a similar feeling of horror, but Izuku didn't have time to dwell on it.
The floor exploded, spikes and debris pushing them all in vastly different directions. Izuku curled around the girl protectively, taking the brunt of the impact as he was thrown like a ragdoll. He lost contact with the ground momentarily, a second blow smashing him against a wall and knocking the breath out of him. He landed on his back, the small girl on top of him.
There was noise around him, chaos and screams and destruction, but he could only hear the ringing in his bad ear. The ringing was disorienting to the point that even his breathing felt alien. The small child peered down at him with wide eyes and Izuku ground his teeth, eyes narrowed in pain.
"You… Are you okay?" Izuku wheezed, his voice a distant echo.
The girl said something that Izuku couldn't hear and he smiled—well, he tried. It was more like him baring his teeth awkwardly.
"We're gonna keep you safe. We're all ready to–"
"Please stop!" The small girl repeated louder, her tiny hands balled into fists in Izuku's shirt. He froze. "It's enough. Just… Stop."
Izuku's first instinct was to apologize to her, to offer a compromise so she wouldn't be upset, but he didn't quite get what she was asking for. The ringing in his ear started to go down to the level Izuku was used to, and his brain started to assimilate things better.
"You're… he's going to…" She whimpered, trying to free herself from Izuku's grasp. He held her in place on pure instinct, his mind still working on what she'd said.
"We're not going to let him hurt you. I promise." Izuku said. The fact that he was actually struggling against a five-year-old was a testament to how tired and injured he was.
She shook her head vigorously. She was so small, all bandages and white hair, but she still struggled fiercely and Izuku's heart broke at the sight.
"If you don't let me go," She said shakily, "He's going to hurt you."
Izuku finally recognized the emotion that had been fogging her eyes since he'd met her. It wasn't fear, as any normal child would feel in this situation.
It was guilt.
The floor tilted precariously, sending them rolling to the side like a ball in a pinball machine. Izuku held onto the girl with one arm, using everything else to try and guide them without flipping over one another. He hit a metal pipe and hissed in pain. Hold on, don't let go, figure out a path, his mind raced, taking in every change as fast as he could. Hold on to her, use your legs, brace– The floor raised beneath him at an angle, a jagged edge cracking him in the back of the head.
The ringing was back at full force, his head pounding. He opened his eyes—when had he closed them?—and found himself lying on his stomach, his arm awkwardly pinned beneath him. Everything was out of focus, every single aspect of the real world diluted to him somehow, but he knew what—or rather, who—the white shape standing in front of him was. He raised his free hand in her direction, teeth bared in pain.
It's okay, he wanted to say, I'll keep you safe. But no sound left his lips and his hand grasped dust. The small white figure ran away like a specter, lost to the blurry chaos.
"No…" Izuku wheezed. He placed his hand on the ground and pushed, freeing his other arm. He hissed, the pain making him collapse back down. He touched the back of his head, knowing that the wound was serious based on the flash of hot, white pain that left him breathless. He looked back up, the pale child completely gone.
He suspected that he hadn't been spotted in the chaos, but a whip of rock came down and slammed on the ground not ten feet from where Izuku was and he was suddenly not so sure that his location was unknown. Izuku gritted his teeth, his vision going in and out of focus. He got to his knees, his forehead dragging across the floor.
"Get up." He spat, blood running through his hair and dripping down his face. His body didn't move and a growl ripped from his throat. "Get up! You're not done."
One hand, the other, then his elbows locked until he was on his hands and knees. The back of his head felt as if he'd been branded with hot iron.
"Move."
He pushed himself up, looking like a runner about to start a race. His leg tried to give way but he pushed forward with a snarl, his vision swimming as he ran. He took all of eight steps and stumbled when the floor shifted, careening towards the ground.
"Midoriya!" Spinner cried out, catching him at the last second. Izuku's momentum almost took them both down, but his friend kept them on their feet. "Are you okay?!"
Izuku swallowed, a choked sound leaving his mouth as he tried to keep going.
"She's…" Izuku grunted, half pulling and half holding onto Spinner. "I couldn't…!"
"It's okay," Spinner said, tearing off his sleeve and pressing it against the back of Izuku's head. Bile rose in the teen's throat, the cloth feeling like acid against his wound and making Izuku's jaw lock for a moment, the agony almost too much to bear.
"I can't get to anyone else," Spinner said, looking at Izuku with focused eyes. "I know Shoto and the blonde are alive, but I can't tell much of anything past that."
Izuku nodded, every breath just a hiss through clenched teeth. He finally took the time to look around, to really take in his surroundings, and the magnitude of the situation finally—finally—hit him. He saw pillars of ice rising and getting crushed almost instantaneously, their origin located on the other end of the room. The ice crystals collided with the tower of spikes with thundering crashes, debris of different materials exploding in all directions. There were flashes of fire too, wild and all-encompassing, but the room itself bent around them.
To Izuku's right, a good fifty feet away, he could hear the smashing of rock. The colors of Lemillion's uniform flashed into view, the young hero barely straying from the corner he'd been pushed against. He was forcing constructs back with an uncanny speed, deviating everything away from his position. And in the middle of the room, in a tower made of fractured stone and steel, was Overhaul, perfectly in control. He was keeping them apart by pure design.
Izuku's stomach dropped, his eyes scanning the room a second and then a third time, desperation clawing at his soul. Spinner read his face and swallowed, his expression tormented.
"I haven't seen him," Spinner whispered, the admission looking like it hurt him physically. "I'm sorry, Midoriya."
Izuku's eyes zeroed in on Overhaul, his teeth bared. He took a step, the pain washing off him and making him focus. He swallowed blood.
"You're badly hurt," Spinner warned.
Izuku gave him an intense look, more than ready to fight even his close friend, but Spinner wasn't speaking out of a desire to stop him. Quite the opposite, in fact. He met Izuku's eyes evenly, standing tall despite the growing stain of blood on his thigh, his bandana tied around the wound.
"I stand with you the same as I do with Stain." Spinner said resolutely, taking out an extra blade from his waistband and offering it to Izuku. "To the bitter end."
Izuku blinked, the determination in the mutant's eyes helping him breathe better. He took the weapon and nodded. He looked up as a new spire of rock started to rise to the side, Izuku's eyes widening as he saw a small, cowering shape being lifted in Overhaul's direction. Lemillion advanced ten feet but was forced to retreat as another wave of attacks was shot towards his corner. Ice shot out, slowing down the girl's assent but not by much. It was a losing battle on all fronts.
The ground liquified under their feet, the layout changing and moving them around the room. Spinner and Izuku clung to one another, eyes wide. Izuku forced himself to focus, taking in the parts of the equation that were changing and trying to work around them in real time. Overhaul would be out of anyone's reach soon, and so would the child. The ceiling was sagging and breaking open in different places; it was only a matter of time before the whole thing collapsed, and the sight of the suburban neighborhood sitting right above them cut whatever time they had in half. They'd all be buried in debris before long. Amongst the chaos and destruction, just a few feet from the base of the growing tower, a figure clad in black rose from the ground, their pointed mask turning one way and the other in what might've been confusion.
"The gun," Izuku said, already moving forward. "Do you have it?"
"Only part of it" Spinner admitted, showing Izuku. Part of the magazine survived but even that wasn't functional anymore, the metal badly deformed and the bullets stuck inside. The barrel and the trigger were gone. Izuku saw Spinner's hand, knew that the mutant had just lost part of his index finger due to this, and he gritted his teeth. He put the gun's remains in his pocket.
"Good enough." Izuku hissed, taking out his other knife from his waistband and twirling both in his hands expertly. The movement soothed him a little.
Izuku climbed over debris, looking like a wild dog on the hunt. Spinner followed close behind, limping but able to traverse the terrain easily thanks to his quirk. His medical boot was gone, Izuku noted. The ground was nothing but a field of broken spikes and littered rubble, metal and rock jutting out like thorns and promising a nasty wound were Izuku to fall, but he walked far steadier now, a dark determination keeping him in motion.
The masked man turned, tensing at the sight of the two young men stalking towards him. He reached for something in his jacket and Izuku threw one knife, hitting the man's hand with deadly precision.
The ground shifted once more, but Spinner held onto Izuku's arm tightly, his feet and free hand staying glued to the floor even as it tilted vertically. Izuku held on despite the pain as the floor arched back down like a crashing wave, Spinner left upside down and holding Izuku in the air beneath him. Both vigilantes looked like demons crawling out of hell, with eyes shining with a thirst for vengeance, and any sane person would have felt cold dread at the sight. Spinner released his hold and dropped by Izuku's side with narrowed eyes, both still stalking forward.
The masked man stumbled, trying to reach for whatever was in his jacket with his other hand but crashing on the ground, Izuku's second blade sticking out of his chest and one of Spinner's out of his stomach.
Izuku reached his mark, his eyes a dark storm. The man tried to say something, still alive, but Izuku was far beyond the point of listening to people. He tore his blades from the man's body roughly and stabbed him again, retrieving Spinner's weapon as well and tossing it back to his friend. Izuku's face was splashed with fresh blood, his hand steady as he searched inside the man's jacket. He found a gun and handed it over to Spinner, who easily started to check the weapon.
The body at Izuku's feet twitched and he raised his blade once more, ready to strike a third time.
A section of the ceiling that had a house on top of it gave way, the whole structure coming down in the same fluid, bizarre way that a landslide would sweep households. Ice came up to try and hold it, but a spike of concrete obliterated the frozen construct, and everything came crashing down horridly. Like a rock smashing a frozen lake, cracks grew from the impact point all across the room, covering the floor and walls quickly. The ground gave way, all the passages below them coming into view and threatening to swallow them whole.
"Midoriya!" Spinner and Izuku held onto each other by the arm, the mutant managing to stick to the grand obelisk of stone at the center of the room as the ground disintegrated beneath them. Izuku got slammed against a sharp edge and saw white, his breath stuttering.
"You okay?" Spinner called. Rain fell on them, the torrent getting stronger outside.
For a moment, Izuku didn't respond.
"Midoriya?" Spinner echoed, worry in his eyes.
"I'm fine!" Izuku said, giving Spinner a grateful smile and pushing himself away from the wall to find something to grab onto with his free hand. The mutant nodded, pulling Izuku up with some effort until they were shoulder to shoulder, supporting one another. The top of the spire was about 25, maybe 30 feet above them, the surface getting closer slowly but surely despite Shoto's best efforts to delay Overhaul's escape.
"Hold on," Spinner said, beginning the climb up.
Ice and fire shifted the space around them, shadows coming alive for brief moments and shifting the layout in more ways than one. It was like being in the middle of a cyclone, with elements hitting them from every angle. Temperatures and wind directions changed around them without rhyme or reason, and elongated shadows danced upon the cracked, crumbling walls. Both boys were simple bystanders in a battle of titans and Izuku felt tiny, like an insignificant grain of sand in a massive ocean. If Shoto and Lemillion couldn't make any ground, what could Izuku expect to do?
Stop it. Izuku groaned, pulling himself forth. Stain would despise this train of thought.
Izuku pursed his lips together, looking up. It was an effort, the dirty water falling directly in his eyes, but he could see the edge of the platform above about 15 feet away.
With your own will and strength, he heard his mentor say in his brain and Izuku nodded to himself, his eyes glowing with determination.
Spinner muttered something that sounded like 'almost there' and Izuku gave him a sideways glance. It was a real blessing to have the mutant by his side, and it wasn't just because of how perfect his quirk was for their current situation—he was thankful for that, of course, but that truly wasn't it. Izuku cared about every one of his allies equally; they were his family, after all. But Spinner had been the first to show Izuku that the Hero Killer's creed had genuine supporters out there. He'd been willing to die by Stain's hand without question from day one, he had always been understanding, selfless, and good. He was a wonderful protégé for the Hero Killer to have.
Izuku's foothold cracked off and he slipped down half a foot with a grunt.
"This thing's not stable at all," Spinner said, looking down. "Try to–"
His eyebrows rose. He gave Izuku a look and the teen returned it with a tight smile, green eyes looking up at their destination rather than down at himself. He didn't want to see what type of damage he'd suffered when he'd been slammed against the pillar; he'd felt the sharp edge of metal digging into his side and could feel the blood dripping down his abdomen and leg. He didn't need any visual confirmation.
"Mido–"
"To the bitter end," Izuku said, his voice hoarse. No matter how many coughs he bit back, his teeth were stained red. "Right?"
Spinner blinked, his expression shifting from shock to despair, and then to resolute acceptance.
"Right." Spinner gave Izuku a nod, his eyes heavy with a thousand different emotions. But his hold remained steady and he pushed them both up without faltering.
Truly a blessing.
They stopped a few feet from the edge, both pressed against the wall to stay hidden as long as possible. Someone on the road above made the mistake of getting too close to the edge of the sinkhole, and a spike erupted onto the street. A few more followed, the rain too loud for Izuku to know if people were screaming up there or not.
Spinner reached for the gun tucked in the back of his pants, using one leg to keep Izuku in place while he made sure the firearm was loaded. Izuku gritted his teeth, his mind feeling fuzzy and every breath leaving his mouth in shallow, quick gasps.
Just a little more, he told himself, pressing his forehead against the cool rock of the pillar and shivering, Just one more push.
A faint voice from above reached his ears, and Izuku glanced at Spinner. Pink eyes flashed with a fury that resonated within Izuku. They exchanged a nod, a deep understanding flowing between them. It was all or nothing.
Izuku reached down for one of his knives, ignoring the painful pinpricks on his palms. He couldn't even properly feel the texture of the knife's hilt, but he pushed past the numbness. He pushed past everything, white and red filling his mind.
Spinner inhaled deeply and, with a grunt, threw himself onto the platform above with Izuku at his side. They raised their weapons in tandem, eyes shining as they took the situation in.
Overhaul stood tall, not a single scratch on his clothes or body. His hand was covered in cement, a thin pillar sticking out from the ground and allowing him to use his quirk while standing. The small girl—Eri, Izuku thought—was standing by the yakuza's leg, her tiny frame soaked in rain from head to toe. To the side, broken and twisted and injured far beyond what any one man should be able to withstand, was Stain.
Overhaul's golden eyes shifted over to them, a cold smile twisting the villain's features.
"There you are." The man said, his voice low. "Took you long enough, Disciple."