Chapter One Hundred and Four
They'd gotten lucky, but his motherfuckin' teammates were too fucking dumb to understand that.
Bakugo stalked through the forest, eyes sharp, hearing screams, explosions, howls, and more in the distance as a goddamn Villain Attack happened all around them. It was the fuckin' USJ all over again, except these dickbags actually were halfway decent. The mooks before had wanted to fuck 'em up, but they'd been scrubs, most of 'em hesitating enough before actually trying to land hits, so Bakugo had been able to put them down hard.
These fucknuggets didn't.
Ears had heard their attackers coming, so they'd set a trap, only it wasn't more of Cougar's mud-puppies, but people.
And the people hadn't moved like Pros.
He'd gone hard, blitzing them, dodging as one dickbag spat acid at him, the Bombing King able to flip mid-air and slam the guy with a blast hard enough to knock his ass out, Sticky gumming up another, the third shooting a beam at Buggy, which the kid had dodged, Bakugo taking out that guy too.
It was only afterwards that he realized that one tree was melting, another half-blown-out maple was on fire, and these extras were hitting hard enough to fuck them up.
Good thing he wasn't a fuckin' scrub.
But the others were.
Following behind him, but giving him enough distance to work with, was Earlobes, the girl's Quirk good for hearing shit, except without her gear she couldn't really use it to fight. But at least she knew that. Ears was on compass duty, and, whenever they'd stopped, she'd spotted groups they could jump before they got jumped, which made a fuckin' world of difference.
Old Bakugo would've come in, yelled, and got their attention, before he showed them that they never should've messed with him, but Shishido had pounded it through his fuckin' skull that unless you were doin' a PR dog-and-pony show, that shit didn't matter, only protecting others did. New Bakugo had no reservations with only giving them a half second warning as he blasted into the Villains, taking the biggest, meanest motherfucker of every group down each time, though he was definitely getting a sense of how to figure out which one was the biggest threat, and half the time it wasn't the biggest dude.
Behind Jacks was Gluey, the Heteromorph the fuckin' embodiment of that concept, since the Extra was bigger than Arms, but he also was an even a bigger fuckin' pussy then Deku used to be, upchucking his way to safety from the back while never using the fact that he was built like a fuckin' gorilla to his advantage.
At least Arms leaned into that shit.
No, Upchuck was a shrinking fuckin' violet, but that was still better than the last member of their thrown together squad.
Fuckin' Kamakiri.
Bakugo had heard the Extras talkin' about how bug-boy was supposed to 1-B's version of him, which was fuckin' bullshit. The blond got enthusiastic, sure, but he knew his shit, and knew that against these asshats, they were running on the razor's edge, which, yeah, felt fuckin' great, but he was taking this seriously.
Bugsy the clown over there wasn't.
The dude could make blades come out of his body, and while he'd trained enough to get a bit of speed himself, Bakugo could tell he'd trained alone, and against static targets, not able to react quickly to his foes, the Explosion King needing to watch the increasingly cocky asshole's back.
And, worse, the cutter wasn't cutting, at least through his enemies.
The shit they threw, or made, or grew, yeah, but he blunted his edge hitting the Villains, trying to knock them out with nothing but his strength, barely making it half the time, Bakugo needing to 'double tap' the other half of the weakling's 'takedowns' to blast their assess off to dreamland.
It's like the asshole didn't have any sense of motherfuckin' tactics!
"Heck yeah! Get cut, Bitches!" Bugsy yelled, charging in, before they were all in position, forcing Bakugo, who had been quietly moving to get the drop on this group of Villains, to blast himself into the pack of five, starting with the one on the left, who had that dangerous look about her.
Sure enough, the bitch turned, hands coming together and starting to point, energy building, but another detonation sent Bakugo somersaulting, one upwards swinging leg laying the bitch out as his shin caught her under the chin, launching her into the air, her blast going wild and blowing out part of a tree, and the one behind it too, while Bug-boy didn't hit the next one over, leaving Upchuck a clear line of fire, but went after the middle one, who was carrying a crystal trident, using his blades to cut the weapon apart, taking the guy back a step, but sure as shit not out.
Swinging his hands forward, Bakugo hit the ground and lunged, putting one palm over each of the two nearest fuckers' faces, a goat Heteromorph and a dude with more teeth than fit in his mouth, the second one trying to bite his hand off, but, with how slow these scrubs were, all that meant was he got to choke down a heaping helping of explosions.
Both were blasted backwards, Kamakiri going after trident guy, who made a new one from the cut handle in his hands, and stabbed forward, the weapon extending outwards as it continued to grow, but the trident was still sliced in half again from the cutter's blades, while the last Villain, a chick with fox ears that sparked dangerously, was covered in white shit from Sticky.
Bugboy, though, was out of position, and when crystal-dick thrust once more, Bakugo had to swing a hand back, detonating again, to blow himself forward, wanting to grab the spear but something told him not to, so he punched it out of the way instead, a spike bursting from where he touched it, missing his hand, and the front of the weapon missed his teammate by a few inches too.
With one last blast, his hands smarting a little, Bakugo sent himself flying into speardude, the Villain trying to lift his weapon to block, but not fast enough to stop a rocket-assisted boot to the head.
Landing, checking their environment, Laser-bitch hit the ground a moment later with a crunch, but she wasn't getting up, so he didn't give a shit.
"Hey!" the mantis-headed boy complained. "I had him!"
"No you fucking didn't, Bug-Brain!" Bakugo yelled right back, spotting goat-guy start to get up. "Stay Down!" he yelled, with a kick to the back of the asshole's skull that actually knocked him out, the asshole probably having a hard noggin 'cause of his Quirk.
Turning back to his teammate, cut-bitch had already walked away, like an angry child, causing the explosive teen to grit his teeth, trying not to rip the dumbass a new one, arguments on patrol being something that you weren't supposed to fuckin' do.
"You just want the glory for yourself!" the asshat called over his shoulder, not letting shit go.
Oh fuck you.
"What's your fuckin' problem?" Bakugo demanded, stalking forward, apparently needing to deal with shit now.
"My problem? You're the one whose getting' all the kills!" Kamakiri argued.
"I'm tryin' to stop there from bein' any fuckin' kills!" the Explosion King shot back. "This ain't some fuckin' game!"
Bugsy waved a dismissive hand. "I know that, but these guys are weak! We're takin' them down no problem!"
"Cause I've- Cause we've been good," Bakugo replied, giving them credit, as they weren't completely fuckin' useless. "And lucky. But some shit's gone fuckin' wrong here, and we need to be-"
"Something's coming!" Ears interrupted, her jacks plugged into a tree, pointing behind them. "Something big!"
The sound of whirring was distant, then an electronic scream, a huge dude with blue-green skin charging through the forest, with eight arms, his front two normal-ish, but each one extending from his back had a chainsaw or drill sticking out of it. That was fuckin' bad enough, but it was the Villain's head that made the bottom fall out of Bakugo's stomach.
Because he could see the fucker's brain.
He hadn't been there before, but he'd heard from the others and seen the news.
It was a Nomu.
The one that'd attacked the USJ had needed fuckin' All Might to put it down, but the ones in Hosu were put down by normal Pros, and Bakugo hoped this motherfucker was more like them. Either way, he took off running to the side, yelling to the others, "Get back! I got this one!"
"Like hell you do!" Kamakiri yelled, running right at the big fucker. "He's mine!"
Reversing course, Bakugo set off a blast to close back in instead, commanding, "No! He's stronger!"
Glancing his way, Bugsy yelled, "To you maybe!" and then sprang forward, blades out.
Panicking, Bakugo set off even more blasts, speeding up, but Kamakiri got there first, bracing his arms and growing out huge blades, slamming into the Nomu's reaching hands, slicing deep into them.
But it didn't fucking care.
Its other arms angled in on Bug-Brain, who, panicking, grew more blades, catching those attacks as well, holding them off, but only for a moment, the cutter screaming in pain as the chainsaws started to tear through his blades, the idiot forced down to his knees as Bakugo arrived.
Another arm grew from the Nomu's shoulder as the Explosion King went for its head, a drill stabbing up for him, but, twisting about, it missed, mostly, ripping through his shirt, the spinning tip of the drill skimming along his cheek in a burning line of pain, but Bakugo ignored it, slamming his hands down on the monster's exposed brain and letting go with the biggest blast he could make with a yell of, "Get Clear!"
He was thrown away, and up, as the creature roared in agony, stumbling backwards, flailing, and Kamakiri was freed.
And then leapt.
Forward.
"NO!" Bakugo screamed, hands burning, throwing them away from the fighting to try and reverse course, but his battered palms only sparked.
The mantis-headed boy grinned crazily, throwing his arms forward, blades extending out and crossing into a scissor formation set to behead the Nomu, coming up under its purple open-topped helmet, the student staring forward.
Focused.
Not seeing the creature's stomach deform.
With a wet, grisly, tearing sound, barely audible under the screech of the Nomu's existing arms, another limb shoved itself out of the monster's abdomen, a large drill leading, that slammed through the students body like it wasn't there, exiting his back, only catching halfway through.
Kamakiri only had a single moment of surprise before he was caught, dragged, spinning, fast, until something tore within himself and he was thrown off the three foot wide drill, twitching, clearly dead.
Still flying up through the fuckin' air, Bakugo looked around, some of the forest was on blue fire, Icyhot's fucking glacier was maybe four miles away in the opposite direction of the those unnatural flames, flashes of light were coming from all around, and regular fires dotting the landscape.
Rubbing his hands together, they ached, and he had maybe one more blast like that before he needed to rest or else fuck himself up, having been pacing himself with the fights, but that wasn't an option anymore. Getting a good sweat going, he pushed his arms back once again, locking them to take the hit and exploded, shooting himself back down the way he came, towards what remained of his team, Sticky vomiting up waves of glue at the Nomu, trying to stop him, but this thing was a lot tougher than the grey bastards in Hosu, and it just pushed its way through it.
Still probably not as strong as the fucker who'd fought All Might, since it did struggle a bit as it closed on glue-boy, but since none of them were either, that didn't fuckin' mean much.
Coming in hot, the Explosion King wanted to set up a Howitzer Impact, but the blast would hit Upchuck, so instead came in for a flying kick the best he could, slamming his heel into the back of its neck, right below the edge of its helmet, but that only made it stumble, chainsaw arms curving up for the teen, but a smaller blast took him back and away.
"Over here, ya fuckin' tool!" Bakugo yelled, trying to get its attention, only for it to ignore him, still heading for Upchuck, who'd been busy, throwing up a wall of white glue, hardened enough to hold up against the thing's chainsaws, even gumming them up a bit as it tried to saw into it the defenses, more goop pouring out and blocking up the cuts as soon as they were made.
But that meant the kid was protected.
"I SAID OVER HERE!" the Explosion King ordered, as he took off with another detonation, going high, then coming down at the Nomu, setting off blast after blast as he spun, faster and faster, until, with a yell of "Howitzer Impact!" he came forward, hands thrust to point at his enemy, and-
BOOM!
Hit like the motherfuckin' living artillery he was, shoved backwards, watching, the detonation spreading outwards, the smoke clearing and…
The fucker was still standing.
Missing all the arms on one side, but still standing, and, even as he watched, the stumps started to wriggle.
Fucking dickbag could heal.
Fingers twitching, Bakugo nodded to himself. Okay, okay, I can do this. Fuckin' somehow, but I gotta-
The Nomu swayed, and for a moment the Explosion King hoped it would go down, but instead it took off at a run. Running away?
"Bakugo!" screamed Ears, in the direction the monster was charging, and the boy grimaced, taking to the air again, not sure what he was gonna do, but going to do whatever the fuck it was he neede-
"Take Cover!" she yelled.
Wait, what?
Part of him wanted to go in anyways, to say she couldn't handle it alone, because, as far as he knew, she couldn't, but… but a Pro had to trust his teammates, and unlike the 1-B Extras, she'd dealt with this shit before.
Another blast put him down into the trees, landing heavily on a branch, slamming his back against the trunk, as he hollered back, "Covered!"
He didn't know what she was going to do, and, again, the Nomu gave out an electronic scream, revving its chainsaws, the Explosion King hoping Ears knew what she was doi-
BANG!
The sound shook him, and the tree, which started to fall, Bakugo leaping up and using a blast to get a better view, pausing at what he saw.
Because he didn't have to worry about the trees obstructing his sight to get a good look at the battlefield.
Because there weren't any anymore.
A triangle had been carved out of the forest, Ears slumped behind the trunk of a tree that was the destruction's leading tip.
The chick had somehow turned the oak she was connected to into shrapnel, and used that to rip apart everything in front of her: Trees, shrubs, the downed Villains, and the Nomu.
And its head was twitching.
Oh FUCK no!
Coming down, the visor was gone showing only part of its skull, a lidless eye staring up at him, almost looking scared, and the fucker should be, most of the thing's oversized brain intact, as the flesh twisted and writhed, visibly regrowing itself.
"Regrow this!" the Explosion King snarled, setting his stance, thrusting his hands down, alternating blasts from each palm over and over again, into the remains of the monster, more and more, a tearing sound the only warning he got as a chainsaw-arm emerged from the side of its head, swinging for him, but a blast knocked it away, the Hero slamming a foot down on the limb, pinning it, and continued to blow it to fuck and back.
"Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!" he screamed, until his hands sparked, unable to make another blast, and, taking a shuddering step back, Bakugo waved the smoke away, seeing that, while twitching, mush was all that was left of the monster.
Watching it for a long moment, it started to pull itself together, and the Explosion King lifted a threatening hand, only for it to finally, finally stop moving.
"Yeah, that's right," he growled, spitting on it, and, when it didn't twitch again, he sighed, turning around, and looking about. Pausing, there was a dude in the trees, watching him, and, lifting his hand back up, Bakugo had just enough sweat to let his hand crackle, staring the dickbag straight in the eye, who instantly turned and ran away with his tail between his fuckin' legs.
Huh, literally, the teen thought, waiting to watch and make sure the Heteromorph was really gone.
Sighing, and letting his shoulders drop, Bakugo glanced at the truck-sized mass of white that was Sticky, which still looked pretty solid, the destruction missing it by a couple feet, and then to Ears, who was sitting on the ground, bleeding from her ears, leaning against the sliver of stump that was still intact, watching… oh, she was staring at the bloody mess that was the Villains they took down.
Ambling over to her, keeping his head on a swivel, Bakugo looked her over, but the girl looked fine except for overstressing the fuck out of her Quirk.
"You okay there, Ears?" he questioned.
"I… I killed them," the girl almost whispered, in shock.
The Explosion King's first instinct was to say, 'They're Villains, fuck 'em,' but that wouldn't help here. And… looking at the fucking epic amount of damage that she'd laid down to try and save his fuckin' ass, she wasn't exactly a fuckin' Extra, was she?
"Fuuuck," he swore, squatting down next to her, seeing she was still plugged in to the tree she'd blown to fuck and back. Reaching over, he carefully pulled them out, the girl flinching a little, but she retracted them, and doing so had gotten her attention, though her eyes were still unfocused.
"Listen, Ear-" he cut himself off. "Listen, Jiro, they've been trying to kill us. It ain't fuckin' great, and All Might never had to do that shit, but we ain't fuckin' All Might. Either of us. Not yet."
Because having to kill the bad guy meant you weren't strong enough to take 'em down soft. And yeah, he talked about killing motherfuckers all the time, but, like his Mom taught him, there was a fuckin' difference between talk and action.
"I… what?" the girl questioned, turning a confused look his way.
Did she give herself a fuckin' concussion? he thought. Maybe hearing damage. Shit. "Those fuckers that we took down would've gutted us, and if they got hit taking down the big guy, then, well, shit happens," Bakugo told her, slower, as she watched him say the words, probably trying to read his lips because she likely blew out her fuckin' ears saving his sorry ass.
"That Nomu was gonna fuckin' kill you, Jiro, and you took his ass down in a second. Wasn't even fuckin' dead, either, I finished 'im off, so don't go beatin' yourself up over my kill, even if ya did do most of the fuckin' work," he chided her, with a warning look.
She stared at him dumbly, before she started laughing, desperately, then crying, and the Explosion King awkwardly reached over to pat her on the shoulder, only for the girl to lunge for him, almost knocking him off his feet, as she held onto him.
Severely weirded out, he just let her do her thing.
If it was fuckin' Deku, he would've called him, well, Deku, but glancing back at the fuckin' devastation she left behind… it was fine. He still kept looking about, since her guard was absolutely fuckin' dropped, but nothing happened, the chick finally stopping, but still holding onto him.
"…Thanks," she whispered into the tattered remains of his shirt.
He slowly stood, and she let go as Bakugo told her, "Don't mention it. Like, really don't mention it. I don't want anyone else thinkin' they can use me as a fuckin' tissue just 'cause they're feeling weepy."
"Anyone else?" she echoed, giving him a weird look.
"You know what I fuckin' mean," he shot back. "You good to walk?"
"I… yeah," she agreed, shakily getting up, almost falling, before he caught her, keeping her stable.
"Blew out your inner ear?" he questioned, and she grimaced, nodding.
"I, I'm good. Just… thanks," Jiro replied, taking another step, away from him, holding an arm out to try and balance, getting a handle on herself. She was having trouble, but pushing through it, and he could respect that.
"You got my back first. And, like I said, don't fuckin' tell anyone," he reminded her.
That got a small smile from the girl, "Your secret's safe with me, Bakugo."
With a sharp nod, he told her, "Damn straight," and headed over to the giant glueball that Upchuck was stuck in. Knocking on it, he told the kid, "Oi! Sticky! Coast is clear!"
Nothing happened.
Knocking harder, he told his schoolmate, "Villains are gone! Come on! We need to keep moving!"
Still nothing.
Glancing over to Jiro, he asked, "Can you plug in to make sure he hasn't filled his fuckin' ears with glue? If he even has fuckin' ears."
His classmate nodded, one of her jacks thudding into the hardened substance, and, looking at it, Bakugo took a step away from her, so he wasn't hitting right next to where she was listening, and he called out as he slammed a fist into the hardened glue, "Hey! The Nomu's gone, and we need to get going before anyone comes looking into the shitstorm we unleashed."
Aaaaaaaand.
Fuckin' nothing.
Glancing her way, Jiro nodded, telling the Explosion King, "He can hear you." There was a muffled noise. "He also says he's not leaving."
Of fucking course he isn't.
Fucking Pussy.
"You got a breathing hole in there?" the Hero demanded, Jiro hearing Upchuck's response, and nodding. "Then we're headin' out. You sure you want to fuckin' stay?" Again, his classmate translated, nodding. "Then good fuckin' luck, and we'll send someone as soon as we find the Pros."
"He says 'Thank you,'" Jiro told him, unplugging. "What about…" she asked, glancing at the torn up remains of Kamakiri, barely recognizable.
"Nothin' we can do," Bakugo told her, as they walked along the edge of the destruction, glancing over, seeing she was still stumbling, but trying to keep going the best she could. With a sigh, he turned his back to her, put his arms down, and squatted. "Get on."
He couldn't see her, but he could hear her frown, "What?"
"You're still fucked up, and we need to move," he told her. "Even if ya didn't blow your fuckin' ears out, ya need to train to get stronger, 'cause even without using my Quirk I'm still fucking faster than you. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can send someone to crack vomit-boy's snotball."
"Yeah, sure- Bakugo! Your hands!" the girl cried out.
He didn't even bother looking. "Done worse to 'em. They'll be good in a bit. Get on, Jiro. We gotta fuckin' go."
Glancing back, the Explosion King gave her a look, and she hurried to jump onto him, arms around his shoulders, but not his neck, as he stood, and, with a grunt of pain, he moved past the burning feeling in his arms as he held onto her, taking off into the forest. "When we get out of this, I'm gonna make you run fuckin' laps until your skinny ass can keep up with me. Hear that?"
From over his shoulder, the girl asked, voice quiet, "You, you think we're gonna get out of this?"
"Course we fuckin' are," he snorted, but the image of Kamakiri being torn apart flashed across his mind. He pushed it away, as it wouldn't help. "We're fuckin' UA. We work together, and we got this. You got my back?" he questioned, and felt her nod. "Then I got yours." Slowing, he jerked his head towards a tree. "Which way to go?"
She jacked in, listening for a moment, then pointed forward, and to the left. "That way."
"Got it," he nodded, and took off running. "Hear anything interesting?"
"…screaming," she replied, and he slowed.
"Any ours?" he questioned, ready to go and pull someone's ass out of the fire, even if they might not make it in time.
"No," she replied, after a moment.
"Oh, well," Bakugo couldn't help but smile, speeding back up. "Fuckers deserve it."
MHA
I tore through the forest, barely thinking, just motion, and targeting, and violence.
~God, this is so much easier with powers.~
The thought, like so many others, came unbidden, and unsourced, as they had tonight, ever since, ever since I'd failed, and stopped playing.
I'd been so stupid, playing 'hero', thinking everything would be fine, and dandy, the world of My Hero Academia so bright and colorful that, even when things went bad, it all worked out in the end.
Now it was all working out in my classmates' ends.
Because I'd gotten complacent.
And Komori had died because of me.
And while it wouldn't bring her back, tearing these monsters to shreds did make me feel better.
~Just like home.~
A flicker of light in the distance caught my eye, and I shifted, tapping my Creation reserves, making a single iron dart, closing in on them, seeing three, all men, one limping, and none of them in any kind of uniform, like the Pros wore.
The dead Pros.
Turns out Eraser wasn't lying about them being here.
For all the good it did.
Which meant these were more Villains.
And, without any students in range, I didn't need to check my fire.
They caught sight of me, powers starting to get pulled up, one guy's hands covered with ice, the second called up some kind of snake thing, and the last, limpy, mimed pulling back a bow, an arrow of energy forming as he did so.
~And they were nice enough to stand in a line. I love it when they do that.~
With an extra burst of speed, I moved as if I was charging them, dodging the glowing arrow, my right arm splitting apart into a rail-gun, the limitation on breaking apart my form no longer nearly as strong as it used to be, the dart held between my fingers dragged back into the firing chamber, then I dodged to the side, aimed and-
CRACK!
All three Villain's chests' exploded under the force of my shot, killing them instantly, painting the forest with their viscera, the fight over before it even began.
~Even better than my old Black Arrow.~
The fatigue from using Momo's Quirk pulled at me, so I mentally shifted gears, not breaking stride as I kept moving through the trees, grabbing the 'Compass' I'd gotten from that Villain and changing course to match. My electrical reserves kept recharging, at about half now, but, as long as I cycled between my Quirks, I wouldn't need to stop.
Rip and tear till it's done for a bit, then, I resolved, Electrobody needed no reserves other than my own stamina, and High-Speed Regen had been getting a workout, both in keeping me going and healing the wounds I picked up doing it fast and dirty. I was good, but when a guy exploded into teeth, or threw out invisible wires, or his fingers turned into guns out of nowhere, even with OfA to blunt it, with Electrobody to shift away the worst of the damage, I wasn't coming away from most of these fights unscathed.
But I was good enough to do another dive or two into the woodchipper, and my other reserves would refill as I did so.
I was barely concentrating on movement, endless trees flashing by, but I caught a sniff of something, and ever so gently, a Defense pinged.
Stopping, I looked around, and, yes, there was a purple mist drifting towards me from the left.
Something tickled at my mind, and I stared, remembering.
Not of a broken, dying world, but of a show, and of a two-bit villain that was taken out by Kendo, who I'd sent after Mina, and Tetsutetsu, who was somewhere else entirely, what felt like a lifetime ago, but, to my phone, was only an hour. A phone without service, as the first thing I'd done when I realized I had it was call to Nezu, but comms were blocked, just like the USJ.
No, we were on our own.
As for this newest development?
Time for a detour.
Hurling myself into the mist, as it grew deeper and deeper, and I breathed deep, Body Defense meaning the poison gas did jack all to me, One-for-All running at max, and, yeah, fucker was monologuing.
"I guess someone avoided my gas and realized I was here," the smug super-farting prick at the center announced, voice distorted by the gas mask he wore, not having built up any resistance to his own power. It would've been possible, if unpleasant, but the most unpleasant people always sought to avoid unpleasant experiences themselves, to the detriment of all around them. "I should've expected that from such a prestigious school. But then… No matter how wonderful your Quirk may be-"
Following the sound, I pounced, and the kid, waiting, pulled his pistol, aiming for my head, as he finished, "You're still only human!" and fired.
Right into my hand.
My other claw came in, grasping his weapon, stopping him from pulling the hammer back once more, as I tossed the bullet in a pocket, rail-gun ammo for later.
"What?" the boy yelled, voice shocked. 'How are you breathing my Mustard Gas!?"
"Because there's more out there than just Humans," I smiled back, face partially electric, breathing as deeply as I could, as I reached out and ripped his mask off, the boy immediately starting to cough and gag on his own poison.
He cut off his Quirk, the kid school-aged, like my classmates, and while part of me said he was just a kid… the rest of me didn't care. Him cutting off the gas helped his chances of survival, as I stripped him of his gun, and he might even make it.
But fair's fair.
So I reached out, grabbed his mouth, opened it wide, as he uselessly beat against me, closing in, leaning over him until our lips were almost touching.
And Exhaled.
The gas was expelled right down his throat, a knee to the chest making him gasp, taking the poison deep. Then I covered his mouth and nose, and waited, watching, as he struggled, dying the same way he was going to kill my friends, furiously clawing at my electric limbs, kicking out, weakening more and more, until he stopped entirely, and, thirty seconds later, still before asphyxia would even start to do any lasting damage, I dropped him to the ground.
Purple mist gently lifted from his gaping mouth, eyes blank, but it moved slowly, as there was no breath in him to expel the deadly fumes.
It wasn't torture, I'd draw the line against that, even now, but part of me, a dark part, well…
The irony was most enjoyable.
But I had a job to do, and, now, a weapon to do it with.
Patting him down gave me a dozen more bullets, but, even better, pocket change!
I'd tear the gun apart for Railgun Ammo when I was done with the bullets, but the discrete nature of the coinage made them much easier to fire, even if some of them had to be discarded, made of non-ferrous metals, but it was still a nice bounty, and I realized I probably should've been pulling an adventurer and tossing the bodies of the last several dozen Villains I'd killed, but I shrugged, as I was learning as I went.
Checking my compass, I reoriented and once more took off, but was brought up short only a few minutes later, stumbling across several dead Villains, pulverized to the point they were barely recognizable as human, and, directly beyond them, were Dirt Beasts, the kind we'd fought that first day.
I'd apparently found Pixie-Bob, but, as I slowly walked forward, and the constructs took warning stances, it was just as apparent that she wasn't in control of them.
Which meant she was in trouble.
Or dead.
And I didn't have time to fight through these things to find out which it was.
That meant I'd need to go around their 'territory', which, if it covered the 'meeting point', meant that would be moved.
Or…
"Well, you're showing your cards already, Lee," I muttered to myself, reaching into myself, for my new powers.
Form?
Dirt-puppy.
Fullness?
As much as I can handle.
Function?
To guide me through to Pixie-Bob, to help her, if possible.
And then it clicked into place, the small dog pulling itself out of the ground, yipping excitedly, running towards the fifteen-foot tall fish-gorilla-lizard thing that stared down at it, and, to my surprise, wasn't instantly squished.
Instead it barked, and the creature tilted its head, growling, then looked to me.
Then, through my powers, I felt a gentle prod, not insistent like I'd felt before, but almost… questioning.
"Oh, this is a terrible idea," I told myself, but I'd apparently been having a ton of those, like relaxing, so what was one more? Hesitantly, focusing on the power, and on the monster before me, I edged the Defense down, just a little, cracking the barrier.
I didn't suddenly go mad, didn't get blasted with any kind of power waiting to strike, but instead felt a single word brush against my consciousness.
F̷͓̝͚̖̠̫͛͋̈́̊r̶̡̘̜̬̳̹͑̅͠ḭ̵̢̄̾͘e̶͇̻̻̐̈͘̚͝n̸̩͓̝̓̓̐̄d̴̟̯̀?̶̪̮̖̹͔̀̓̈́ͅ
I couldn't exactly answer with words, but kind of just… pushed my desire to help Pixie-Bob through, and, slowly, the creature stood aside, my little puppy yipping and running forward, looking back at me expectantly as it bounced in place, as if to say, 'Well? Let's go!'
So, jogging, I followed it, through the forest, and literally tons of Dirt-creations, and another couple dozen dead Villains, until I found what I could only describe as an Earth Flower, which bloomed as I approached, revealing…
Oh, this looks bad.
To start with, last time I checked, the woman had two arms.
Earth was stuck to her stump, and the rest of her wounds, the heroine looking pale, her breathing shallow, and her blonde hair sticking to her sweat-slicked skull.
Gimme a sec, I sent outwards, dashing back, the monsters around me not moving to intervene, stopping as I spotted the distinctive red and white of a med-pack, pulling it off the Villain's corpse that I'd passed by before, and hurried back to Pixie-Bob, opening it, and looking at the available supplies.
Of course they didn't get the Support-grade gear, I thought, but no one ever accused Villains of being conscientious. Still, kneeling down next to the woman, I carefully reached out with electric claws, peeling off the dirt, revealing the wound, the soil mixing with the blood to form a mortar that… probably wasn't good, but, with her Quirk… maybe it worked?
Regardless, the kit had the basic blood replenishment shots, antibacterials, the works, but not enough wrappings to cover all her wounds well enough to replace the caked-on soil.
You could just give her the basics, and go, I thought, my reserves finite, but the kit also had a hyper-calorie tab meant for people with healing Quirks, so I downed it, pushing past the fact it tasted like chalk mixed with almost-bad eggs, really wishing I had water, but there were small streams here and there I could stop at later.
With a deep breath I scraped the stump clean of its 'coverings', quickly adding the coagulants, antibacterials, and capping it off with containment foam, just like I had with Kendo, a shudder running through me as the tiredness hit, but the tab were already refilling my Creation reserves, which helped. Bandages over the foam to keep it stable were next, then another few minutes seeing to her other wounds, extracting a few spines that were stuck into her, and applying the broad-spectrum antidote to the slash whose edges had blackened in a way that practically screamed 'poisoned'.
Looking down at her, I wished there was more I could do, only to find something in my right hand.
My Stamp.
Looking at it, I couldn't help but think, Oh, haven't seen you around for a while.
But, even if I wanted to Stamp her, and some part of me… really didn't, any healing she got would come three days later, long past the point she'd either live or die.
~But then she could escape.~
Escape what? I questioned myself, but the intrusive thought did not explain itself.
Refocusing, and checking over the woman, she was still out of it, but did look better, and short of getting her to someone with some actual healing Quirks or medical equipment, that was all I could do.
"I hope you make it," I told her, smoothing her hair, and gently patting her on the head, looking to the dirt-puppy, which I realized had come apart, its task complete.
Stepping off the Earth Flower, it folded up behind me, and, checking the compass, I took off once more.
The Dirt Creatures let me pass, forming up their defensive line as I left, guarding their mistress, and I exited the odd sort of peace that I hadn't realized filled the space, flying headfirst back into the chaos that filled the forest.
And, in my hand, was the comfortable weight of my Stamp.
To help Pixie-Bob, it'd been utterly useless.
That said… I had been looking for acceptable targets.
And these monsters absolutely qualified.
MHA
I'm going to owe Kaminari an apology.
Dodging a flurry of daggers, Aizawa closed on the Villain, a punch to the chest, hard enough to break bones, turned the woman to sludge that fell apart, but he was gone before it hit the ground, ducking under the seventeenth copy of the same black-haired burned man's blue fire, sprinting towards him.
"Come on, Eraser, is that all you got!?" the Villain crowed, just as he had eleven times before, showing that whoever was creating these… minions, either didn't get information from them after they 'died', or, more likely, was working off a template of some sort, because they were distinct, with set Quirks, personalities, and tactics. Thankfully, the same tricks worked on the creations every time, or they might be in worse trouble.
For instance, Blue-Burned here preferred wide-range attacks, and never looked up, allowing the Pro to leap high in the air, over the blast that would've killed him, his capture-scarf used to grab the Villain's arms, not to disable him, but to give the Quirk Eraser leverage to pull in with a heel-kick to its head that turned it to mush.
Vlad and the others had gone to bed for the night, catching a few winks before the kids showed up in the morning, Pixie-Bob managing the exercise without them, but Eraserhead had been up, unable to shake the feeling that something might happen, just as Kaminari had those first few nights. As such, when Villains had attacked, setting their quarters on fire, he'd been up and ready to move. There were too many to tie down, so it'd been a bit of a blessing that being hit hard enough to break a bone destroyed these creations.
That said, while he'd stopped them from killing anyone, their attackers had managed to capture Ragdoll and take her through the same purple-black swirling portal that the USJ Villain, Kurogiri, had utilized. Mandalay had been hurt, badly, and was knocked out, but Tiger had been able to pull her out of the fire, literally, and was now guarding her as more waves of the same thirty-odd Villains came for them, trying to wear them down, and keeping them pinned in the wrecked remains of the summer camp's main complex.
Communications were being jammed, just like the USJ, and while they'd arrested the Villain that'd be generating the effect then, it wouldn't be the first time that an organization had multiple Villains with similar overlapping abilities, even if the users were completely unrelated.
Worse, from the amount of combat that could be heard, in every direction, they were not the only ones being hit.
Aizawa had fought for more defenses, more protectors, security through obscurity a temporary measure, and one that did not hold up against a force large enough to pull on as diverse a set of Quirks as this 'All-for-One' was supposed to command.
But he'd been overruled.
From the fact that, in the far distance, he could still barely hear Bakugo's blasts, Todoroki's ice, and Kaminari's railgun, the others were holding out, though that Howl early on had made Vlad stumble, the near-crazed sound coming from one of his students.
But there was nothing to do about it now.
Running up on the juggernaut of a man that Tiger was trading blows with, Aizawa readied the short sword he'd kept as part of his kit, normally sheathed against the small of his back, but which hadn't used on another person in almost a year, and jammed the metal into the ten-foot tall Villain's spine, between his vertebrae, severing the Villain's nerves, like he had a dozen times before, feeling the distinctive sensation of cutting a spinal column, before the entire thing came apart into more mud, and Aizawa was gone, leaping over the earth-spikes the next Villain sent at them, Tiger already having grabbed Mandalay and moved her to safety again, Eraserhead closing faster than the villain expected, the Pro throwing a foot out to leap over the copy's reactive 'get away from me' Quirk use as it tried to run, landing behind the attacker, blade flashing out to slice the construct's throat, taking him out as well.
Which was another problem.
While it wasn't the most glamorous part of the job, sometimes Heroes had to kill, but most kids didn't get that.
Todoroki would, even if he might try and avoid it for the same reason, but All Might never publicly had to, so the kids that idolized him, which was most of them, would probably have some trouble with it. That was normally a good thing, but nothing about this situation was normal, and that hesitation might get them killed.
And then there was Kaminari.
On one hand, from the way the young man had been acting lately, he was probably the most suited to this kind of operation, as Aizawa hadn't been lying, his student was acting like a rookie from places where death was a lot more common than Japan. Of all of his students, the electrical teen would have the least problem doing what needed to be done.
On the other hand, how Kaminari would be afterwards…
Eraserhead had already decided to schedule his student some time with Hound Dog, if the young man would accept seeing their Guidance Counselor, because he was clearly having PTSD over things that never happened to him.
Then again, it might've happened to the people who he'd copied from.
Kaminari learned fast, too fast, and those kinds of Quirks always had a price. He'd gone from practically useless in a fight, according to his middle-school PE records, to a decent combatant before the day of his entrance exam, visibly getting better as it went on, and had been gaining even more proficiency in every confrontation he took part in, to the point the kid could, even cheating with his Quirks a bit, keep up with Aizawa for a little while.
After his internship, the kid now moved with a surety and smoothness that was, if you knew what to look for, a dead ringer for Hawks' own style being added to his own pre-existing abilities, and while he hadn't walked away with the man's Quirk, he had picked up both All Might's, the man having decades of experience under his belt, and the USJ Nomu's healing Quirk, the reports Nezu shared with Aizawa stating that the creature that was once a man had to have been tortured extensively to build its abilities up to the extreme degree it'd displayed in its confrontation with the Symbol of Peace.
And then there was the fact that the C-student in STEM subjects had, after hanging out with Power Loader's prodigy student for a only few weeks, had been able to not only help her, but, as they'd seen this last week, create his own pseudo-support items, removing any ideas that it was only Hatsume that was doing the inventing, but, in turn, Kaminari seemed to have picked up the girl's proclivity for explosions.
Speaking of which, the young man's folded up gauntlets were now covering Eraserhead's hands, having put them on between waves, the mechanisms adapting to his slightly larger dimensions without issue, and having helped the Pro deal with the Villain whose skin was covered in metallic spikes. That attacker could make them explode outwards, like a living shrapnel grenade, but even with his Quirk Erased, the Villain was still covered in metallic spikes, the gauntlets letting Aizawa punch the creation hard enough to break it without injuring himself.
If Eraserhead could lay eyes on whoever was making all these creations, they'd probably all fall apart at once, but this was a coordinated attack, its orchestrator having done their due-diligence, and both the copy creator and the gate-maker were hiding behind those shadowy portals, out of sight.
Speaking of which…
While before the portals had been hidden by the trees, with the landscape turned into a battle-zone, they were clear to see now, and while Aizawa wanted nothing more than to run through one and take the fight to them, that wasn't a rational decision, and would likely lead to his death. It did mean that the portals being opened were not being moved, either because they took time to set up, like they would've had time to do for the USJ attack, or they had another mechanism that made it hard to reposition them.
More than that, though… yes, just like the last few groups, this one had less creations than the first dozen had, only twenty-two attackers this time, the creator-Villain either getting tired, running out of the stocks he needed to make the mud-clones, or both.
Which meant they just had to hold out long enough to burn through the enemy's forces, and while Aizawa wasn't a fan of endurance matches, he'd been in enough he knew he could win this one.
Vlad, covered in armor made from his own blood, went off towards the nearest group, Tiger taking a defensive stance while holding onto Mandalay, while Eraserhead charged the piercing-laser-eyed Villain, the most dangerous of the lot. He Erased that group's Quirks, darting in with his blade, killing her in one move, as well as the Villains next to her with two more, leaping away from the Heteromorph that was part of a different entry group last time as it tried to gore him, his scarf sent out to catch the bull-man as he blinked, having to conserve the strain he put on his own eyes.
The villain reversed course, as its horns and hooves caught fire, charging Aizawa, who ran to meet it, then dropped down and slid past the heteromorph as it tried to kill him. Standing, firming his stance, and pulling, Eraserhead sent the construct careening into another cloned Villain, killing it instantly.
Rather than come for another pass, the bull-man charged after Vlad instead, and, yanked forward by his scarf, Aizawa took a few steps then leapt forward while pulling on his Support Item, gaining speed, the bull-Villain realizing what he was doing, just as it had before, turning and opening its arms to catch the Pro, to crush him, but, blade leading, Aizawa buried it in the clone's heart before it could catch him fully, destabilizing it and turning it to mud that he burst through.
Another leap to the side got the Pro clear as a streak of azure flame almost caught him, and Blue-Burned crowed, "Come on, Eraser, is that all you got!?"
Charging the eighteenth copy of the Villain, who took the same stance as the others, Aizawa knew that this was meant to delay them, and it was succeeding.
He just had to hope his kids would survive long enough that help could come.
Until then, Eraserhead would endure this trial.
It was the only rational option he had left.
AN: Yeah, Denki's... going a bit Dark. Next 4 chapters on and Subscribestar.