Ch. 15: Nohwhere to Run
"What? Real villains?" Kirishima asked, deeply concerned, as he counted the number of villains in his head, though he quickly lost count in the twenties, "How can so many of them get into a U.A. facility this secure?"
"Yeah, Thirteen, why haven't the alarms gone off?" Yaoyorozu asked, though Thirteen didn't turn to look at her, too busy with Izuku.
"I'm not sure, I'm afraid." Even though they had to admit, they hadn't noticed the lack of an alarm.
"Is the entire campus under attack or is it just here?" Todoroki asked in the calmest tone he could. "Either way, one of them must have a quirk that's jamming the sensors. They chose this isolated building at a time when a class was being taught. They're fools for trespassing here but it's clear they've thought all this out. They must have a concrete objective… but what is it?" All of the other students began to worry before looking at the shaking Izuku.
"Kaminari, see if you can use your quirk to contact the campus," Thirteen ordered as they tried to figure out how to calm down Izuku.
"I'll try, at least," Kaminari reached up to his communicator earpiece and tried to contact someone for help.
"What's wrong with Midoriya?" Iida asked as he walked forward, only to be stopped by Thirteen's hand telling him to stay put.
As Aizawa and co. reached the bottom of the stairs, he could make out a bad feeling crawling up his back. He ignored it, thinking it was just the villains in front of him and took stock of the situation. There were around twenty or so villains in the plaza as well as the suspiciously familiar hand villain and the mist villain who were flanked by four monsters. One had wings, one had six arms, another of them had to be the size of All Might himself while the last was no bigger than their leader.
"Perplexing," the mist villain began, "According to the schedule we retrieved, All Might and Thirteen were the only heroes supposed to be here, yet I count six heroes."
"So, it was you who used the press to sneak in," All Might stood at the front of the team, becoming the focus of most of the villains in the plaza. Aizawa went pale for a quick second as it finally clicked and he realized why the hand villain seemed familiar.
It was Midoriya's description of Shigaraki. Aizawa quickly snapped to look back at the students to see the boy shaking, as if trying to control himself but failing.
"So, they brought a few NPCs after our raid, huh?" Shigaraki commented, "That's fine, we brought some more party members ourselves."
"Hey, think you can just look away from us!?" A villain with a knife shouted as he lunged at Aizawa, before Paranormal telekinetically grabbed him out of the air and plowed him into the floor. He quickly grabbed the knife out of the villain's hand and armed himself with it.
"Wait your turn, asshole." Paranormal dryly ordered, "What's up, Eraser?" Aizawa quickly activated his quirk on Midoriya, causing the boy to drop to his knees and start to breathe heavily as he clutched his chest.
"The villains are in front of us, sir," Echobat pointed out.
"Then why don't you focus on them, you two," Azurite suggested, irritated but trusting of her former teacher's judgement.
"Izu, are you okay?" Ochako asked as she and Tsu ran to his side. Minoru walked over and looked into Izuku's eyes, seeing their normal green.
'He was shaking a bit ago and now he's suddenly out of breath like he's having a heart attack? What's going on?'
'So, it was activated by itself because of Shigaraki's presence. That's annoying,' Aizawa grabbed his phone but it was telling him no service. He's not picking up Midoriya's anklet.
"Don't bother, Eraserhead," Kurogiri smugly stated, not knowing why Aizawa was looking at his phone, "You won't get through. You must have noticed your alarms haven't gone off."
'Maybe. But that doesn't mean that an alarm isn't going off somewhere else."
"All Might, you three," Aizawa turned back to face the villains, "Ten minutes." All Might smiled as he realized what Aizawa was referring to.
"Understood!
"Ten minutes to what, though?"
"Till we win." The five heroes started blowing through the small timers with little difficulty. Eraserhead was careful to let All Might do most of the work. He noticed that the leaders were standing around watching him and the others but were not too concerned with watching All Might himself, as if they already knew how they were going to beat him. "Be careful how much you use your quirks. The leaders are watching us."
"Ugh, what a pain." Paranormal complained as he threw the knife from earlier just past a guy's ear to distract him before Azurite threw him into another villain before Echobat landed hard onto the pile, knocking them out.
"They seemed to be holding their own. We're gonna run out of bodies at this rate."
"Let's fix that. Nomus, kill the heroes and All Might." The four monsters roared loudly, instantly bringing everyone in the building to a halt before they launched themselves towards the heroes. The smallest Nomu proved to be that fastest as it was barely a second before it rocketed into Azurite. The largest of them all ran towards All Might, the wing Nomu attacked Echobat out of the air and the multi-armed Nomu tried to strike Aizawa but was quickly repelled by Paranormal throwing him across the building with his quirk, stopping it for all of five seconds.
"Should we be concerned that he's fine from that?" Paranormal asked as the Nomu began jumping back as if nothing happened.
"Yeah, probably," A sudden wind blew past them as All Might's fist collided with the muscle Nomu only for it to completely shrug it off before throwing a punch of his own. "All Might didn't even hurt him?" Aizawa quickly erased Muscle-Nomu's quirk but all it did was allow All Might to knock him back. It still got back up and actually managed to punch back, knocking All Might back several meters despite him blocking the blow. "And it's still that strong? This isn't good."
"Oh, really?! I hadn't noticed!" Paranormal quipped as he repeatedly tried to slam the Multi-Nomu into the ground but got nowhere with it. It's as if pain was a completely foreign concept to the beasts. Aizawa took stock of how the rest were doing, trying his best to erase the Nomus' quirks as he went.
Azurite was glowing blue as the air around her started to become cold, slowing down the Speed-Nomu enough for her to dodge the incoming attacks and counter with her own where she could. "Come on, that all you've got?" The nomu screeched as it launched needles out of its hands, only to stop dead before reaching Azurite and falling to the floor at her feet extremely slowly. "Oh no, you've got way more..."
Echobat screamed out as the Wing-Nomu tried to bite her, only to get itself clawed in the face. "Get off me, you disgusting bastard!" She kicked the nomu as hard as she could, only for it to look at her as it's cuts healed before her eyes. "Oh… boy…"
"And it just keeps getting worse," Aizawa mentioned as his eyes forced him to blink.
"What now?"
"They have multiple quirks. They even seem to share some common ones like impact resistance."
"That's right!" Shigaraki boasted sadistically, "These bio-engineered anti-symbols of peace were specially created to destroy All Might and any other pro heroes that tried to get in our way. Shock Absorption, Super Regeneration, Needle Storm, Six-Arms, Wing, and a few more you'll get to enjoy before they kill you all! Even All Might at his strongest couldn't hope to stop them." As Shigaraki shrugged at the futility of the heroes' actions, Aizawa noticed that Kurogiri had disappeared. As Paranormal began to pant from the exertion of holding the Multi-Nomu, Aizawa couldn't even begin to guess how much worse it was going to get.
Izuku opened his eyes to see All Might and the other heroes trade blows with the Nomus, feeling like his whole body was burning up.
*Thump Thump*
His heart beat loudly into his ears, drowning out all other sounds leaving him with nothing but mumbling and the static that filled his head again.
"KiLl ThEm," It commanded, the voice in the static growled again.
*THump THump*
'No… I won't do it... '
*THUmp THUmp*
"ThEy ArE HeRe To KiLl YoU. tHeY aRe HeRe To KiLl yOuR tEaChErS. tHeY aRe HeRe To KiLl YoUr FrIeNdS. sHiGaRaKi. KuRoGiRi. AlL fOr OnE. nOmUs. AlL mUsT dIe."
*THUMp THUMp*
"Stay back from him!" Thirteen warned. Minoru caught a glimpse of Izuku's eyes and saw the green start to revert back to red.
"Oh, no…" Thirteen immediately grabbed Izuku and pulled him over their shoulder to carry the boy as he continued to clutch his chest. "Alright, students, we need to leave!" They pointed to the door leading out. Before the students could even get halfway, Kurogiri appeared in front of them, blocking off their only exit.
"There is no escape for you." Kurogiri's deep voice informed them. "Greetings to you all. We are the League of Villains. I know that it's impolite but we've decided to visit this haven of justice to say hello." Thirteen tried to put themselves between Kurogiri and their students, "And isn't this a fitting place for All Might, the Symbol of Peace, to take his last breath?" Ochako, Tsuyu and Minoru's eyes widened as they realized why the villains were here… as well as realized who they were. It was all for All Might. "Now it's time for me to fulfill my role here..." Thirteen readied their quirk but before they could activate it...
"RAAARG!" Kirishima and Bakugou launched themselves at Kurogiri, causing a massive explosion to engulf the mist villain.
"Did you think we're just going to let you tear this place to shreds?" Kirishima shouted with a smile but it quickly disappeared as the smoke cleared.
"You certainly live up to your school's reputation," Bakugou and Kirishima both reacted with shock that their attacks did nothing, "But you should be more careful children. Otherwise, someone might get hurt."
"You two, get out of the way!" Thirteen ordered, causing the two to look back at them. The momentary distraction allowed Kurogiri to quickly surround them in the black mist.
"I'll scatter you across this facility to meet my comrades, and your deaths!" Kurogiri quickly surrounded them in a massive dome of darkness with only a few students able to escape, one of which was Iida who could only grab Sato and Mina on the way out.
"What's going on?!" Iida shouted as he stared at the dome, scared for what was happening to his classmates.
Izuku, Bakugou and Kirishima landed hard in the rubble of several ruined buildings. Kirishima quickly picked himself up and surveyed his surroundings, quickly picking up on the cavalcade of villains that surrounded them and Izuku was farther away from the two.
"Shit, they're everywhere!"
"So what?!" Bakugou shouted as he got to his feet, hands sparking while staring down his foes, "They picked the wrong class to mess with! Come on, you pieces of shit!"
"Ha, this one thinks he's a hero or something!" One villain laughed.
"Let's hope he's more interesting than that brat having a heart attack there," Another one joked as Izuku was still laid on the ground.
"I might as well make his misery short," A third one pulled out a knife and stood over Izuku's body.
"YoU lEt ThIs HaPpEn By HoLdInG bAcK. aRe YoU wIlLiNg To LeT tHeM wIn? ThOsE tHaT rUiNeD yOuR lIfE. tHoSe WhO sTole EvErYtHiNg FrOm YoU."
'I don't want to hurt my friends.'
"ThEy DoN't DeSeRvE dEaTh. ThIs Is TrUe. ThEy WiLl Be SpArEd. BuT, oNlY iF yUo StOp ThEm. ThOsE wHo MuSt DiE."
The villain reeled back to drive it into Izuku's chest.
'...No killing. Just stop them so they can be arrested."
"Then we have an accord." The voice was now loud and clear, no longer shrouded in static as Izuku suddenly felt the burning in his body turn to boiling him alive.
*THUMP THUMP*
Izuku's eyes shot open as he grabbed the knife blade and crushed it between his fingers, cutting his hand open but it didn't stop him as he drove a fist into the villain, launching him off the ground, into the air and over a mound of debris, out cold. Izuku slowly staggered to his feet, radiating a large aura of crimson and large bolts of red lightning shot off of him periodically. The villains all took a step back when they could as they watched the dripping and mangled hand slowly regenerate. Bakugou could feel a tinge of anger and shock go down his spine as he thought back to the indoor battle and realized that Izuku was still hiding more power.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Izuku screamed out, causing everyone to go perfectly still with fear as the boy launched himself into the nearest villain, grabbed her by the leg and smashed other villains with her body before throwing her into a crowd to knock them over like bowling pins. A few villains with long-range quirks opened fire on Izuku who merely turned to look at them, more pissed off than hurt.
"It didn't even scratch hi-ack!" Before anyone could react, Izuku was already on them, grabbing one by the neck and driving him into the ground with a vicious chokeslam, causing a shockwave of dust to shroud him. He kicked another in the gut so hard he flew backwards out of the dust cloud and took three more with him as he crashed into them.
"Wha-What the hell is he?!" A villain asked as everyone started to back up at the monster in front of them as the dust settled enough that all they could see was the furious red eyes staring them down.
"Uh… Dude…" Kirishima began as he watched Izuku turn the villains into ragdolls, "Wasn't his quirk warping?"
"One of them," Bakugou responded as he grinded his teeth.
"What do you mean 'one of them'?!" Bakugou couldn't respond as Izuku roared again and charged the shaking villains. Bakugou watched on, furious to see just how much Deku was holding back but quickly swallowed it. There were bigger fish to fry. Bakugou stood up and started walking away from the scene.
"Dude, where are you going?"
"These trash bags aren't worth my time if Deku is beating them this easily. I'm going after the leaders," Bakugou explained without stopping.
"Isn't that what got us into this in the first place? It was our fault we got warped away by that mist guy." Bakugou stopped and turned his head at Kirishima with an annoyed glare.
"You want to stay here with Deku, be my guest. Just don't let him see you when he runs out of cannon fodder. He might attack you next." Kirishima gulped a little after a villain flew just past him as if to emphasize his point.
"Okay, but what about our classmates?"
"If the villains are all this weak, our classmates will be fine, especially if Deku goes and helps since he seems to only care about the villains. We need to focus on getting that warp guy so they can't escape and we can turn the tables on these bastards."
"It's weird hearing you be this calm and rational. Usually you're so angry at everything," Bakugou took a deep breath and exhaled to pick his words carefully.
"Tsk, who asked you for your opinion, Shitty Hair?" Kirishima smirked a little as the two exited the Collapse Zone.
"And from the sounds of it, you actually believe in our classmat-."
"One more word and I'm feeding you to Deku," Bakugou warned with a growl, causing Kirishima to shut his mouth.
One minute ago...
"AHHHHH!" *splash* Ochako screamed as she fell out of the portal into the pool of water that made up the Flood Zone. After the less than soft landing from falling a few dozen meters headfirst, she frantically tried to reorient herself and swim to the surface. 'Okay, I landed in the pool I saw earlier so that mist guy had a warp quirk. A black mist…It can't be anyone other than Kurogiri which would make that hand villain Shigaraki. I need to find my classmates and Izu-' Before she could reach the surface, a villain with the head of a hammerhead shark started swimming for her at breakneck speeds, jaws wide open to eat her. Ochako readied One For All to fight him off.
*SLAM*
"Hey, Ocha!" Tsuyu came flying in and cracked the shark across the head with both feet while holding a motionless purple and yellow ball of a boy. She quickly wrapped her tongue around Ochako's waist and used the villain to launch off of, towards the surface, dragging her friend with her. "Bye, loser!" After reaching the surface, Tsuyu lifted Ochako onto the boat in the middle of the lake and set her down gently.
"Ack! My mouth tastes like pool water… and it's in my eyes..." Minoru complained before wrapping his arms around her neck, "Thanks, Tsu. I almost feel bad about calling you a pain in the ass behind your back."
"Ribbit?!" Tsu wrapped her tongue around Minoru, tight enough that it could be used for the Heimlich maneuver and threw him down onto the deck of the boat as hard as she could manage onto his face.
*CRASH* "Ahahahow!"
"Minoru, are you okay?!" Ochako asked as she picked herself up, completely unaware of what happened.
"What'd I do that time…?" He groaned into the floor before starting to push himself up and rubbed his now bleeding nose.
"The only one here that's a pain in the ass is you, Mino," Tsu scolded as she climbed up onto the boat, sounding mad without actually looking like it, "And don't hug me. You don't have the right."
"Well, it's not like you proved me wrong just now," Minoru countered as he wiped the water from his eyes.
"Guys, please stop fighting!" Ochako shouted, "This is hardly the time for you two to be having another argument."
"Sorry, Ochako," The two said in unison while looking at the ground in shame.
"Okay, now, we need to figure out what we're going to do," Ochako began, "That villain said that this was a 'fitting place for All Might to take his last breath', right?"
"So, they're here to kill him? That would make them the people Izu sensed."
"Okay, but how are they going to kill him?" Minoru asked, "All Might could punch the ground once and level this building. Not to mention that he's still at full strength for today so it's not like he's running on fumes here."
"But these are also the people connected to All Might's nemesis so they've had five, six years to plan this. That means they've probably found a way to do it. Like those giant brain monsters we saw fighting the pros. I couldn't hear what was going on but by the look on their faces it wasn't anything good." Minoru let Tsu's words wash over him and immediately started to panic.
"ARE YOU SAYING WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE?!"
"You bastards!" The three quickly turned to the water to see a dozen villains with aquatic quirks all swimming for the boat, driving Minoru into further panic.
"MORE BAD GUYS!"
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Everyone in the Flood Zone all stopped dead and turned towards the roar of fury that resounded throughout the U.S.J.
"What was that?" Tsu asked as she looked out towards the center, looking to see if it was one of the Nomus, "It wasn't one of theirs by the looks of it so…"
'Izu… was that you?' Ochako grabbed Tsu's shoulder and turned her towards her, "We need to find Izu, now!"
"Wait, you think that roar was him?"
"I can't be sure, but I've been having a bad feeling ever since he started clutching his chest at the entrance. He might have lost control of Rage Shroud." Tsu gasped quietly before looking at Minoru, crumpled into the fetal position as he rocked back and forth.
"We're gonna die, we gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gon-*slap* ow! Tsu, what was that for?!"
"You think that, maybe, being a hero isn't the right job for you?" Tsu deadpanned after retracting her tongue from slapping Minoru.
"Honestly… yeah, I'm thinking I've made a horrible mistake coming here…" Minoru shivered, as he wiped away some tears in his eyes, "And cut me some slack. I just got here this week and now we're fighting real villains that want to kill us, rape us, eat us, or all three at the same time!"
"Okay, now you're just being gross," Tsu grimaced. Ochako got down onto her knee and placed a comforting hand on Minoru's shoulder.
"Minoru, I know you're scared," she told him in a soothing, reassuring voice, "I'm terrified right now. I don't know where my classmates are or even if they're okay. But, if we don't do something, we're going to die here. We're the only ones who can save ourselves right now. Izu is probably using Rage Shroud and by the sound of it, he's lost control. He needs our help." Minoru looked down at his feet.
'She's right… My buddy needs us. Even if I'm shitting myself here, I've got to make it up to him for all the times he's helped me." Taking a deep breath, Minoru steadied himself and nodded.
"Minoru, you got any ideas?" She asked with a smile.
Minoru looked out to the lake and saw that the villains had regrouped but were still just chilling in the water doing nothing but staring at them in a circle around the boat.
'Okay, Zuku always told me no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. What mistakes have they made?' Minoru looked to Tsu and suddenly realized something. "Why is Tsu here, exactly?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tsu inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"What I mean is, why drop someone who's at her best in the water into a place that's mostly covered in water?" Tsu's face softened as she realized what he was saying.
"Now that you mention it, if they knew I was a frog, they would have dropped me into the Fire Zone over there," Tsu said as she looked over to said zone.
"That means they don't know any of our quirks then?"
"Exactly. They separated us into small groups since they didn't know what we could do and then they'll try and overpower us through sheer force of numbers. We have the advantage then since they probably think we could be super strong which is why they're just waiting in the water. But it also means that we're gonna have to be careful since they aren't taking any chances." While Minoru was explaining his observations, a giant water hand came down and sliced through the boat, cutting it in half.
"I'm getting bored waiting! Come out here and die!" the villain shouted.
"Minoru, do you have any ideas?!" Ochako asked again, more urgent than before.
"Uh… not any good ones."
"Will any of them work?!" Minoru gulped as he prepared to explain it.
"Yeah, but… we need you to break a finger."
"What's taking so long for a ship to sink?" one of the villains yelled.
"Screw you! I'd like to see you do better! They'll be in the water in about thirty seconds."
"Coming at ya, bitches!" All the villains suddenly looked up to see Ochako with Minoru tied to her back with Tsu's tongue as she carried them across the sky, "Enjoy!"
"MERCURY SMASH!" Ochako cried out as she finger-flicked the water with 100% of One For All, causing a massive funnel of air to blast through the water and causing a massive whirlpool. Minoru followed up by dropping as many grapes into the water as possible, causing them to stick to the villains as they were all pulled together by the displaced water. Before long, a massive plum of water shot out of the hole, launching the boat and a big, purple ball of bad guys into the air. Ochako smiled with gritted teeth as she held her broken middle finger.
"Apply a strong force to the water and it'll be displaced and come rushing back in. How's that for some physics?!" Minoru shouted with glee at his plan's success.
"Yeah, it was a great plan, Mino. I'm actually impressed for once."
"We rounded up the villains here. Now, let's go find Izu!" Ochako ordered with a grimace on her face as she looked to the entrance, holding her broken finger, "Shoji's at the entrance so he'd be able to find him."
"Roger that, Miss 'Mercury Smash'," Tsu smirked at the nickname.
"Um, can you forget I said that?" Ochako asked sheepishly, embarrassed by her heat-of-the-moment battle cry.
"Not happening, 'Next Symbol of Peace'. Since there's another zone on the way, we should head in and see if any of our classmates are in there."
"You want to fight more villains?!" Minoru cried to Tsu.
"We don't know where Izu is but he might be in there. If so, we should check." Tsu reasoned before flashing a small smirk, "You can go talk to Shoji alone if you want."
"DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE ME ALONE! I COULD GET AMBUSHED AND KILLED BY MYSELF!"
"Sounds like you're coming with us then," Ochako replied with a tired smile.
Two minutes prior...
At the entrance, as the black dome finally dissipated due to Thirteen sucking it up, she quickly turned to take a quick count of the students she still had while Kurogiri worked to recollect himself. Shoji, Iida, Ashido, Sero, and Sato. Only five of their twenty students and Midoriya was one of the ones missing. Considering the state he was in, Thirteen began to sweat under their suit, nervous for what could happen. Aizawa had told them about the anklet used to monitor Midoriya's location which meant that whatever was jamming the alarm was also jamming it from reaching the police.
Shoji created as many eyes and ears as he could to survey the entire building.
"Shoji, got them? Anything?" Iida asked anxiously, not once looking away from Kurogiri as the villain continued reforming himself.
"Our classmates have been scattered all over the facility but all of us are still here." Shoji replied quickly, allowing his classmates to take a breath of relief.
"So, how do we deal with this guy? We can't hit him and he can teleport stuff!"
'I can't be sure that help is already on the way so we need to be sure…'
"Iida, I'll cut you a path for you to escape. Run to the school and tell them what's happen," Iida gasped with surprise at the order, "With no alarms or phones, we're completely isolated. The villain responsible is probably hiding somewhere after being warped in. We can't waste time trying to find him so it would be faster to have you run and get help."
"Yes, I understand that but to leave you all here would be disgraceful."
"Get running, Iida," Sato commanded, "They need to keep us in here with all the alarms outside, right?"
"That means if we can get you out, they won't follow." Sero added, "Blow this dude away with those engine legs."
"Use your quirk to save others! Be a real hero!" "Thirteen instructed. Iida listened to his teacher's words and steeled himself to take off.
"Even if that's your only option, do you think it wise to strategize in front of your enemy?!" Kurogiri launched out another attack to swarm them from all sides.
"Even if you know our plan, it won't make a difference when I'm done with you!" Thirteen activated Black Hole again to suck Kurogiri into their finger. Kurogiri just laughed as he was being sucked up.
"Ah, Black Hole. A powerful quirk that sucks up matter and turns it to dust. It would be a real threat if it weren't for the fact that you're a rescue hero, Thirteen. Battle doesn't come naturally to you so you lack the experience to be a real threat." As Thirteen was thinking about what he was saying, they suddenly felt a massive pull behind them. Kurogiri, as he was monologuing, had opened a warp gate behind Thirteen. Thirteen felt their costume be ripped off of them, along with most of the skin on their back.
"I'm sorry… he got me…" Thirteen quietly let out as they crumpled to the ground.
"Thirteen, no!" Ashido cried out in fear.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
As Kurogiri turned Thirteen's quirk against them, a massive roar caught his attention, shocking Kurogiri. More from how familiar it was than where it was coming from or who was letting it out.
"That couldn't be…"
"Iida, go!" Sato demanded, "Now, while he's distracted!" Iida opened his mouth to protest but his teacher's words to him rang in his ears.
"Use your quirk to save others! Be a real hero!"
'Right… it's what he would do if it were him. I can worry about the roar later!' Iida activated his engines and took off running past Kurogiri while the villain wasn't paying attention, though he soon realized what was happening.
"A sheep trying to run from the wolves? Can't have that." Kurogiri noted, amused at the attempt before opening up a gate in front of Iida, "If you escape, more heroes will arrive and make it harder for us to kill All Might."
'This responsibility was entrusted to me…' Iida thought as his classmates' faces appeared in his head, 'I must keep them safe!'
Shoji jumped out from the side and wrapped the gate in his arms. "Run! I've got him!" Iida nodded as he pressed on for the door.
'The door shouldn't be locked since Thirteen is in charge but will I be able to open it in time?'.
"Impertinent child! There's no way I'm letting you escape!" Kurogiri stretched his mist towards Iida to swallow him up, allowing Ashido to see a black metal casing inside the mist, giving her an idea. "BEGON-ARGH?!" Before he could reach Iida, he could feel a searing pain run through him. He turned back to see his casing was coated in Ashido's acid, causing it to start melting. "You brats! How dare you!?" Kurogiri saw Iida reach the door and began stretching again.
"I don't think so!" Sero shouted as he shot a piece of tape at a part of the casing not covered in acid. Once on, Sato grabbed the tape and spun Kurogiri around with the tape as a tether.
"GET OUT OF HERE!" Sato roared as he launched Kurogiri as far away from the door as he could, sending him flying back towards the plaza. Iida squeezed his way through the door and started running, towards the school, though he only ran for a minute before running into a whole bus of teachers and pros, easily reaching twenty in total as they were led by the principal.
"Principle Nezu? What are-?" Iida was confused. How could they know what was happening already?
"I should be the one asking the questions. What's going on?"
"Villains! Inside the U.S.J.!" Iida quickly boarded the bus as he explained in detail what was happening. Though all it did was make Nezu more concerned, especially after hearing about the roar.
'We're still two minutes away… It'll be close.'
Two minutes prior…
"Ahhh!" Kaminari cried as he tucked under an attack from a large villain, "This is terrifying! My whole life flashed before my eyes. I'm seeing the Grim Reaper, dammit!" As he was screaming in fear, Jirou and Yaoyorozu were busy fending off other villains with a sword and staff respectively.
"Will you bring it down a couple notches and help? We ain't gonna escape with you running around being a crybaby!" Jirou yelled out in annoyance.
"Then give me a weapon too!"
"You're the one with the lightning. Just zap them so we can run," Jirou suggested, irritated by her classmate's lack of help.
"Were you not paying attention? I can coat my body in electricity but if I shoot it out, it'll just go everywhere! What, you want shock treatmen-?"
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Much like everywhere else, everyone in the Mountain Zone stopped dead in their tracks. Jirou quickly shook it off before the villains could, leaving an opening for her to kick Kaminari into the nearest villain.
"Get them, human stun gun!"
"What, seriously?!" Kaminari yelled as he crashed into the large villain that was fighting him and let out a large current, shocking the villain senseless. "Whoa, this works! I'm so powerful! Just leave it to me!"
'A second ago, he was a cowering idiot. Now he thinks he's awesome? Pick a mood already.'
"Let's see you shock this rock, kid!" A villain with a giant boulder attracted to their hand shouted before Jirou destroyed it with a massive sound wave shot out from her boot's speaker. His hand, however, kept flying and smacked Kaminari in the face, getting him a nice juicy shock as well. Yaoyorozu threw a net to catch another villain before he could stab Kaminari, letting him get electrocuted too.
"We're lucky that worked in our favor!"
"I'm sorry, but I didn't have time to ask to save our butts-!" Before she could finish, a red and green blur dove in from above, crashing into the crowd of villains with a massive cloud of dust shrouding him.
"What was that?!" Kaminari asked as the three regrouped together. The villains were all too busy watching the sudden intruder.
"Backup from one of our classmates?" Yaoyorozu theorized. As the dust settled, the three could finally see who came. Dragged along in his hand was another villain, completely limp and showing no signs of movement before being dropped unceremoniously onto the dirt. The green figure stood up, red aura sparking. "That's Midoriya's costume but…" A villain with a blade ran up and tried to backstab Izuku but just as he was about to, the boy vanished from sight.
"Where'd he-Urgh!" Izuku, moving too fast for anyone to follow, drove his boot into the back of the man's skull, driving him into the dirt with a horrific curb stomp.
"Look out! He's fas-taghck!" Driving an elbow into the nearest villain, Izuku dropped another foe before grabbing him and throwing him into another and pounding him with his comrade till he stayed down. And then hit him again for good measure before moving onto the rest.
"What… What the hell's going on?" Jirou asked, though she received no answer. The three watched as a few villains attempted long-range, only to do little more than destroy a part of Izuku's costume, with the mask covering his face cracking slightly under the barrage. Any wounds they did merely healed in seconds.
"I thought Midoriya said his quirk was warping but why is he glowing?!" Kaminari shouted before Izuku's shadow rose from the ground, shocking everyone as it took on the appearance of the boy and immediately rushed down one half of the villains while the real one took the other, "And what's with that shadow?! Does he have something like Tokoyami?!" Any villain that wasn't immediately being beaten to a pulp, attempted to flee in terror at the monster before them, to no avail.
"It seems that he hasn't been completely honest with us from the start." Yaoyorozu, the only one still able to maintain even a facade of composure as she watched Izuku mercilessly destroy any villain in his path. 'Is this really Midoriya? This barbaric monster that's like something out of a horror novel?' A villain popped out of the ground and wrapped his arms around the real Izuku and let out a massive electrical burst into the boy, stunning him briefly but he quickly recovered with the assist from his shadow delivering a massive blow to the back of the villain's head. After being released, Izuku gave a finishing kick and sent the bad guy flying down the mountain. Yaoyorozu and co. just stared in awe as Izuku, completely alone, wiped out every villain around them like he was swatting away flies. His shadow returned to his master's side before fading back into the ground. Izuku began looking around at the various villains, as if looking for something. He then turned his attention to his classmates.
"Oh god!" Kaminari shouted as Izuku started the slow walk towards them. Jirou and Yaoyorozu both readied their weapons, conflicted about how they were feeling. I Midoriya was their classmate but after watching him destroy villains like they were nothing, were they next?
"Midoriya, we're your classmates!"
"Yeah, don't fight us!" Jirou added, though their composure broke at the same time as Izuku's cracked mask. There were no more doubts as they saw Izuku's face, twisted into a monstrous visage. Burning red eyes locked into a permanent glare, teeth bared as what sounded like a beastly growl escaped it. His right hand rose towards Jirou as he approached, with Kaminari immediately jumping in front to stop him with an electrical shock.
"You won't hurt my friends!" Kaminari shouted as he let out as much power as he could manage, though it only seemed to irritate the beast he was latched onto. Izuku grabbed him by the collar, lifted him up and set him back down to the side before continuing. Yaoyorozu took a swing with her metal staff, which broke from Izuku backhanding it out of his face. Jirou finally slashed at him in fear, only for Izuku to catch it with nothing but his bare hand.
'We… we didn't even faze him…' Kaminari thought as his quirk deactivated from the terror.
'Is this the end…?' Yaoyorozu tried desperately to think of something but her mind went blank. She couldn't remember any molecular structures to make anything complex... but even if she did, she didn't know what to make.
'I'm… I'm not ready to die,' Jirou closed her eyes and braced herself for her impending doom.
But it never came.
"I'm borrowing this…" A voice growled that sounded like twenty people all talking in unison came from Izuku. She felt a hand gently touch her's as the sword was gingerly taken from her. Izuku then turned and began walking away, only stopping to make another shadow, which immediately took off for another zone while he looked towards the plaza.
"Shigaraki… I'll make you pay for what you've done… And when I'm done… I'm coming for you next, All For One…" As the three watched Izuku leave, unable to process what happened, all three felt their legs give out as they dropped to the floor. Once her brain started working again, Yaoyorozu looked around and noticed that all of the weapons the villains had brought were broken, likely by Izuku destroying them himself. But that just raised more questions.
"Who's Shigaraki?" Kaminari asked, still shaking. He looked at Jirou, who seemed completely out of it as if she just finished staring Death himself in the face, "Who's All For One? What the hell just happened!?"
Yaoyorozu didn't immediately answer, taking a moment to compose herself.
"It doesn't matter right now. We need to find our classmates and head to the exit. Midoriya seems to be in enough control of himself that he could tell we weren't his enemies even after we attacked him. Thirteen was concerned about Midoriya's wellbeing before so it's likely the teachers know about Midoriya's condition. We'll just have to have faith in them for now."
"Okay… but if he comes back to finish the job, I'm blaming you."
"Hmph, I guess that's fair," Yaoyorozu turned to Jirou, who still hadn't moved, "We should get Jirou to the entrance before we do anything else. She seems to be in shock."
"Right, I'll take the left," Yaoyorozu nodded as she and Kaminari lifted her up and draped her arms around their shoulders to carry her. 'I don't think she's the only one… It's taking everything I have not to drop to my knees here…'Kaminari thought back to being in Izuku's presence before. 'That crazy power mixed with that look of pure pissed off anger… what the hell happened to him?'
Ochako and co. ran into the Downpour Zone, desperate for any sign of Izuku but all they could see was a dark fake city and enough rain that all three were drenched even worse then when they were swimming in the Flood Zone.
"Anyone see 160 centimetres of screaming lunatic with red hair?" Minoru asked as he tried to shield his eyes from the wind and rain.
"I'm not seeing him in here." Tsuyu replied, having no such difficulty with the weather but the darkness was proving an issue. Ochako suddenly heard a loud slam a street over.
"I think I hear fighting nearby. Come on!"
"Why do we always have to run towards the danger?!"
"Because that's what heroes do, Mino!" As the three arrived, Tokoyami and Koda were busy with three more villains who seemed too preoccupied with their current prey to notice them. Ochako and Tsu quickly jumped two of them, slamming them to the ground. Minoru, attached to Tsu's back, threw two grapes into the third villain's eyes, allowing Tokoyami to swat him into the nearest wall with Dark Shadow.
"You three certainly know how to make an entrance." Tokoyami praised as Koda sighed with relief at the reinforcements.
"You two okay?" Ochako asked with concern as she got off her unconscious opponent.
"We're fine. Just a little shaken up. I can't believe villains could get into U.A. of all places," Tokoyami answered as Koda nodded quietly from behind.
"Well, they did and now we need to get them out," Tsu replied bluntly, "Have you guys seen Izu anywhere?"
"Midoriya? No, he wasn't with us," Tokoyami replied, before he remembered something, "By the way, is he related to that roar from earlier? It sounded... human-like in nature, unlike those beasts we saw earlier."
"We don't know," Minoru lied, "But we're concerned still since it wasn't one of the monster the villains brought."
"That is concerning..." Tokoyami agreed with a solemn look on his face, "We should leave immediately and find him and the rest of our classmates."
"Shoji should still be at the entrance. Let's head there!" Ochako proposed, everyone nodding in agreement as they ran as fast as they could out of the Downpour Zone. 'Please be safe, Izu...'
Todoroki stood in the middle of the Landslide Zone, more annoyed than anything else as the would-be villains around him stood frozen in his ice, completely unable to harm him or anyone else.
"This is pathetic. You're adults and yet you've haven't put up anything vaguely resembling a real fight." A villain tried to surprise attack him but was quickly frozen just as Todoroki dodged his spear attack. 'They insult us by sending these low-level thugs to kill us. That must mean that the only real threats are those brain monsters and the leaders since they stayed to fight the pros head on. I need more intel to work with.' Before Todoroki could begin questioning one of the human popsicles, a black shadow darted past his peripheral. He quickly turned to look, ice at the ready, to see a black shadow man dashing past the Landslide Zone towards the Fire Zone. 'None of my classmates have a quirk like that so it must be one of the villains. I won't let him get away!' Todoroki sent a massive wave of ice after the shadow which reacted to the encroaching flood of cold with a swift, powerful kick, shattering it before it could reach him through sheer wind pressure. "What?!" The shadow, without missing a step, continued on to the next zone. "Get back here!" Todoroki shouted as he used his ice to push himself after the shadow.
"He j-just left u-us here!" One villain complained as he shivered from the cold.
"S-someone… h-help!" Todoroki ran into the Fire Zone, far behind the much faster shadow and immediately realized he was at a disadvantage.
'This fire lowered the humidity in here so I have less ice to work with. I'll need to be careful as I can't just overpower everyone like the last group.' After a search of the Zone, he eventually found Ojiro staring down the shadow while surrounded by unconscious villains, his face nervous. Todoroki shot another wave of ice at the figure who swiftly dodged it.
"I thought I was the only one in here," Ojiro remarked, happy to see Todoroki come to his aid.
"You were. I came in from the Landslide Zone next door. I'm after that one."
"Really? I thought he was one of ours since he just took out all these villains for me."
"What?" Todoroki asked as he turned to look at Ojiro, confused that the shadow was fighting with them, not against them. He turned back to the figure, only to see it had vanished. 'I let my guard down and he got away.'
"There was something else about it that was weird."
"Like?"
"It was a lot rougher and less refined but… it fought kinda like Midoriya does," Todoroki didn't immediately respond, as if the statement made no sense.
'It fought like him? That doesn't make any… hmm… Wasn't there a weird rumor going around? I'll need to look into this.'"Ojiro, we shouldn't stay here." Todoroki stated as he pointed to his melting ice. "We should regroup with our class now."
"I hear that."
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Well, Aizawa was right. It could get worse and it sure did. He recognized that roar in an instant after hearing so many times in the last six months. Midoriya had let Rage Shroud enter Second Step. Everyone took note of it but only Shigaraki and Aizawa had any luxury of actually thinking about it for a length of time longer than two seconds. Aizawa watched as the villain turned to the location of the roar, almost shocked by its appearance before immediately scratching his neck.
"You all are an odd bunch to let something like him roam your halls," Aizawa did his best to keep a straight face but part of his frustration seeped through.
'Damn, he knows it's Midoriya!'
"I was under the impression that this was a place for heroes and you let the thief Noh, one of our Nomus no less, into U.A. as a student? Damn, if I knew standards were that low, I'd have applied myself and just killed everyone in their sleep."
"Aizawa… what's he... talking about?" Paranormal asked, out of breath. His arms and legs wavered after holding and smashing the Multi-Nomu into the concrete enough times that there's a whole in the ground five meters deep. Paranormal finally dropped to his knees, gasping for air. "I-I can't… hold it… anymore…"
"Paranormal, you overexerted yourself. What did I tell you about rationing your power?"
"I must have forgotten that lesson," he said with a smile, "Sorry, Eraserhead…" The Multi-Nomu jumped out of the hole completely unharmed. Paranormal tried to use his power again but the Nomu grabbed his arm and snapped it like a twig between his fingers. "AAAARGH!" Aizawa tried to save his student but, its quirk being a mutant-type, it only ended up being completely ineffectual as even his capture tape was useless. The monster pulled Aizawa in by the tape and caught him by the head before slamming him into the ground hard. It quickly broke Paranormal's other arm, held him up by it, and punched him away with a fist to the face, shattering the glass dome around his head.
"Aizawa!" All Might shouted before having to block another attack.
"Raahil!" Echobat and Azurite cried out before their Nomus were on them again. The Multi-Nomu proceeded to give the same treatment to Aizawa, crushing his arms beneath his feet as he held him down.
"How pitiful. I was expecting a little more fight from all these heroes but I guess it can't be helped. Though I've got to say, I'm a little disappointed that you claimed that you could win in ten minutes and in less than five, you're already down two of them," As he was monologuing, Kurogiri returned, looking heavily winded, "Ah, Kurogiri, I take it Thirteen's been dealt with?" He said in a disparate calmness to the brutality in front of him.
"I've incapacitated them but there were a few students I was unable to disperse and one of the them managed to escape the facility. Backup will be here soon and my casing's been damaged by what appears to be acid. I'm barely able to hold it together as it is now. I might only be able to make a portal big enough for the two of us one more time. Anymore and we risk being trapped here."
A long period of silence began between the both of them as they just stared at each other.
"Grrr…" Shigaraki began to furiously scratch at his neck in irritation, "Kurogiri, you fool! If you weren't our warp gate, I'd tear apart every last atom in your body!" The scratching suddenly stopped as he began to relax. "There's no way we can win if dozens of pros show up to stop us. And in your condition, we can't even bring the Nomus with us. It's game over. Back to the title screen. And here I was hoping to see them die in person. Dammit. Oh well, let's go home."
"What about the roar?"
"What about the roar? Who cares? The bastard might have destroyed my sister's hand but if the Nomus can kill All Might, they'll kill him easily. I just have one thing left to do today and we'll be off."
"What are you doing?!" Izuku shouted as he floated in the abyss of his own mind. Even if he could see what was happening, he couldn't do anything of his own volition. He was a passenger in his own body now. Even worse, the voice from before had gone silent ever since he let it out. "Why aren't you saying anything?! Why didn't you just say you wanted the sword instead of scaring them?! And what are you going to do with the sword?! I told you no killing!"
Still nothing. Izuku watched his body, sword in-hand, make its way to the plaza. He could make out parts of the fight. Paranormal was face up into the ground not moving, arms mangled. Aizawa was lying underneath the six-armed Nomu, his head shoved into the concrete. Echobat was trying to fight off her airborne foe but was losing ground and was being pushed back. All Might was dealing blow after blow but having no luck against his massive Nomu enemy while Azurite could at least stop her's from hitting her.
"This is bad… They're losing. We've got to help!" Suddenly, the boy's body started moving much faster as he saw Shigaraki stand over Paranormal's lifeless body.
"I don't like leaving a quest half-finished so I might as well finish you o-" As Shigaraki leaned down to put his hand on Paranormal's face, a small pebble flew past his ear.
*Pop* *SCHLICK* None of the Nomus reacted fast enough. Kurogiri didn't even have the power to do anything to stop it. Even Shigaraki didn't see it coming, All of the heroes still conscious merely looked on in shock.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHUGH!" Shigaraki cried out as he stared at what was left of his right hand. A clean slice from where his thumb would have been connected to where his pinkie would have been ran across his ruined palm. He jumped back as far as he could as he saw who it was. "Izuku", aura much bigger than it's ever been before and lightning sparking so frequently that there's never a moment where there wasn't a spark flying, stood shaking with rage as he clutched his bloodied sword. "You little shit! I'll kill you for that!"
"Shigaraki… Kurogiri... I'LL MAKE YOU BOTH PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO US!" "Izuku" shouted as he took off running, blade in-hand. "i'M NOT GONNA LET YOU HURT ANYONE ELSE!"
"Tomura, we're-ugh!" Kurogiri tried to surround Shigaraki but the two were ambushed by Bakugou and Kirishima. Bakugou grabbed the metal casing holding him down while Kirishima tried to land a blow to Shigaraki but was evaded.
"Can't block my attacks now that I found your weak point, huh, ya mist bitch!"
"Damn, he dodged me."
"Shit! Nomus, kill the brats!" Shigaraki cried out, causing all the Nomus to attempt to break off from the heroes but only Multi-Nomu and Wing-Nomu had any luck. All Might suplexed Muscle-Nomu into the ground while Speed-Nomu wasn't so speedy around Azurite and was quickly beaten back. The Wing-Nomu nearly reached Bakugou before the boy could even react to what was happening but he was swept up by Echobat just in time.
"Let go of me, they're gonna get away!"
"Be glad you're not dying today, kid!" As the Wing-Nomu tried to follow after Echobat and Bakugou, The Multi-Nomu placed itself between Shigaraki and the charging "Izuku".
"OUT OF MY WAY!" "Izuku" demanded as he dodged the monster's attempt to grapple him with a warp to his shoulders, stabbing the sword into his exposed brain repeatedly, causing it to shriek out as its limbs began to stop responding to commands to kill him.
"Stop it!" Izuku screamed from inside his own mind as he watched his body viciously stab Multi-Nomu to death but to no avail. "Izuku" jumped off of its shoulders before chopping its head off with a clean slice as he landed on the ground, shocking everyone as they saw Multi-Nomu drop to the ground and finally stay down. Kurogiri, now free, wrapped himself around Shigaraki as the boy closed in. "Izuku" readied a slice to Shigaraki's head but the portal closed just as his blade swished by.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGHHH!" "Izuku" roared as Shigaraki escaped. He saw the Wing-Nomu fly towards him but it soon lost the fast-moving monster of a boy as well as its head as "Izuku" cut that off too. He eyed the other two Nomus and started rushing towards them as Tsuyu, Minoru and Ochako finally arrived on the scene with Tokoyami and Koda in tow. On the other side of the plaza, the rest of the scattered class including Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, Ojiro, Jirou and Kaminari.
"Is that Midoriya?" Ojiro asked, confused by the crimson monster.
"Yeah, we ran into him earlier and he was like that," Kaminari answered, "Scared the hell out of us, especially when he made a shadow of himself."
"Wait, that shadow came from him?" Todoroki inquired, with Yaoyorozu nodding.
"It would seem that there's so much more to Midoriya then what he's let us see…" she looked to the freshly decapitated head, disgusted as well as scared, "even his more feral side..."
"This is horrible…" Tsu muttered as she took in the scene. Two dead bodies, two near-dead heroes and two more fights going on between All Might, Azurite and their respective Nomus. Minoru barfed from seeing all the blood and severed heads which unfortunately led to Koda following suit.
"This has to stop, now!" Tokoyami urged as he watched "Izuku" close in on the Speed-Nomu. Ochako ran to Aizawa, the only person who could stop "Izuku" and helped him up to look at Izuku with her quirk. Aizawa, barely conscious, took one look at the boy and watched him as all the anger in his face disappeared and the boy fell forward, out like a light.
"Turn me to the other Nomus…" Aizawa's raspy and pained voice directed, with Ochako using her quirk to pick up her teacher and assist him. He looked at the Muscle-Nomu first.
"Alright, time to wrap this up! If 100% isn't enough, then how about a little more?!" All Might grabbed the bruiser by the arm and threw him upwards before throwing him back down to the ground hard enough he bounced off the concrete. "Time to go beyond!" All Might reeled his arm back and with all his power," PLUS… ULTRA!" drove it straight into the Nomus gut, launching him through the roof and into the sky. Aizawa turned to the Speed-Nomu, which gave Azurite the cue to go.
"Fully charged!" The cold aura around her vanished as she punched the Nomu hard enough to shatter every bone in its torso before cocking her leg back, "Galactic..." and kicked the Nomu in the chest, " PUNT!" and sent it too flying out the hole All Might left in the roof.
"They were able to absorb our blows before but with that gone, I doubt they'll get back up from that!" All Might reassured the students after watching All Might and Azurite work together.
"Echo, get Para some help. I need to go discharge before I accidentally break something," Azurite ordered as she walked to the Flood Zone and immediately dove underwater. Followed seconds later by a plume of water ten meters high exploded out, shocking everyone watching.
"Right," As she worked on checking Paranormal, All Might rounded up the loose students into one group at the base of the stairs. Hagakure and Aoyama arrived soon after, both hiding out somewhere during the chaos.
"I know you've all seen a lot today. Some of which I would have preferred you'd never have to. But, for now, put it out of your minds until the police arrive and just focus on returning to the entrance and get to safety."
"All Might, I think we're owed an explanation. What was thatwith Midoriya?" Todoroki demanded as he pointed to the boy still on the ground, with the students not in the know nodding. Ochako, Tsuyu and Minoru all looked at All Might, concerned as they carried the unconscious Aizawa. All Might looked over his shoulder to Izuku, still lying where he fell like everyone was too afraid to go near him.
"That you are, but it's a long story and we're still in danger. I ask you to wait until after school today. Then we'll explain everything." The class didn't seem all that enthused by the answer, but none of them had any energy or will left to argue with All Might.
"We'll hold you to it." All Might flashed a smile and a thumbs up at the agreement.
Just then, the doors to the entrance flew open, allowing the staff and other pro heroes to rush in just as several villains started to wake up.
"Don't worry everyone! I've brought help!" Iida shouted triumphantly as he followed them in.
"Oh, thank god," Ashido sighed with relief. Sato and Shoji, the two holding Thirteen up on their shoulders, handed them over to two heroes they didn't recognize before being escorted out with the others.
"Our first priority is the safety of our students!" Nezu ordered with a smile from atop Vlad King's shoulder, before he caught a look at the plaza and all the devastation therein. "Oh dear… it seems it was worse than we thought…"
Within eight minutes, five more before help arrived, all the villains were rounded up and all the students were safe. Though for most of them, they were far from joyous after everything that happened.