Izuku and Ochako landed on the ground in front of the lodge. Izuku felt his arm jostle in the sling he'd made out of Blackwhip on the flight over, but it was fine. The two of them walked toward the door, noting that it had burn marks around it. Izuku and Ochako shared a look, one of apprehension and caution, and Izuku fired up One for All, Full Cowling style, to kick the door open ready for a fight. What he found inside was Tiger ready to throw a punch. He relaxed, letting One for All fade away, and moved inside so that Ochako could come through with Kota.
He leaned against the wall to steady himself, but Izuku knew that he was crashing after his fights with Stain and Muscular. Ochako walked past him with Kota in her arms, handing him off to Mandalay, who'd come into the hallway to see what was happening. The pain was really settling into Izuku's arm now, and he was almost going numb from it. If he could just sit down for a while, that would be good. Izuku followed the Pussycats into a room that held the classmates he'd abandoned to go save Kota.
It felt like Izuku was being guided by an invisible force as he sat down and let himself relax. The Blackwhip sling stayed up, and he gently moved it around so that it was more comfortable. Ochako and Tsu sat next to him as Mandalay and Tiger approached. Izuku looked up at the Heroes and anxiously clenched his good fist, wondering what they had to say about the way he'd been acting.
"You crossed a line tonight, kid," Tiger said.
"I know that," Izuku replied.
"Oh, do you? Care to tell me how?" Tiger asked.
"I went too far with the Hero Killer. I knew exactly when to stop hitting him, but I kept at it. It stopped being self defence as soon as that line was crossed, and I'm able to get in trouble for that," Izuku said, feeling himself tear up. It hadn't truly hit him yet that he'd defeated the Hero Killer. He'd avenged Iida's death. He'd done it, but it felt like a hollow victory.
"And?" Tiger urged.
"And, I went off to save Kota without explicit permission. I should have stayed put and gone with the rest of you, or waited for permission from one of you, but I ran off," Izuku elaborated.
"Good. You understand what you did wrong. Now that that's out of the way … your arm," Mandalay said, stepping out of the way to reveal that Pixie-Bob had been standing behind the two of them.
Pixie-Bob knelt down and poked at the part of his Blackwhip sling that wasn't covering his arm. She frowned at it, and looked up at him. He cradled his messed up arm with his good one and dismissed Blackwhip, allowing his arm to be exposed for all to see. Ochako winced, Tsu just stared, and the Pussycats shared a look with each other that Izuku knew wasn't good. Izuku sighed, and waited for the questions to come.
"How'd this happen?" Mandalay asked, her eyes lazer focused on the ways in which his arm blatantly bent the wrong way.
"This was me overusing my strength. I went to save Kota, but there was a Villain there threatening him, and I recognized him from the news. It was Muscular," Izuku said.
Mandalay's expression turned grim. She knew who he was, too, then. She looked over at Kota, being entertained by Hagakure and the others. Muscular had been the one who'd killed Water Hose, Kota's parents. It had been all over the news a few years ago, but Izuku doubted that Kota knew who he was. He hadn't reacted in fear of his parents' killer, but more out of fear of his potential killer. It was a close call, but they'd managed to avoid it. It was still bizarre that Muscular had managed to kill Water Hose and then end up in the same place as their son. Maybe he realized that at the last second when Kota had blasted him with his water Quirk. Maybe he hadn't. Who knew?
"You beat Muscular?" Tiger asked, an amazed tone taking over his voice.
"Well, not really. I tried, but he was too strong for me to beat. He nearly killed me," Izuku said, flinching as Pixie-Bob continued to examine his arm.
"What happened, then?" Mandalay asked.
Izuku looked at Ochako to continue the story. He was talking to Sankitsuo at the time, so he didn't exactly know what happened, but Ochako did. She laughed nervously and nodded at the Pussycats' disbelief. It was a hard thing to take in, that Ochako had been the one to truly defeat Muscular. Izuku was just a part of her plan. She'd planned and executed the attack that had put him down for good, and Izuku had to give her credit for that.
"I went after Izuku when the Hero Killer's Quirk wore off. When I did, I saw him get crushed by Muscular, and I launched myself at him when he started talking to Kota again. He was distracted, so I got to him easily. I just touched him, and my Quirk did the work. I threw him up into the sky and then brought him down again for Izuku to blow him away. The opposite forces must have overwhelmed him, because he stayed down. Really, we beat Muscular. I didn't do everything," Ochako explained.
"Even Kota helped. He splashed Muscular using his Quirk," Izuku said, smiling through the pain in his arm.
"Really?" Tiger asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, he bought the few seconds that saved my life," Izuku said, the reality of the situation beginning to fully set in now that he'd said it out loud.
"He's a good kid," Ochako chimed in.
"He is," Mandalay sighed, glancing over to Kota.
Pixie-Bob stood from her spot in front of Izuku and walked over to one of the walls. Her hands glowed blue and a piece of the wall went with her hand when she pulled away, the rest of the material shifting and closing up to make up for the chunk that was missing. She walked back over to Izuku and knelt once again, holding the chunk of wall up to his arm and beginning to mold it around his broken limb. It felt rough, and that was when Izuku realized that the walls must have been made using Pixie-Bob's Quirk. As she formed a cast around Izuku's arm, the inside of the shell smoothed out and became a lot more comfortable than he'd expected a cast made of rock to be. Izuku then used Blackwhip to wrap around his wrist and his neck, holding it up so that Izuku didn't have to.
Izuku sighed, the pain being eased somewhat by the proper support to his arm.
"Were you able to figure out the state of things from your travels to and from the fight?" Mandalay asked.
"Yes. There's at least two Villains in the forest. One with some kind of fire Quirk, and another that makes some kind of mist or gas," Izuku said, recalling his deductions.
"Yeah, we fought the fire starter. He's a sick bastard who turned to sludge when I hit him," Tiger said.
"Turned to sludge? They are working for him, so it's possible that they—" Izuku said, cutting himself off before the people around him heard too much from his mutterings.
"We saw the scorch marks on the door when we came here, which is why our entrance was so … extreme," Ochako said, chuckling awkwardly at herself.
The conversation petered out after that. Izuku was sitting there, his arm broken in what felt like three places, wondering what they were going to do about this whole thing. There were still students out there, right? All of 1B and most of 1A were still in the forest, and they needed help. They'd taken down four Villains out of an unknown amount, which meant that they needed to act to defeat the other Villains that were lurking before they killed anyone. They were lucky that nobody had died yet, but if they didn't act, someone was going to. Izuku looked at Mandalay, who seemed to be thinking the same thing, with a pleading expression on his face, silently demanding to know what her plan was.
"I think that us Pussycats should go out and look for any students that are still in the forest. We don't know their status, and we need to keep them safe if there are two or more Villains lurking around in there. You kids and Vlad should stay here, keep each other safe and make some sort of waypoint for the others to make their way toward," Mandalay said, gesturing for her teammates to get going.
"Wait, I … we're supposed to just do nothing?" Izuku asked.
"Not nothing. You'll be here to receive any kids that come out of the forest hurt or confused," Mandalay said.
"Sure," Izuku said, not sounding or feeling sure at all.
Mandalay and Vlad gave each other a thumbs up and then went to their separate tasks, Mandalay leaving to join her teammates and Vlad locking the door behind her. Izuku felt himself slump in his chair, but couldn't complain. He knew that being there to help anyone that was injured was important. He did. Izuku didn't have to like it, though. He barely had experience with first aid, only really needing it at the USJ when Aizawa's face had gotten carved out by the Nomu. Speaking of Aizawa, Izuku looked over to the makeshift bed that Pixie-Bob must have made and saw him lying there, bandages covering most of his head.
"He's fine. That 'Magne' got him good, but Aizawa's tough. He never stays down," Ochako said, putting her hand in Izuku's good one.
"I know that. It just hurts to know that I could be doing something for people, but not doing it. Being told not to do it. It's against my nature to just sit by and wait for someone who's hurting to come to me. Besides, they're … crap! I forgot to tell the Pussycats what I learned from Muscular!" Izuku said, releasing Ochako's hand and slapping his own over his face.
"What do you mean?" Vlad King asked from across the room.
"These guys are specifically after me, Shinso and Bakugo," Izuku said, watching as Vlad King froze in shock for just a moment.
"Mandalay, come in," Vlad King said, pressing a finger to the comms he must have already had on him. "Midoriya said that the Villains are here for specific kids. Bakugo, Shinso and himself. Yeah, he learned it from the Villain he fought. If you can get those kids to definite safety, they might leave," he continued sporadically.
Izuku couldn't hear what was being said on the other side, but he was sure that it was good by the way Vlad King nodded and signed off after. Izuku sat patiently, but couldn't keep his legs from tapping against the wooden floor, or his fingers from tapping against his thigh, or his whole body from shaking when he thought about how Hitoshi and Bakugo were in danger right now, but he couldn't do anything about it due to an order. This sucked.
"Hey, don't worry about it. Hitoshi's going to be fine, and so is Bakugo. They're strong. If they weren't, they wouldn't have gotten this far," Tsu said, holding a certain confidence in their voice. If Tsu believed Hitoshi would be fine, then Izuku had to trust them. But Bakugo? He wasn't sure about Bakugo.
"Fine. They're going to be okay. What about everyone else, though? All of 1B is out there, as well as more than half our class. Can you really just sit by and trust that they'll be okay?" Izuku asked.
"Not comfortably, no. I don't like it, but it's the way we've been told to behave. We can't disobey orders. You can't. You have to stay here," Tsu said.
"I know," Izuku sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his good hand.
"Hey, can you use your Danger Sense to see if they're alright?" Ochako asked.
"No. Extending the range sacrifices accuracy, so if I were to try and get everyone I wanted to in the range, it would just tell me what we already know; there is danger, but it wouldn't give me a direction or anything helpful," Izuku said, letting his hand drop onto his lap.
Everyone went silent as Izuku let them know just how little he could really do. His arm was broken and throbbing, even though it had been set and put into a cast. It would need healing, but they weren't going to get that in the middle of nowhere. He began coming to terms with the fact that he'd have a broken arm for the next few hours. Izuku looked around at his classmates and friends, seeing how glum they looked. Everyone looked so tired, and Izuku understood why. For his classmates, this was the second time they'd been attacked.
This was Izuku's fourth time getting attacked, after the USJ, the Sports Fest, his internship, but this felt like the straw that broke the camel's back. The USJ had felt more or less impersonal, but as the attacks had gone on, they'd felt more and more directed at Izuku specifically, culminating in this attack, the express purpose of which was to get Izuku. It was unfair to everyone else to have to deal with this, likely just because he had One for All. It was starting to feel less and less like a blessing the longer Izuku had it. Maybe it was a curse pretending to be a blessing. He really didn't know anymore.
Izuku did know that he was a target, but so were his friends. Hitoshi and Bakugo were out there, probably fighting for their lives, and Izuku was doing nothing about that. He'd been ordered to stay put, but he just couldn't when there were lives to be saved.
"Vlad King," Izuku called out.
"What is it?" the teacher asked.
"I need to get out there and help," Izuku said.
"You know you can't do that," Vlad King shot groaned.
"Not now. But, you can give me permission," Izuku pointed out.
"You're not in my class, kid. Aizawa's your teacher," Vlad King argued, turning to face Izuku properly.
"Not as a teacher. As a Pro, you can authorize Quirk use when necessary," Izuku said, hating how whiny he sounded.
"Come on, Midoriya. You know that I'm not going to allow you to leave. Your arm's broken, and you've already had more than your fair share of action tonight. I'm sorry, but you're not going anywhere on my watch," Vlad King said, giving Izuku a firm look.
Izuku sighed, but didn't argue anymore. He could feel the mental fatigue from his training earlier, the physical fatigue from fighting not just Stain, but Muscular too, and the Quirk exhaustion from using One for All start to affect him in earnest, weighing his limbs down and making it so that he let his head bang against the wall behind him. Izuku was fairly sure that he couldn't even fight if they'd let him, so it was probably for the best that he wasn't let out into the forest. He'd just be killed if he was allowed to go and do what he wanted. Izuku knew that he was done, but he just couldn't accept that.
He was brought out of his thoughts when Danger Sense suddenly warned him of something big. Izuku looked around, seeing his friends, classmates and teachers all perfectly fine and healthy. Well, Ochako had that cut on her arm and Aizawa was still unconscious, but other than that, everyone was fine. Izuku then looked over to the corner where the Villains had been kept in their rock prison, and they were still sitting there, captured. The Hero Killer, however, had woken from his unconscious state. He was staring at Izuku with a burning look in his eyes, and it was creeping Izuku out. Danger Sense must have been picking up on his intent, but Stain lacked the ability to attack him, now. He was safe.
Izuku was safe until all three of the Villains vanished and reappeared in the air, falling through a warp gate that looked like the ones Shigaraki's right hand man, Kurogiri made. That meant that these Vanguards were in contact with the League of Villains. Izuku remembered Kurogiri from the USJ, he was a man made of mist that was as calm and calculating, which was just as unnerving as Shigaraki's brand of crazy. The three of them fell to the ground, only Stain landing right due to him being the only conscious member of their trio, and Danger Sense went wild, screaming at Izuku that he wasn't safe. Vlad King immediately yelled for the students to evacuate the room, but nobody had a chance to do anything before Stain moved.
Stain leapt right for Izuku, the two of them locking eyes once again. Izuku's whole body felt like it was on fire trying to move, but he only succeeded in flopping down his chair and falling to the ground due to how his aching muscles refused to cooperate with him. Izuku slid down the seat as the Hero Killer approached, but just as Stain's hand came down toward him, blade in hand, Tsu's tongue shot out and wrapped around it to pull it closer to them, making the knife embed itself in the arm of the chair that his good arm had just fallen off of.
Izuku fell completely to the floor and saw this as his chance to get a counterattack in with his mostly useless limbs. He lifted his good arm, the appendage shaking from the effort, and shot out Blackwhip with a balled up end so that it acted as a sort of flail and hit Stain right in the knees, which it did as he was still distracted by Tsu. As Stain's knee buckled, he looked down and lifted that same leg to go for a stomp on Izuku's head, which made him begin to slide along the ground as best he could to get away from the spiked boots.
This attack never came, however, as the Hero Killer fell upward and slammed into the ceiling. Izuku watched as Stain hit his already injured head on impact and was dazed by the hit. He looked over and saw that Ochako had her hands out and fingers spread out, the same way she did every time she went for a gravity cancellation. Izuku smiled and sighed, relieved that the issue of Stain had been momentarily dealt with. They were in communication with Kurogiri, so it was hard to relax, though. Izuku rolled over and pushed himself to his feet, groaning as his unbroken but heavily exhausted limbs gave their best efforts.
"That was crazy! Are you guys okay?" Hagakure asked, running over to the three of them.
"We're good. Right?" Ochako said, looking at Tsu and Izuku for confirmation.
"Yeah," Izuku heard Tsu say as he nodded along with the agreement.
Izuku saw Vlad King using his Quirk to essentially glue the two Villains that were still unconscious, Spinner and Magne, to the wall. He was about to shoot some of the blood his Quirk manipulated up at Stain to stick him there when Izuku intervened.
"Wait. Don't use blood with the Hero Killer. His Quirk paralyzes you if he consumes your blood. Use regular bindings with him, and cover their mouths, too. Don't want our good buddy Kurogiri bailing them out, do we?" Izuku said, his eyes never leaving Stain.
Soon enough, Vlad King had all three Villains bound against the wall. Izuku was able to breathe easily then, as there was no threat to his friends. His regular nerves were still acting up, though, due to the times when he'd catch Stain staring at him from his spot in the corner. Izuku tried to ignore it, but it got too obvious to not think about it every now and then and he ended up distracting himself with tapping along the rock cast he'd been given by Pixie-Bob.
Izuku felt himself bolstered by renewed energy due to the adrenaline. He paced around the room, thinking of ways that he could help from that room, and how he could do anything but stand around and do nothing. Eventually, Mandalay's voice rang in his, and presumably everyone's head.
"Everybody, please hear me. We're facing the Villains as I speak, but they're overpowering us. Those of you who are able, help!" Mandalay said, using her Quirk to breach into their minds.
Vlad King groaned, slapping a hand over his face as he stood from his place on the floor next to Aizawa's bed. He walked over to the door and waved over a few students, namely Ochako, Tsu, Sato, Ojiro and Hagakure. As they assembled at the door, Vlad King cleared his throat and sighed.
"Look, kids. This is a tough call to make, but you've all proven to be good in combat. You'll get your chance to get back at these bastards," Vlad King said, beginning to walk through the hallway and toward the door to outside.
"Wait, what about m—us?" Izuku called out.
"Your arm's still broken. Koda's not good in direct combat. You'll watch over Aizawa and these sickos while we're away. I trust you can handle it," Vlad King said, narrowing his eyes at Izuku specifically as he finally walked through the door and held it open for his chosen few.
As everyone left, Izuku stared as they walked away with barely a complaint. He turned back around and sat down in the chair that still had Stain's knife wedged in it. He started mumbling under his breath about how it wasn't fair that they got to go but he didn't, when he was just as combat capable as anyone. Sure, Izuku's arm was broken, but it wasn't like that was a massive deal. He could punch with his other arm, and kick with his legs! If push came to shove, he could even use the cast as a bludgeoning weapon. As that thought passed through his head, Izuku began to think that they may have had the right idea keeping him from combat in the state he was in. Izuku looked over to Koda, who looked to be staring at the Villains with unfiltered terror, and chuckled.
"Are you okay?" Izuku asked, getting Koda to look at him and not the people who'd tried to kill them earlier that night.
Koda shook his head and sighed. Izuku knew that he didn't like to use words, so it was understandable that he'd been silent through the night. He liked Koda's company, even though the two didn't really run in the same circles. Koda was often by himself at lunch and during his free time, it seemed, so nobody really was close to him. Izuku could understand that, having been that type just a few months ago himself. If he wasn't going to be going out and fighting, then Izuku would have to be content sitting here and keeping Koda company.
"Yeah, this is tough. We shouldn't have to be going through this. It's just the latest in a long line of bad days. Don't worry about it, though. I'll make sure that everyone gets out of this okay," Izuku said.
Koda gave him a look that questioned him. Izuku chucked at that, trying to keep not only Koda from falling too far into that pit of despair, but also trying to keep himself from that fate.
"How? Well, I'll keep smiling, for one. If we still have hope, we haven't lost yet. That's what All Might says, right? So, that's what I'll do. I'll smile, and believe that the others can pull it off," Izuku said, shrugging his shoulders.
Koda shot him another questioning look. Izuku felt uncomfortable with just how silent things got when he wasn't talking, so decided that he'd rather fill the silence with his own voice as opposed to having nothing at all to distract him from the sound of distant fire.
"Do I believe in them? Honestly, no. I suppose that makes me a bad person, right? To not believe in my friends and teachers is awful. But, I don't. You wanna know what's better? If I were there, I think we'd have a shot. I know things, Koda, about how all of this has to end. It's up to me," Izuku admitted.
It was obvious that Koda was getting more and more confused as Izuku kept going. He looked around the room once more, and saw Aizawa, the Villains, Koda and Kota. He'd hadn't so much as moved a muscle from where Hagakure had left him, and that was probably because he was in shock over what had happened at the secret hideout with Muscular. Izuku was still buzzing inside from it, even as his limbs had grown heavy. Izuku knew that he was going to crash soon, but all of this up and down and peace and chaos and back and forth with these Villains was beginning to make his head hurt. It kept him from truly feeling calm, and so his adrenaline refused to die down so that he could feel the effects of fatigue. He didn't feel tired, because of all the crazy stuff that had happened over the course of what had to have been an hour and a half or less, but he did feel the heaviness of his body and the fog that was slowing his movements and his thoughts get more and more intense as time went on.
This fog lifted slightly when Izuku was able to hear something outside. It was like a muffled scream, and it made Izuku feel on edge. It was unclear if Danger Sense was picking something up, or if it was just Izuku's natural anxiety spiking in response to hearing this. He looked over at Koda, who seemed to hear it, too, by his expression of worried confusion. It was just then that Danger Sense did pick something up, telling Izuku to move out of the way. Izuku felt One for All reflexively spill over into his muscles and empower him, but knew that he'd regret letting that happen when he passed out from exhaustion when he had to stop.
Izuku leapt out of the way, but didn't exactly know where this danger was coming from, so couldn't effectively dodge anything. A blast of something tore the wall he'd been sitting against to pieces, throwing the debris and destroying that half of the room. Izuku was pushed further in his leap, and was spun around so that he could see Kota in danger of getting crushed by the debris. Izuku let his hand guide Blackwhip over to Kota, wrapping around him in what felt like slow-motion to Izuku. He yanked Kota toward himself and out of danger, letting the debris crush the stone bed he'd been sitting on.
The two of them landed safely next to Koda, who was recovering from the shock of the blast. All three of them looked out at the massive hole in the wall that had been punched by the attack and saw a tall man with purple scars all over his face and neck with another person with a showy suit and mask on and a cane. The two of them stood in the wreckage, surveying the room. The scarred man saw Izuku and grinned, the smile tugging at the tissue of his face strangely.
"Got him. Compress, do the job while I free our comrades," the scarred man said, turning to walk over to the captured Villains in the corner.
The masked man, who the scarred one had called 'Compress', laughed under the mask and began to walk toward Izuku and his friends. Izuku began to panic, wondering what this one's Quirk was and how to avoid it. The man was shuffling two blue beads in his right hand and holding his left one as if he was about to grab something, so that told Izuku that it was likely touch based. Was this Shigaraki? No, why would the scarred one call him 'Compress' if Shigaraki's Quirk was disintegration? He could've done it as a misdirect, but from what Izuku could recall, Shigaraki wasn't exactly a forward thinker.
"Izuku Midoriya. We've been looking for you. To know that you were here all along is a shame, but now we can finish the job. If you'll just hold still, I can—" Compress rambled, reaching a hand out toward Izuku casually.
"Leave him alone!" Kota cried, sending a splash of water at Compress's arm, drenching the sleeve of his suit.
"Oh, you little troublemaker!" Compress yelled, trying to pat himself down with his other hand.
Izuku saw an opportunity and took it without hesitation, kicking Compress's legs and forcing him to the ground. Once that was done, he looked back at Koda and Kota to nod before feeling Kota's small hands wrap around his neck from behind and Koda grab the hand he held out for the stockier boy. Izuku heard the scarred one exclaim something, but the blood rush in his ears drowned him out. Dark Cowling covered Izuku's legs as he powered up to twelve percent and leapt with all his power toward the new exit these Villains had made.
Along the way, Izuku also kicked his foot out and aimed it at Aizawa. He didn't know if this would work how he wanted it to work, but he hoped it would. Izuku kicked Blackwhip out and it latched onto Aizawa's body, pulling him out of the room with the kids as they soared over the dirt of the outside. Izuku was able to Float across the ground and reel Aizawa in quickly enough that he didn't hit the ground, as he didn't need more traumatic brain injuries than what he already had. The four of them came to a stop spinning above the ground, gliding to a stop just over a bush. Izuku cradled Aizawa with his cast and let Float go, allowing the four of them to fall into the bush below.
They all got up quickly enough, with Koda pulling Aizawa and holding him with his bulkier frame, and Kota trying in vain to help Izuku up off the ground with his one good arm. Izuku eventually got up, though, and saw the scarred Villain looking at them with a grimace. He went to yell at the man to leave him and his friends alone, but was interrupted by a massive team dashing through the treeline and assembling in front of his little group. This team consisted of the Pussycats, still sans Ragdoll, Vlad King and those of 1A that he took with him, and all of 1B getting pulled behind Ochako and bound by Sero's tape. Speaking of new faces, Todoroki, Sero and Tokoyami were also with them. That begged the question for Izuku, where was everyone else? They were also in that big bundle behind Ochako, asleep and in that big pile of students. Izuku tried to look for Hitoshi and Bakugo, but couldn't find them in the pile, causing a frown to spread on his face. Had they gotten the two of them? Was he their last target? Those two marbles that Compress had been holding forced their way into his thoughts, and Izuku gasped.
"Don't worry, kids! We've got your backs!" Mandalay called from the front of the group.
"Leave this to us, Izuku!" Ochako said, letting the pile of students she'd been carrying safely fall to the ground and canceling her Quirk on them.
"Guys!" Izuku yelled out, all he could manage with the adrenaline and pure joy of seeing his friends alive making his brain move faster than his mouth could handle.
The fighters, namely Mandalay, Pixie-Bob, Tiger, Vlad King, Sero, Todoroki, Ochako and Tsu, lined up and got ready to fight. Yaoyorozu was also with the team, Izuku noticed as she leaned against a tree across from him. She looked tired, and oddly emaciated. She'd overused her Quirk, he thought, and taken herself out of this fight. Tokoyami was in a similar state, likely from keeping Dark Shadow controlled in the low-light conditions of the forest. Everyone else had fallen subject to the gas, or was missing.
The team was quickly met with opposition from the scarred man and Compress, joined by the now conscious Magne and Spinner, Stain retaining the concussion that Izuku and his friends had given him in their fights. So, it came down to four Pro Heroes and four students versus four Villains. The participants all got ready to fight, and Izuku braced himself for combat if they came after him. This was going to get messy.
The first of the fighters to move was Vlad King. It was likely because he saw that Stain, the only real counter to his Quirk, was still out of the fight. He ran out in front of the group and launched a few globs of blood at the Villains collected in the wreckage of their safe haven. The globs traveled through the air fast, but were burned to nothing by the scarred one, blasting a wave of blue fire that incinerated the attack. Vlad King grunted at that, but kept the offense up. He sent more and more of those globs, making the scarred one use his Quirk to turn them to puddles that didn't even make it halfway to their intended targets.
After the fourth volley of blood bindings, though, the scarred one stopped trying to catch them with his fire. Instead, he ducked under the glob of blood and his companions followed suit. Izuku saw that and wondered why. His thoughts were turned to the others as Spinner leapt forward with one of the swords his larger weapon had been made of. He began to fight with Vlad King, and the two of them moved away from Izuku's line of sight because of it. So, he focused on the masked one, Compress, as he seemingly disappeared.
Izuku looked around, trying to find him, but felt Danger Sense buzz in his brain as something touched the back of his neck. Izuku leaned forward and, in his jumpiness, used One for All to leap away from whatever was touching him. In his anxiety and fatigue, Izuku put too much into it and launched himself far from his starting point, hurling himself onto the dirt between the two major factions. He rolled on the ground and came to a stop on his back. His shirt was all kinds of ripped and torn by now, so it was hardly anything new that it was even more so now that he'd tumbled along the rocky path.
"Get him," the scarred one called out.
Magne lifted her hands to do something, probably use whatever her Quirk was, but Izuku used a burst of One for All to get to his feet and hold his hands out to both sides of fighters. He held his broken arm in the cast at a weird angle out to his allies, which hurt like hell, and his unbroken one out to his enemies to tell everyone to stop. He took a moment to breathe and catch up to his own brain as the sounds of Vlad King and Spinner fighting came to a stop. All the sound that could be heard for a moment was Izuku's breathing and the wind blowing through the quiet clearing.
"Everybody, just calm down. There's a way we can end this without fighting!" Izuku said, causing both sides to look at him like he was insane.
"These guys are trying to get you, Midoriya. I'd advise getting behind us and letting us deal with them before you get hurt or killed," Todoroki said, readying his ice hand.
"Oh, Shoto Todoroki. So noble. I'm afraid I'll have to agree with the twerp, though. You ain't making a smart move here, kid," the scarred one said, giving Todoroki a mocking salute and Izuku a cold glare.
Izuku turned to the Villains. This was probably a bad idea, and the wrong way to de-escalate, but it was the only thing he could do that would result in everyone else winning. He was still holding One for All steady, so he could get out of there in a heartbeat if they tried to play him. For just a moment, Izuku tried to think of another option. He really did, but the adrenaline pumping through him and the fatigue that was still fighting to pull him into a deep sleep were both battling for dominance within him and it forced Izuku's seeming intelligence to take something of a back seat in this situation. Izuku didn't see another way that no blood would be spilled here. He couldn't see any other situation where nobody else got hurt. This was it.
"I'll go with you," Izuku said, hearing the cries of his allies behind him. "Be quiet, please! I'll go with you if you let Bakugo and Shinso go. If you do that, I'll go with you. No fighting, no more injuries, no more conflict. Give them back to us, and I'll go with you willingly," Izuku said.
The scarred one seemed to be thinking about Izuku's offer. He was staring Izuku down, probably weighing the pros and cons of his deal. Izuku turned back to his allies while the scarred one thought about it, seeing the worried looks he was getting from them and smiling the best that he could.
"Don't worry about it, guys. I'll be okay," Izuku said.
"Kid, don't do this! There's other ways around this, we'll fight for you," Tiger said, holding his hand out pleadingly.
"Izuku! Get back here right now! Don't you dare go with them, you hear me?" Ochako yelled, pointing at him with a shaking hand.
"It's okay. I'm okay. Bakugo and Shinso will be okay," Izuku said.
The scarred one cleared his throat, and Izuku turned around to see him keeping a straight face. The two looked at each other for a moment, the scarred one seemingly trying to sike Izuku out. He held strong, though, and stared right back at the man. It seemed to amuse him, so the scarred one smiled in the same way that tugged on his scars and made Izuku feel kind of sick.
"Compress!" the scarred one yelled.
In response, Compress seemingly appeared out of thin air, standing on the roof of the wrecked lodge. He jumped down from his perch and landed next to the scarred one, performing a complicated looking flip as he did. The two of them spoke with each other in hushed tones for a moment, before Compress reeled back and shook his head. The scarred one looked annoyed, his face scrunching up in anger, but he reigned himself in long enough to seemingly explain what had happened.
Compress shrugged and threw two of those blue beads he carried around, and everyone ducked in anticipation for some kind of attack. Izuku readied a Blackwhip Shield, but found it unnecessary as the beads flashed and transformed into Hitoshi and Bakugo. The two of them fell to the ground, having been released in the air, and landed with groans of pain. Izuku dismissed Blackwhip and ran up to the two of them, checking for injuries. They weren't injured, but it didn't look like being those marble things was any fun.
"You're okay. You're safe. It's all good now," Izuku repeated the same few phrases over and over as he helped the two boys up.
"What happened? Did you beat the bad guys?" Hitoshi asked, looking around at the Heroes and their classmates behind Izuku.
"Uh, not quite," Izuku said.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Bakugo said as he looked back and saw the Villains all standing over them and watching.
"I'm doing what I need to in order for you to be safe. Now, go. They're not gonna go after you if you run," Izuku said, shoving Hitoshi slightly as he began to step toward the Villains.
"Nah, what did you do, idiot?" Bakugo said, stomping up to Izuku and pointing at him.
"I saved you. Go. Now," Izuku said, pushing Bakugo away with his good arm.
The three of them stared at each other for a moment, Bakugo and Hitoshi refusing to move. Izuku sighed, and called on Blackwhip to coat his fingers to tell the two of them that he wasn't kidding around with this one. They needed to listen to him, and he wasn't answering any of their questions anymore. Hitoshi looked hurt, and breathed in harshly. Bakugo looked angry, and rightfully so, as he watched the boy he'd grown up with give himself up for them. Izuku gave them a smile, and then began to walk toward the Villains.
In his peripheral vision, Izuku saw Tsu rush up to Hitoshi and wrap him in a tight hug. Hitoshi hugged back, but kept his eyes on Izuku the whole time, not daring to look away. Izuku, though, broke their eye contact, and turned around to face his partners in this deal. He met the scarred man's eyes and nodded, getting a nod back from what seemed like a leader within this new 'Vanguard'.
"Alright. Magne, get Stain. Toga, you can stop lurking around like an animal," the scarred one said, raising his voice toward the group of Heroes as he addressed this new person.
A girl, no older than eighteen, dashed out from the treeline and was with them in a moment. She swirled around a few vials of what looked to be blood, and smiled at the scarred one. He nodded and rolled his eyes at her enthusiastic smile, which unnerved Izuku to say the least. Magne walked over and threw Stain over her shoulder before making her way back to the group. Spinner slipped out of Vlad King's range and regrouped with his team. Izuku saw the scarred one gesture for him to turn around, and did so immediately.
Izuku saw his allies and friends as he turned, but his vision went out of focus as a strong hand wrapped around his throat. His vision quickly returned to normal, but the shock had thrown Izuku off momentarily. He looked at all of his friends, and his teachers, and his classmates, and smiled. He was doing this for them.
"I love you guys. Don't forget that," Izuku said, knowing that his time with them was running out.
"Aw, how weak," the scarred one said, spitting the words into Izuku's ear.
"Let's go, Dabi. Muscular and Moonfish aren't responding. It's just us, now," Spinner said, holding a finger to his ear.
"Alright, then. Kurogiri, warp us out," the scarred one, clearly this Dabi that Spinner was referring to, said.
Then, darkness consumed everything that Izuku could see. This was a cold, empty darkness. Not like the vestiges' realm, which had become a place of comfort for Izuku. No, this was a vile, sickening place that made Izuku's breath freeze and brain hurt. It felt nauseating to be in this inbetween space, but it quickly faded as he fell onto floorboards. He looked around, seeing that he was in a bar of sorts, and immediately felt eyes on him. He looked up to see Tomura Shigaraki, in the flesh, with that same hand mask on his face.
The two of them stared at each other, and Izuku knew that he was screwed by the look in the man's eyes as he stood and towered over him. There was a certain coldness in his eyes, but there was mostly fire. Burning, raging passion for causing pain, and Izuku knew exactly where all of that would be aimed at. Izuku began to feel the strain of everything take its toll on him, and fell to the ground completely, letting his hot skin be cooled by the floorboards as he drifted off into unconsciousness.
"Izuku Midoriya. You lose," Shigaraki said.
That was everything that Izuku could see and hear before he fell unconscious. His last thought was that it was better off being him than anyone else.
End of Arc 9: Sickening Summer Sensations