Izuku landed on the hard ground with a thud. Slowly he picked himself up off the ground, looking around as he stood up on shaky legs. The first thing he noticed was that the ground was made of tanned rock and soil, seeming to slope downwards towards various buildings sticking out of the ground. The sort of thing he would expect to see from a landslide. Had he been taken out of the USJ? Quickly glancing upward, Izuku let out a sigh of relief when he saw the domed ceiling of the building meaning that the villain hadn't warped him to someplace on the other side of Japan or even the world!
Looking around again, Izuku was able to spot the entrance of the USJ far off in the distance. What's more, he could just barely see the figures of people standing near the doorway. Were they his classmates? Ones that the villain didn't take? Or was he the only one who got caught up in that warp?
'I'm too far away to tell,' thought Izuku as the weight of the situation began to fully take hold. 'Oh man, what should I do? Should I assume I was the only one taken and make my way back? Or should I be on the safe side and assume that others were taken with me? They could be hurt and-'
Izuku's thoughts were cut off as a shadow suddenly loomed over him. His eyes widened for only a moment, watching the darkness around him before rolling to the side just as a massive fist made of sludge slammed into the ground where he stood. The force behind that punch had been great, the amount of dirt and rock thrown into the air creating a dust cloud that obscured his vision for a moment.
"Ah, I missed. Better try again." The sound of the voice that spoke unnerved Izuku for some reason. It had a wet, sadistic tone to it that sent shivers down the teen's spine as he looked at the outline of a lumbering figure within the cloud of dust. Just as he raised his shield to prepare for whatever, he caught sight of a sweeping motion by his attacker. Except , the arm seemed to stretch out to cover the distance between them!
Thankfully, just before the attack made contact, Izuku felt something wrap around his waist. Suddenly the teen was pulled backward just as a fist made of sludge hit the air where his head had been just moments before. With his feet sliding against the dirt floor, Izuku turned his head to see who had saved him: Tsu! The frog girl had her long tongue wrapped around his waist which she unraveled as soon as he was next to her.
"Thanks for the save Tsu!" exclaimed Izuku.
"Don't mention it. Ribbit," came the reply from the frog girl. Yet, as she spoke, she kept her gaze focused on the villain before her with a worried look. "But we're not out of the woods yet."
Tsu then pointed off to the side, down the slope towards the ground below. Turning his head to look, Izuku saw to his shock that there were more people down there. At least over a dozen people who were clearly not students were slowly making their way up towards the two heroes.
"Oh, don't worry about them. I'm the only one who gets to play with the three of you until All Might gets here!" The words of the villain drew the attention of the two heroes in training, both of them turning their heads to look at him as the dust began to settle. And what they saw turned their stomachs inside out. Standing before the two was a man made entirely of sludge, his yellow eyes trained on the pair. But, that wasn't what was so upsetting. Like out of some twisted nightmare, Kirishima was wrapped up in that thing's upper chest. The sludge villain's mouth covered most of Kirishima's face, plastering an evil smile over it while allowing the redhead's fearful eyes to be seen. Their fellow classmate looked like he was struggling with everything he had to get free, but with his hands bound within the body of the villain, all he could do was thrash his head about in vain. Even Tsu could not contain the disgust she felt as her skin began to turn a sickly shade of green.
"Hehe," laughed the Sludge Villain. "That's it. Struggle. Fight to stay alive for as long as possible. I want at least one of you to be alive long enough for when All Might shows his face! I wonder how he will react when he sees the corpses of two of his students, the third one begging to be saved. But, then again, accidents happen."
The sludge villain then leaped into the air towards the heroes. Thankfully, their disgust at what they saw did not freeze them in place, both teens racing upwards and away from the villain as he crashed to the ground. Once he landed, the villain slowly turned around to look at the two teens with an open-mouth smile. Made all the worse as Kirishima's eyes begged for someone to save him.
It was that look that made Izuku clench his fist. He had to do something. He was going to do something. And he had a plan.
"Tsu. I'm going to try something," he said, eyes fixed on his red-headed friend. "If it works, I'll need you to grab Kirishima the moment he's freed."
Izuku didn't wait for Tsu to respond, just charging toward the sludge villain with all the speed he could muster while his cape fluttered behind him. The villain grinned at the sight.
"Oh? A volunteer?" came the mocking tone of the villain. The Sludge Villain then raised his arm, but rather than stretching it out to slam into Izuku dozens of thinner tendrils shot out. The green-haired teen could tell just by looking at them where they were heading. Some were heading towards his arms while others were heading for his legs and torso. They were meant to bind him, to ensnare him like Kirishima so that he would share his friend's fate. But, just as the tendrils were about to come into contact with him, the gem in his shield began to glow a bright green. That same glow then began to surround his entire body, the sludge tentacles breaking apart moments after they wrapped around him. The villain, shocked by what he witnessed, took a step backward. His eyes said it all: this was supposed to be impossible.
Well, they lived in a world where the impossible was made a reality after all!
Before the villain could do anything else, Izuku was right in front of him. Placing a hand on Kirishima, Izuku grinned at the one holding his friend captive.
"Air Strike Shield!" cried out Izuku, his voice brimming with confidence.
From right behind Kirishima came Izuku's energy shield, slicing through the sludge and cutting Kirishima out from the majority of the mass. As the redhead began to fall, Tsu's tongue shot out and wrapped up not only Kirishima but Izuku as well before pulling the two of them back. As they were pulled through the air, the sludge on Kirishima's body began to fall off allowing the teen to gasp for air. It was…unsettling to see the villain's teeth falling to the ground while making a 'splat' sound while his eyes looked up at them in shock. Even more so when the rest of the body of the villain just seemed to collapse into a large puddle.
When landed, Kirishima fell to his hands and knees as he began to cough out small bits and pieces of the sludge still in his throat.
"Dude…thanks…for…the…save," Kirishima managed to say between pants.
"Sorry it took so long," apologized Izuku. "I needed to be closer since I couldn't tell how he had positioned your body into himself. If I used my Air Strike Shield on you and he had you bent in a weird angle, then I might have hurt you if you couldn't activate your hardening in time."
"Hey, I'm just glad it worked. That was super manly of you," said Kirishima as he finally managed to stand back up.
"I hate to break it to the two of you, ribbit, but we're not out of the woods yet," interrupted Tsu.
Both teens looked down the slope, realizing that Tsu was right. The various villains would soon be upon them in just a few minutes. However, that wasn't the end of their troubles as the sludge began to move. The three teens watched as the villain began to reform itself, throwing back its head to let out a cry of rage once it had formed!
"Forget letting one of you brats live! I'm going to crush all of-" began the living pile of sludge. But whatever he was about to say was cut off by Izuku's words.
"Shield Prison!" The sludge villain's eyes widened in terror as he was instantly captured with the sphere of shield, chains wrapping around it from the outside to hold the whole thing together. But that terror didn't last long as he began to punch at the shield and liquidate himself, looking for any small crack he could find or make that would allow him to escape. Something that the teens noticed, tensing up.
"Midoriya, do you think you can hold onto him until me and Tsu finish up with the rest of these villains?" asked Kirishima.
Izuku shook his head, a bead of sweat forming on his brow as the sludge villain made another powerful strike on the inner shell of the prison. Glancing over at his classmates, the young Midoriya saw that Kirishima had activated his quick, his body now hard as rock while holding out his arms in a fighting stance. At the same time, Tsu flinched as the sludge villain tried again to free himself but managed to keep her gaze focused on the throng of villains making their way ever closer.
"Not sure we can take down all those villains by ourselves. Ribbit," said Tsu truthfully. A small army marched in front of them while a villain who could capture their bodies could explode from his prison behind them at any moment. Yeah, the odds weren't in their favor.
"Like we have much of a choice. If only there was a way to-" Izuku was cut off as the captured villain struck the inside of the sphere with so much force that it lifted into the air for a moment where it then began to roll to the side. Seeing that, the gears in the shield user's mind began to spin rapidly to form a plan.
"Kirishima! Have you ever gone bowling before?"
The redhead turned to look at his friend in confusion before realization dawned on him. "Ah! I got ya bro!" replied Kirishima, a grin appearing on his face as he hurried over to the Shield Prison.
With a grunt, Kirishima began to push the sphere with all his might towards where the villains were coming up. It took a moment, but with his strength, the prison began to roll downwards with gravity helping to increase its momentum. The villains saw this, some managing to jump out of the way, but crashing into their comrades and knocking them down as they too rolled down the side of the mountain training zone. Others, well, were not so lucky. And as all this was going on, the captured villain cried out as he was unaware of what was happening to him. All he knew was that the world was spinning faster and faster, his body breaking down into a large puddle of sludge that splashed around in its confined area.
In the wake of all of this, the three heroes in training rushed downwards. With the villain's numbers more manageable, Izuku, Kirishima, and Tsu began taking down whatever villain they came across with their own set of skills. Tsu used her long, frog-like tongue to wrap around a villain before flinging him or her into another while Kirishima punched and chopped his way to knockout after knockout. And as for Izuku…he just smashed his shield into the heads of whatever villain he saw until they were at the base of the mountain training zone.
-x-
"Damn it! Out of all the extras I had to get stuck with, why did it have to be you?!" With a scream of rage, Bakugo thrusted his palm outward towards a charging villain with a knife, the force of the attack flinging the attacker back and into a heavily cracked wall.
"Believe me, I'm not happy about it either!" As Raphtalia said this, she kicked her own attacker right in the chin with enough force that his head crashed into the ceiling before falling into a lump at her feet. Two other nearby villains saw this, giving them pause just long enough for the tanuki girl's blade to soar through the air and make contact with their stomachs before they too fell to the ground. Of course, she used the flat side of her sword as Raphtalia wanted to be a hero. Not a villain.
For a moment, the two stood there, back to back within what appeared to be a ruined apartment building. Neither of them had any idea where they were, though they did have a good guess. Since nothing was on fire until Bakugo started setting off explosions to defeat the villains attacking them and there was no rain, they could rule out the heavy storm and fire rescue simulations. And given how everything looked cracked, with part of the building they were in missing entire walls, this might be the collapse zone. But that was just a guess.
"That looks like that last of them," said Raphtalia, sheathing her sword before letting out a sigh of relief. As she then wiped away some sweat from her forehead, she turned to Bakugo who was watching her with a keen eye. "We should get moving. If we're still in the USJ, then chances are that the rest of the class is here as well. They might have been sent to various areas with ambushes waiting for them."
"Tch. If you want to track all those other extras down, then fine," replied Bakugo with a scowl. "Do whatever you want. But I'm going to destroy that warping freak."
As Raphtalia rolled her eyes at this, her ears began to twitch. Slowly, her hand went down to her sheathed blade and detached it from her belt. "Bakugo, what makes you think that the next time you fight him will be any different from that last time?" she said, tone serious as she kept her eyes on the blonde. "Your attack just went right through him. And what if he decides to send you to the bottom of the shipwreck zone or something like that when your attack fails?"
"Grr. Don't you get it?!" snapped a visibly annoyed Bakugo. "He's their way in and out of this place! If we take him down then all those shitty villains will be stuck here and then we can make them pay for what they've done! We just need to figure out how!"
Raphtalia said nothing as Bakugo was now in her face, yelling at the top of his lungs. But she wasn't looking at him as her grip on her sheathed sword tightened. Then, faster than the eye could blink, she lifted it up and jabbed the handle right past the ashen-blonde teen's shoulder. Rather than hitting the air, it struck a villain with a chameleon quirk right in the face. As the villain fell to the ground, Bakugo gave the foe a disinterested look showing that he too had noticed the would-be assassin.
"Besides, if all these villains are this weak, then the rest of those extras should be able to handle themselves," commented the explosive teen.
Raphtalia stared at the ashen-blonde as he turned and began to walk towards one of the doorways.
"I think that's the nicest thing I've ever heard you say," she said, causing her fellow hero-in-training to pause mid-step before spinning around to glare at her.
"I'M ALWAYS NICE!" Bakugo raged while Raphtalia simply reattached her sheath to her belt.
-x-
Meanwhile, back with Izuku and company, the trio had finished dealing with the villains there. While Kirishima wanted to go and help Mr. Aizawa fight off the hordes of intruders, Izuku and Tsu pointed out that they would more likely get in his way if they did so. Their best course of action was to get to the entrance and coordinate with anyone still there. Perhaps sending a few students to each of the zones in the USJ, assisting any of their classmates who had yet to return, or trying to escape the building until help arrived or they were able to escape. Maybe even trying to figure out why the alarms weren't sounding.
With great reluctance, Kirishima agreed. However, in order to make it to the entrance, they would have to move close to where Mr. Aizawa was fighting. Keeping to the edge of the center plaza, as well as keeping themselves as low as possible to keep from getting noticed, the trio made their way around while watching the ensuing battle.
While Tsu kept her neutral expression and Kirishima had to grit his teeth hard to keep himself from rushing in to help, Izuku felt an odd mixture of emotions. On the one hand, he wanted to go back on what he had told his red-headed friend as his body was screaming at him to rush in there and help. He could see Mr. Aizawa was struggling to keep going, panting hard as he pushed his body and his quirk to their limits. How much longer could he go on like this before they just overwhelmed him with superior numbers? Perhaps they could help out, taking on the villains along the edges in order to take away some of the burden while also staying out of their teacher's way. After all, none of them were too badly banged up. The other part was trying to be rational. They had a plan. They had to keep the others safe. Mr. Aizawa was doing everything in his power to buy them time so it would be foolish to waste it.
Maybe if he had a shield that could cancel out people's quirks or something like that then maybe he could…
Just then, the villain covered in hands, shot towards Mr. Aizawa. Izuku paused where he was, watching as the villain's hand wrapped around the elbow of their teacher which then began to slowly disintegrate once all five fingers were touching it. However, the process stopped at the skin level as Mr. Aizawa's eyes began to glow red.
"You managed to stop my quirk. You're so cool," said the villain. Izuku, who managed to hear this, found himself gulping at the almost childish way the hand man spoke. But what chilled him to the bone was what he said next. "Now, allow me to introduce the big boss of this raid: Nomu."
Faster than the hand man, a large dark-skinned humanoid with an exposed brain and a beak for a mouth appeared before Mr. Aizawa. This monster, this Nomu, pulled back his fist to deliver a massive blow to Mr. Aizawa's head. And then another. And another. Unable to take it any longer, Izuku raised his shield to create an Air Strike Shield over the bloodied teacher only to have it destroyed so quickly that he doubted that either villain noticed it! None of the teens could hide their horror at what they continued to witness as Nomu pounded their teacher's head more into the ground, the dark-haired man's goggles broken and laying in an ever-growing puddle of blood.
As Izuku and Kirishima shook from where they remained hidden, the black mist villain appeared next to the hand villain.
"I apologize, Shigaraki, but one of the students managed to escape," said the elegantly spoken warp quirk user.
"WHAT?! How could you let this happen, Kurogiri? If you weren't our way out of here, I'd kill you!" Suddenly the hand man, now known as Shigaraki, began to breathe deeply as he brought both his hands to his neck. The three teens then watched as the villain began to scratch his neck, his breathing becoming almost violent while looking down at the ground. For the length of a heartbeat, Izuku thought that this man would claw out his own neck in his frustration. But, just as quickly as he started, his scratching ceased as his arms fell to his sides.
"Let's just go home," said Shigaraki. "There's no point in continuing this level if the boss isn't going to appear when he should. And with the other heroes coming, it'll be game over for the League of Villains should we stay. Best to just save what we can and try again later."
Izuku's eyes widened when he heard this. He should have been relieved to hear they were going, but instead, he was just confused by everything Shigaraki was doing. First, it looks like he was about to throw a temper tantrum just because one thing went wrong and now he's just going to leave? Didn't he realize that security would be upgraded right after this?
Then a thought crossed Izuku's mind, his heart nearly stopping as he realized the implications.
'U-Unless he knows he'll be ready for whatever upgrades we try,' thought Izuku in horror. 'Like how he knew All Might was supposed to be here today! Meaning he might have someone at U.A. working for him!'
"But before we go," continued the leader of the League of Villains, "let's leave some dead brats for All Might to find." Once more, in the blink of an eye, Shigaraki closed an incredible gap in the distance so he was right in front of the three teens with his arm outstretched towards Tsu. The green-haired teen's world began to slow as he watched the scene unfold before him, knowing exactly what would happen once those fingers made contact with his classmate. Finally allowing his body to move on its own, Izuku's arm reached out so that his shield blocked the villain's path. Once more, the gem on the shield began to glow brightly as Shigaraki made contact with it. And the shield remained intact.
With a swipe of his arm, Izuku tried to land a blow to Shigaraki's gut while Kirishima went over to help protect Tsu. However, the villain leapt backwards avoiding the attack from Izuku…but not the mucus that Tsu spat in his face. Not like it did much.
Quickly getting to his feet, Izuku stood in between the villain and his classmates with the shield raised in a defensive stance.
"What's this?" asked Shigaraki, tilting his head to the side as his red eyes began to examine Izuku closer. Eyes that lingered a bit longer on the still-intact shield. "Your party managed to find itself a tank? Ah man, I'm so jealous. It takes me forever to get one. Pity that this is PVP." With that, Shigaraki lunged forward towards Izuku with his palm outstretched.
'My shield seems immune to his quirk,' he thought while leaping back, doing his best to keep his distance until he came up with a plan. 'Probably some sort of resistance to it. But, it could be just the shield that's immune and not the whole body. And I'd rather not test that theory out. Still, if I can block his quirk, then I have a chance.'
"Animal Needle Shield!" Izuku's shield changed shape once more, gaining several small spikes on it. Seeing the change must have startled Shigaraki as he made a swipe at the shield a bit too soon, hitting only the air in front of it. But, that didn't stop a series of needles from the shield to come flying out and embedding themselves into the villain's flesh!
"Cute trick," chuckled Shigaraki, his voice only holding amusement rather than pain. Izuku watched as the villain began gripping the needles one by one, turning them into dust that fell around him. He also revealed that he was barely bleeding with only a few dots of blood around the already closing wounds.
"Chimera Viper Shield!" cried out Izuku, knowing he had to change up his strategy. He had hoped that those needles would be enough to at least make the villain wary of him, not treat this as a mild inconvenience.
As his shield changed once more, Izuku charged at the villain. However, Shigaraki easily sidestepped Izuku. Before the teen could stop himself or do anything to protect himself, the open palm of the villain filled his vision as it grew closer. Within a few seconds, it would touch and then-
It stopped.
"Wow," whispered Shigaraki, head turning to look away from Izuku. "Even in that condition, you're still fighting. You really are cool."
That's when Izuku noticed something from between Shigaraki's fingers. It was Mr. Aizawa! His eyes were glowing red, his quirk no doubt activated to block the villain's own quirk! Not wasting another moment, the vipers on Izuku's shield moved in on their target as Izuku swung his body to the side so that his shield made contact with Shigaraki's ribs! The villain let out a howl of pain as the vipers dug into his shoulders, injecting a weak poison into his veins.
"Nomu! Kill-" began the villain, but Izuku managed to cut him off.
"Shield Prison!" yelled Izuku. The teen watched as a prison of shields appeared around the Nomu, locking him away before Shigaraki could finish the command.
Quickly, before the leader of the villains could attack once again, Izuku turned to look over at his classmates. "Quickly, let's get Mr. Aizawa out of here before-"
A loud crash could be heard as all of the shields used in Izuku's Shield Prison went flying through the air before vanishing completely. The green-haired teen only had time enough to raise his shield over his chest before the Nomu's fist collided with him. The blow was unlike anything he had ever felt since gaining the shield, his bones cracking under the pressure of the attack until his feet finally left the ground. The world spun all around him as Izuku was sent flying through the air, landing on the ground with a thud before he continued to roll uncontrollably for several more yards.
When it was over, his shielded arm felt like it had been shoved into a press or something to the point where it felt numb. Breathing hard, Izuku felt blood dripping from his lips as he used his opposite hand to help lift him off the ground. Now he could see Kirishima running towards him, his body hardened while Tsu hopped next to him. Then, all Izuku could see was the towering form of the Nomu above him. It looked down upon him with unintelligent eyes before letting out a beast-like cry.
'There has to be something I can do,' thought Midoriya. But there was no time for him to go through his options as the creature raised its meaty fist, ready to strike down with all its might into Izuku's head.
But, before it could, the doors to the USJ crashed open stopping everything in its tracks.