Iida looked on in distress as his green-haired friend had shifted to a more offensive stance. "Iida, can you move yet?" Izuku asked, his eyes wary of the blades the Hero Killer had brought out.
"Not yet, but please reconsider Izuku! This isn't safe!" Iida replied, emotion dripping into his voice.
"It's definitely not safe, there's no changing that. But that's the whole point of being a hero. We're here to be not safe, so we can make sure others are, and putting ourselves in danger to save others!" Izuku replied, tightening his fists.
"Hey kid!" Iida heard a voice on the other end of the earpiece, and listened intently, "So far I've only been able to send one other person your way, Endeavour's kid, as we all have our hands full with these Nomu sons of bit- uh, but hopefully they can help you kids hold out until we're done here."
Iida relayed the information to Izuku, who only gave a stiff nod as he shifted his body to avoid more blades, all three moving like nothing more than silver and green blurs respectively. This time however, Iida watched in terror as Izuku braced himself in a combat stance, and as soon as Stain prepared to swing, Izuku bounced to the side of one of the adjacent buildings to dodge. Then, using the building as a springboard, bounced off and grabbed Stain by his shoulders and swing him into a large metal skip, the impact resulting in a dent and a brief flash of the green lightning going through Stain.
"Ha... you're pretty good kid, but not good enough," Stain said, causing Izuku to look around in a panic, "Above you."
This caused Izuku to look up just as the blade Stain threw once Izuku dodged it to make a glancing blow on his cheek, resulting in a small amount of blood to come out. Whilst Izuku was looking up, Stain managed to lick his blood, and Izuku ended up collapsing to the ground. There was a small stream of tears running down Iida's cheek as he watched Stain take a position above Izuku, a blade in hand. "Sorry about this kid. I ain't gonna kill you, but I'm gonna have to put you out of commission for the time being."
Stain suddenly froze, a steady stream of green lightning running through him. "Izuku?! Wha-?"
"I might not be able to move most muscles, but I can still direct my quirk!" Izuku replied, gritting his teeth as his hands steadily became more and more numb. Iida could see the sparks running off the ground, signifying the current of green lightning running through it. "But when Mr Aizawa-"
"That's because I'm using it differently at the moment! I'll explain later, let me know the moment Todoroki arri-" Izuku cut Iida off.
"I'm here!" Todoroki proceeded to cut Izuku off, launching a stream of fire at Stain.
In response, Stain forced himself to jump despite the lightning, breaking the current and avoiding the fire. "Ha... ha... damn brats..." Stain said, reaching for more weapons, to no avail, "What? You green haired brat! I'm going to tear you li-"
"You will do no such thing!" Todoroki cut Stain off, launching a glacier of ice separating Izuku from Stain. In the process, Izuku made sure to destroy the blade that had cut his cheek as he watched Todoroki run towards him, carrying the paralyzed boy back to where Iida and Native were.
"He doesn't have any easily accessible blades anymore, so hopefully he'll have some difficulty getting through the ice, and he should still be in some after-effects from my quirk."
Todoroki nodded, and turned to face Stain, who had kicked his way through the ice. "Ha... son of Endeavour... oh I'm going to have fun ridding the world of you and your father." Stain said. Todoroki tensed up, and sent a powerful stream of fire towards Stain, who jumped to the side. "You're not fast or as smart as the other brat, but your raw power is far greater... this shouldn't be too hard." Stain told him.
"Todoroki! Take Izuku and run! Don't get mixed up in this!" Iida yelled, desperate to limit the damage of his own failures, "You shouldn't have to clean up my own shortcomings as a hero!"
"Iida!" Todoroki called back, launching a glacier at Stain, "We are heroes! This is what we're going to do! So stand up, and fight! If you're so worried about your hero shortcomings, help us clean up then!"
"I don't deserve to be called a hero... I have strayed fair from the path of heroism." Iida replied, tears running down his face, "I-"
"Yes you do Iida! Don't let Stain get to you! There are many ways to be a hero, and sometimes we go the wrong way, but focus on your goal! Why did you want to be a hero Iida?!" Izuku yelled, green lightning pulsing through him as he waited for the moment he could send another zap through the Hero Killer.
"Why... why do I want to be a hero..?" Iida whispered to himself. He watched as Todoroki did his best to fend off the Hero Killer, launching two streams of ice to narrow down their movement. 'He's cool and collected, even in a situation like this... making decisions... like a leader. Like the leader Tensei is. Was. That's right. I wanted to be a hero that would be respected, and lead as a prime example for others...' Iida thought, tightening his fists. Realizing he could move again, he stood up and rushed the Hero Killer with a powerful kick, countering their kick towards Todoroki.
"I apologize for my actions that led us into this mess, but will do my best to right them!" Iida said, clenching his fist. Todoroki nodded in response, as the Hero Killer rushed the two students again, with a kick aimed at Iida. "You may have had a change of heart now, but that won't be good enough!" Stain yelled, baring his teeth at the students. Iida watched in terror as he changed target and launched over the two U.A students, towards Native and Izuku. Faster than he could blink however, Izuku had intercepted Stain and threw him back in front of the other two U.A students, resulting in Stain being kicked further back by Iida before needing to dodge a stream of fire from Todoroki.
"You're free already?" Iida asked, eyes glued on the Hero Killer, currently jumping between the two buildings.
"I'm assuming there's some other variable, like quantity or blood type. We need to finish this quickly though, both you and I are injured and we're all running out of energy." When Izuku mentioned this, Iida realized that Izuku wasn't moving anywhere near the speed he was earlier, and the usual sparks had died down. Izuku's hair still stood on end however, a vibrant green that was somehow managing to illuminate the immediate vicinity.
"Right, let's finish this. I'll bring him over, you need to hit him with everything you've got." Izuku said, before bouncing between the buildings to match the Hero Killer's movements, and predict their next move. 'I'm sorry I let you down, both of you, and Tensei.' Iida thought as he braced himself to kick the Hero Killer, the moment Izuku managed to throw them. And throw them he did.
Izuku managed grab and throw the Hero Killer so aggressively that it looked like Bakugo had just taken over. 'That must be the last of his energy, I have to make this count!' Iida thought as he propelled himself upwards. "Recipro BURST!" Iida screamed, flying up and giving a rib-shattering kick to the Hero Killer, who had been thrown across a building and shocked by green lightning. As he returned to the ground he was caught by Izuku, and the two watched Todoroki burn the Hero Killer, before catching him with ice. "I think it's..." Iida started, trailing off as Todoroki checked the Hero Killer.
"Over." Todoroki replied.
The U.A students tended to their wounds with some basic first aid, and using some rope from Native tied up the Hero Killer. Native insisted on dragging out the now unconscious villain, as the trio of U.A students made their way out to the streets, where hopefully some other heroes were. Iida shed a final tear, before tightening his fists again. 'I'll start again, this time, on the path of a true hero!'
Izuku was doing his best not to yawn as his hands twitched slightly. He, his friends and native made their way out to the street where it took all of his willpower to not just collapse and sleep, although he was thankful he did not have any headaches. As they made it out to the street, he was greeted by Hawks, who was followed by Endeavour and several of the latter's sidekicks. "There you are kid! You look like a right mess!" Hawks exclaimed, before looking at Native, and to the currently knocked out Hero Killer, "Caught the big fish eh?"
"I-I suppose so, yeah." Izuku replied, taken aback by his mentor's still chill atmosphere.
"All thanks to those three really, I just kinda sat there and needed to be protected..." Native trailed off, cheeks reddening slightly, "Nonetheless, thank you three for saving my life, and preventing many more deaths."
In response, Izuku mustered up enough energy to become a blushing and stuttering mess, Todoroki just nodded and Iida remained lost in thought. He suddenly snapped out of it and began some spiel about how it was a U.A's student duty to protect citizens and those in need. Izuku was hardly registering any of it, leaning slightly on Todoroki (who was more than happy to provide the support for who was probably his first and best friend) and doing his best to stay awake when he heard a desperate warning from one of Endeavour's sidekicks. "FLYING NOMU!" They yelled, pointing at the bleeding creature which was swooping down at Izuku and Todoroki.
Using the last of both his own and his quirk energy, he pushed Todoroki out of the way as he felt the sharp claws of the Nomu jab him in the stomach, quickly picking him up and beginning to fly away.
He was hardly able to register anything from his drowsiness, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Hawks take off and began to fly towards him but before he could reach his maximum speed, Izuku watched Stain lick someone's cheek, and vaguely registered the feeling of falling when the Hero Killer grabbed him out of the creature's talons and violently stabbed the creature in the brain.
The action was more than enough to bring Izuku completely back into reality, completely waking him up as he realized what had just happened. He could faintly hear something about the Hero Killer now having a hostage and Hawks yelling at Endeavour not to fire as to not injure Izuku. "Endeavour..." The Hero Killer rasped, turning towards the crowd of heroes, "The worst of all the heroes..."
Stain began moving towards them, each step he took with more weight than the others, terrifying every last hero to their core. "Just proving my point... willing to kill a true hero for the sake of finishing me off..." Stain said, a powerful bloodlust emanating from him. He held up two fingers and continued, "Of all the heroes in the world I have met or know of, there are only two true heroes. All Might," and he pointed another finger towards Izuku before continuing, "And this kid. And of all the heroes in the world, there is one I want to rid the world of most," Stain said, this time directing a glare directly at Endeavour, "you." At this point, the bloodlust emanating from Stain was so high, Izuku wouldn't be surprised if those back in Musutafu could feel it.
And as soon as it happened, it finished. The Hero Killer stood still, eyes white as heroes and heroes in training were frozen in shock alike. Izuku vaguely felt himself being picked up by Hawks, who whispered, "You can rest easy now kid. You did good, we'll deal with all the legal mumbo-jumbo later." Izuku mumbled a thanks and Hawks gave Izuku a proud glance as the U.A student felt himself nodding off, his drowsiness quickly catching up again.