Super Science
Ch.116: The Final Straw part. 2
The Mimicutie sprang into action and delivered a devastating kick on Bakugou, who managed to block it with one of his gauntlets, causing it to crack! Even Bakugou was surprised by this, knowing that these things were tough enough to withstand his daily explosions! Throwing the creature off, it jumped into the air and prepared to fall down with another attack, but Bakugou used the opportunity to pull the pin from his good gauntlet and blast the thing midair.
It worked, and the Mimicutie was sent flying! It landed several feet away and lay there unmoving! Bakugou smiled at this for how easily he beat something DEKU threw at him but also felt disappointed seeing how easy and fast the fight was. But then the Mimicutie pulled a fast one and shot at its feet while sliding across the ground, reaching Bakugou before he could react!
In a position with one leg slightly raised as it leaned on the other, it hit Bakugou with a flurry of devastating kicks in rapid succession. Normally, a person would have flown away after two or three. But the Mimicutie defied the laws of gravity, physics, and inertia by kicking and keeping Bakugou there while slightly raising him in the air. After it finished, the teen was sent rolling back into a painful mess!
Bakugou tried to get back up, but the Mimicutie went low and spun like a top, hitting and sending Bakugou flying back even more! The Mimicutie continued to spin until it got dizzy and was forced to stop to regain its equilibrium. This gave the teen a chance to counter!
Blasting himself to his feet, he explodes at the monster and hits it with several blasts of varying magnitudes! The Mimicutie is sent flying and drops to the ground covered in blackened burn marks. Bakugou huffs and breathes heavily, his bruises swelling and washing with pain as he looks at the hopefully dead monster.
Only for it to jump to its feet, stomp around like an angry child, and open its lid where their pseudopod-like tongues burst out and try to slap the boy. Bakugou blasted around the monster, avoiding its new long-range attack, and tried to find an opening. When he did, he went in for another explosion but ended up receiving a face full of heels, being grabbed by the ankles, and slammed against the ground several times!
He was thrown into the air, where he managed to keep consciousness and center himself. From up here, he had the advantage of being spread! Not thinking, he grabbed the pin on his cracked gauntlet and pulled, only to immediately regret it when the weapon blew up in his face! Bakugou exited from the air blast and fell to the ground from the sky in a painful heap!
Trying to get up, he could only lift his head when he saw the monster standing several yards from him. Only to watch as it pulled its tongs back into its lid and then put off so much speed, it disappeared! Bakugou, who was barely able to keep his eyes open, tried to look for the monster only to see flashes of its form flicker before it appeared right in front of him, ready to bring its sharp heel through his chest! Bakugou freezes up in fear and wonders if this is the end for him!?
Luckily, Izuku's voice called out, "Mimicutie, stop." The creature stopped mere millimeters before his chest!
The strike was so close that the heel was already dug into his skin and pressing hard enough to nearly break the skin. The Mimicutie picked its foot up and stepped aside. Izuku looked over at him from the front and told him, "I do think you're ready for anything else, Bakugou-kun."
As Izuku walked away with the Mimicutie, Bakugou felt rage in his mind. Had Deku really just looked and talked down to him, both figuratively and literally? Gritting his teeth, the teen got his second wind, rushed towards the box in a burst of anger, and, in one decisive and powerful explosion, knocked Izuku away by sheer force and blew it to bits!
Living, writhing, squirming flesh pulsated on the ground as the metal box protected its softer insides. The legs twitched with whatever receptors were still kicking.
As the teen smiled with satisfaction, he quickly noticed how everyone around him was staring at him with differing but dissatisfied expressions. This pissed him off, and he wanted to shout at them, but Egon beat him to it as he helped Izuku back to his feet.
"Oh, that was a cheap shot.", Egon shouted at him.
"Go back to practicing; you clearly need it. But first, go patch yourself up. You need it.", Izuku told him without turning to him, increasing the boy's frustration.
Several Hours Later
After many hours of grueling training, the young heroes were finally told to shut down and rest up. As everything was disassembled, cleaned up, or allowed to reset, the young heroes stood or lay around in half-dead states of exhaustion and pain. As the young heroes tried to regain what feeling they had left, Egon approached them with a warm smile.
"Well, you heroes certainly look…well made.", Egon stated, trying to find the right words.
"More like well and done.", one of the heroes said aloud with what air they had left to speak.
But Egon clapped his hands and congratulated them, "You should feel proud; you all did phenomenal. If you keep this up, you'll be past your whole age range in no time flat."
This was met with a half-hearted "yay" from the teens, who looked less than thrilled with the news.
"We can't wait to see you all again.", Egon told them as he waved them off, watching as the teens limped, shuffled, or were scraped off the ground back to the bus.
Once gone, Egon met back up with Izuku, who was taking notes on his training programs for each student and wondering how to make improvements. Egon approached him and commented, "That went way better than I expected."
"Yeah, I'm surprised, too. Maybe we should work with U.A. and other hero schools more often," Izuku agreed.
Egon smiled proudly at the boy's confidence and said, "I was thinking the same thing."
As the young heroes boarded the buses, each looking half dead or just out cold, Eraserhead spoke up and announced, "Before we head out, we need to take attendance."
From there, he called out each student in his class, and they weakly called back or had to be called for another. When he got to one last name, Eraserhead called it out a few times when no answer came.
"Bakugou." he called calmly, but when no response came, he said again, "Bakugou?" Looking around the bus, the explosive teen was gone, and Eraser asked his class, "Has anyone seen Bakugou?"
Then Kaminari spoke up and told him, "Yeah, he said he was going to use the bathroom." Then the realization of the situation dawned on him and the teacher as he asked, "He's not using the bathroom, is he?"
"Crap.", Eraser cursed while jumping off the bus and racing back to the facility, knowing exactly what that boy was going to do.
Meanwhile, back inside the building, Egon was kneeling down before a watery-eyed Eri and calming her down. Petting her head, he said, "See, Eri, I told you nothing bad would happen. Everything was totally under control."
"DEKU!", shouted Bakugou's furious voice from another hallway.
"Fuck my life.", Egon cursed under his breath.
Izuku was walking down the hallway when he heard the teen scream after him, and in the next moment, he saw him rocketing down the hallway with murder in his eyes and sights set on him! Izuku dropped his pad and ran for his life once again as Bakugou zoomed after him.
"DEKU! Get back here!", Bakugou yelled as he used his explosions to propel him further.
Egon ran out of the room he was in and yelled, "Security! Active defense protocol 00005! Nonlethal method!"
The security system came to life and pulled out tranq dart guns and blast cannons that had enough power to stun or knock out but not kill. Unfortunately, the boy was moving too fast for the stun guns to fully calibrate as he flew too close to Izuku, making the system stop in fear of hurting the boy! So, Egon remotely set up the system ahead of them, and luckily, it worked!
Long before they got there, the guns blasted a hail of projectiles, allowing Izuku to gain ground while Bakugou went on the defensive! Unfortunately, the recent training with the facility faculties had done its work, and the boy managed to dodge most of the projectiles while blasting the guns apart when an opening arrived! He was even able to look more carefully for fakeouts after his fight with the Mimicutie.
In a matter of minutes, the guns were scrapped, and Bakugou was free to move. But before he could, he heard a voice from behind call him out. "Bakugou!" yelled Egon, making the teen turn.
Behind him was the angry but nervous man with a high-tech blaster, and beside him was a guardian made of ancient tech. The Guardian had its single eye trained on him with a laser-guided sight. The blast Egon held emitted cold energy, and the man's hands and arms shook from the temperature.
"Don't move any further! I'm warning you!", Egon warned the teen.
Only for Bakugou to grit his teeth in anger and, in one swift motion, throw and pull the pin of his remaining gauntlet at the man who froze it mid-air! Unfortunately, the guardian blasted its laster before the man could command it not to! The laster hit the frozen gauntlet, and the nitroglycerin within exploded!
This gave Bakugou a chance to run after Izuku, leaving the man and robot to do whatever was to happen. As he blasted his way around and through several security measures, he finally caught sight of Izuku, who was trying to flee into a room while manually inputting the lockdown feature. Just as the door to the room opens, Bakugou blasts himself into Izuku, and both boys fly into the room, the door closing down behind them! As the door closed, Egon and the guardian, the former of which was missing four of its eight legs, reached as the door slammed shut!
Egon pounded on the door and yelled in a pathetic display, "No! No! No! Dame!"
Just then, Rogue flew in and asked in a panic, "Professor, what's wrong!?"
"It's that blond brat! He's got Izuku in there, and the doors have been put into manual lockdown!", Egon told her while slamming his fists until they bled.
To prevent the man from hurting himself further, the woman asked, "Can't you just unlock it, sugar?"
"It'll take too long, and Izuku is defenseless!", Egon exclaimed in fear.
Pushing him back, she said, "Stand back!"
Then, with all her strength, Rogue hit the door, leaving an impression on her knuckles and causing the woman to jump back while grabbing his hand in pain. Then, the guardian locked its single eye on the door and began to beep. Seeing this, Egon grabbed Rogue.
"Uh, Anna. I think you should stand back.", he warned her just as the machine locked on and blasted the door.
When the dust settles, and the two people can breathe again from the mass of metal and other airborne particles, they look to see the door still standing but very sung from the laser blaster!
Egon stamped his feet and yelled, "Cures me for making triple-reinforced doors!"
Just at that moment, Barkan, Dante, Goto, and Rappa all ran to them from all the commotion and explosions.
"What the heck is going on?", Dante exclaimed.
"Izuku is in trouble, we've gotta bust this door down!", Rogue told them in a hurry.
Without a word, the men readied themselves alongside the woman. Goto activated his quirk, and muscle fiber covered his whole upper body. Dante grew to his full demonic size, Rappa's body flared up, and Barkan caused his metal protrusions to form a boxing glove of spikes.
"On the count of three, boys. One. Two. Three!", Rogue told them as they all hit the door at full force.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, the two boys tumbled into the room, not knowing what was on the other side; once in, they tumbled about without control, and they finally landed on the ground. As they began to recover, Izuku tried to squirm away, but Bakugou was faster! He lunges at Izuku and holds him down, pinning him with his weight as he holds his shirt up with his hands. Staring into his eyes full of fury, Izuku attempts and fails to wiggle free.
"Now I got you!", Bakugou growled at him.
"What do you want, Katsuki!?", Izuku yelled at him, assuming the worst.
Bakugou paused for a moment before getting more angry as he shouted, "Don't fucking call me that! Quite looking down on me!"
"I'm not! I never was! Just tell me what you want already!", Izuku practically begs him in a yell.
Bakugou shakes his head as he demands, "No! You answer my questions first, you little shit! I'm the one in charge!"
Izuku, who was past fear and now in anger, shouted back at the boy as he held him up to his face, "Then spit it out!"
Bakugou grimaced at him before pulling his face away and quietly thinking for a moment, not realizing he'd make it this far, and stated, "All your damn life, you've been nothing but a loser! A quirkless loser. That's what you've been, and that's all you should be. That's the status quo that I've been taught. And yet, here you are, the owner of a fucking research lab and a doctor on top of it! You never once showed interest in something like this, and here you are, already living your dream! So what gives!?"
Izuku looks at him in confusion, and Bakugou continues to rant, "Why are you succeeding when I'm not? Why are you doing things better than me? Why don't you have a quirk despite having the ability to give yourself one? Why!?"
Izuku was scared, terrified even! But now, after hearing all this, his fear was replaced with something else. Anger. And that anger turned into hate!
Izuku glared at the furious teen and repeated in a small tone, "Why?" Sitting up a bit, he asked rhetorically, "You really want to know why?" He got more aggressive as he sat up more, nearly getting face to face with Bakugou, as he exclaimed, "You want to know why I haven't conformed to societal norms and given myself any quirk, even if it was useless?"
Bakugou was surprised, to say the least. He never expected Izuku to fight back, talk back, or do anything back. It was even more of a shock when the teen forced himself into a leaning position on the ground and told him, "I'll tell you exactly why. Because I. Don't. Want one!"
Bakugou was stunned to hear Izuku yell for the first time out of anger and was even more stunned when Izuku pushed him off before aggressively explaining, "All my life, I have been made to believe that the quirk made me the man or hero. I was made to feel ashamed of something that I had no control over! I never asked to be born without a quirk! I didn't even ask to be born, and I'm supposed to be shamed!? Quirks are no different from your hair color, eye color, skin color, height, weight, or physique. We've come not to judge one another for those things, so why this!? Answer me that!"
But Bakugou could say nothing. What could he say? Normally, he'd just tell him to shut up and yell at him. But this time, he was on the receiving end and by someone he considered beneath him. Even if this was a normal conversation, he wouldn't have been able to think up anything.
Seeing Bakugou say nothing, Izuku continued his rant, telling him in a somber tone, "But you were right about one thing, Katsuki. I'll never be a hero. I was running a fool's errand. I was a loser for trying such a thing. But now I've found something to give me closure. And you want me to stop because I should be some shut-in or homeless bum, all in a vain attempt to protect your fragile ego, self-worth, and skewed sense of reality brought on by the flandarization of society, who is known for lying and romanticizing the wrong things!?"
Getting to his knees, Izuku glared at the blonde while telling him with a cruel expression, "But do you wanna know the real reason I never gave myself a quirk? It's because I knew I could never be a hero like All Might. I could never do the things he does. But I could be a hero in other ways. I could be a hero in my own way. I don't need power to do the right thing. I can do the right thing because it's right, not because someone else says it is. That's why I stay quirkless so that someone out there can see what I've accomplished and know that there is hope for them. I want to be an inspiration; I want to give hope; I want to be a symbol of hope.", he said in the last part with a whimsy wall standing to his feet.
Bakugou, who was still on his knees, grumbled, "Still looking down on me from your moral high ground?"
Izuku said nothing at first, only turning up his nose and glaring at Bakugou so hard that it made him freeze up from the intensity. Taking slow and deliberate steps to him, Izuku told him, "That's another thing, Bakugou Katsuki. I'll say this again and for the very last time, so get it through your thick. Blonde. Head. I have never, nor have I ever once in my whole time of knowing you, ever looked down on you.", he said while grabbing him by the shirt and holding him off his knees as he exclaimed in a flurry of emotions, "All I ever wanted was to be your friend. Your partner. Your confidant. I wanted to be a hero with you!", Izuku paused as he grabbed his face and yelled at him with tears in his eyes, "For fuck sake, I was your friend! Your only friend! I didn't see you as a commodity or a quirk. I saw you, Bakugou Katsuki, the hero!" After letting out all he wanted to say, Izuku sniffed and wiped his face before telling him in a harsh tone, "But you would let that happen. All because I hurt your precious feelings when we were toddlers, so cut it out!", he said. The last part was hidden while Bakugou was being thrown to the floor. Standing over the boy as he propped himself on his elbows, Izuku finished up saying, "But ya know what? After being out of your smothering shadow for so long, I've come to realize something. From where I stand, even at eye level, you are pretty small."
Bakugou felt his tongue slide into his throat, unable to form words at his declaration. When he got his nerve again, he asked in a meek tone, "Are you-?"
"Yes, Bakugou, I am looking down on you because you are a small, petty, selfish little boy! And I look forward to the day you become a villain so I can strap you to my quirk extraction machine and take away the one thing you've revolved your whole personality and life around!", Izuku yelled at him with every ounce of his body, leaving a terrified and gobstruck Bakugou to lay there with his mind racing.
As this scene unfolded, a person exited from behind a thick metal curtain with a pair of big ear muffs. It was Hankoyo. Without seeing the two teens, he went to a control panel and pushed several buttons while saying, "Ah, finally! Now I just have to do a test run."
Finally breaking out of his emotional stupor, Izuku turned to the man and asked, "Hankoyo?"
"Izuku?", Hankoyo asked while turning to the boy, only for his expression and the apple he was holding to drop as he yelled, "Izuku! Get off of that, quick!"
Izuku looked down and saw a warp pad under his and Bakugou's feet! He was about to run when he saw Bakugou still frozen in emotional turmoil! Grabbing the boy and trying to move him, Izuku yelled, "Bakugou, move! Katsuki! Kaachan!"
That last word snapped him out of it, but it was far too late as the Warp Pad finally charged up, and both boys vanished in a beam of light!
Hankoyo ran to the pad as it powered down and yelled, "Izuku. Izuku! IZUKU!" Sliding his hands pitifully over the pad, trying to reach out for him, Hankoyo grabbed his face and stressed, "Oh no, no, no, no!"
Suddenly, the doors to the room were busted down in a large explosion. Every bodyguard in the facility, a half-broken guardian, and Egon all burst in with the professor yelling, "Freeze your blond rat or prepare to be-!" but seeing no one other than the extremely shaken Hankoyo, Egon asked, "Hankoyo?" with no response, he asked the distant man, "Hankoyo?" Still no response, so he marched up, grabbed his shoulders, and exclaimed, "Hankoyo! Where are Izuku and the blond kid? I know they ran in here!?"
"Izuku…he…they…that…the…e…is…ah…!", Hankoyo babbled out while motioning to the Warp Pad
Realizing what he was trying to say, dread took over his mind, and Egon said in a small tone, "Oh my God." After the realization set in, Egon exclaimed while shaking the man, "Hankoyo! Where did you send Izuku!?"
Hankoyo finally spoke up, and with tears in his eyes, he admitted, "I…I don't know."