Chapter Text
“Thank you everyone for coming! We love you all!” The members of SixTONES bow to the cheering crowd, hands clasped together. They begin to file offstage, still waving and blowing kisses to their audience.
Once inside the dressing room, they instantly collapse into a state of relaxation, not yet bothering to change their clothes.
This is their last concert of the week, and they are positively exhausted.
It’s been an entire week of running here and there, doing concerts, fanmeets, shooting videos for their Youtube channel. They knew it would be like this; they’ve been training for this nearly their whole lives, after all, but it still didn't make it any less stressful or tiring.
They make to get up and get out of their concert attire, when a loud crash outside startles them. Panicked screams can be heard inside their waiting room, along with the sound of chaos unfolding.
The members of SixTONES take one look at each other before swiping their fingers across their bracelets. The second their transformations are complete, they’re walking out the door of their dressing room, running down to the exit while avoiding contact with people. Upon making it outside, they’re frozen in their tracks.
The monster they can see is gigantic; it looks like a humongous bug, every part of it so black its surface seems to swallow light. It has six arms that end in razor sharp points, and it walks on two more legs, something nobody ever wants to see a bug doing, not to mention one the size of the fucking Tokyo Tower.
The worst part of it all, is that they can hear sounds coming from it. At first, it just seems like unintelligible animalistic growls, but as the Angels’ ears adjust…
Need… energy. Angels… need… angels. Food is here… on this puny world.
“Am- am I tripping out, or can I actually understand what he’s saying?” Taiga’s eyes are wide in fear. “It's not just you. This one is definitely more intelligent than the others,” Kouchi grimaces as he watches the giant bug wade through crowds as though the people are nothing more than… bugs.
(The thought of whether this could be considered karmic justice flashes through their minds briefly. A question for another time.)
Luckily, it doesn’t seem to be bothering with regular humans which, considering its motives, makes a lot of sense. Unluckily, it also doesn’t care much about the people it crushes underneath, either.
“Nothing for it, we have to go.” Hokuto takes to the sky and the other five follow, refusing to let him face that… thing alone. They fly in its path, halting the creature whose beady eyes shift to focus on them. Angels. Food. You… are… food. Beautiful… energy.
“I am beautiful, but you can’t eat me.” Taiga creates a hail cloud, releasing its contents on the creature. He decides to start with smaller hailstones, unwilling to expend so much energy so early on. Unfortunately, the monster seems unfazed, the hail falling off of its skin without so much as a scratch. Itchy. Don’t like… itchy. You… are a pesky Angel. Don’t… fight… back… my food.
“Kyomo! Get out of there!” Taiga heeds Kouchi’s yell with no hesitation, flying back to his friends who have gotten the civilians all out of harm’s way, hidden behind a wall of vines Juri made.
Hovering in front of the bug is a purple swirling mist, and then another one opens near where the six stand. As they watch in horror, the bug goes through the mist, half of his body coming out the other end, near the Angels. They jump back just in time to narrowly avoid the creature swiping at them with its arms.
S: Fuck, he’s got portals?!
JL: How far do you think he can teleport like that?
H: I don’t wanna fucking find out. We gotta waste this thing before it gets smarter.
Water bursts out of the fire hydrants and from underneath the manholes, swirling into a tornado of water that Shintaro sends toward the bug. Hokuto grabs debris and gravel, making them denser and then throwing them into Shintaro’s tornado to give it an edge.
The water/debris cyclone beats the bug back, and as it tries to fight it, Jesse brandishes two spears of light, as sharp as he can get them to be, before flying behind the creature to stab at its back. The spears make a dent, but really only serve to annoy the creature further, and Jesse doesn’t doubt that if it wasn’t preoccupied with Shintaro’s creation, it would have bitch-slapped the hell out of him.
JL: This guy’s armor is no fucking joke! It’s hard as shit.
Juri pulls roots from underneath the ground, targeting its underbelly with the hope that it's softer than its exoskeleton. It is, but not by much. He succeeds in cutting it with his hardened roots, but unfortunately, the pain angers it. With a roar, it smacks Shintaro’s tornado, the force of it being blasted apart sends the Angels reeling backwards.
“Oh fuckfuckfuck,” Taiga creates acid rain, interspersed with lightning because why the hell not? As the acidity pelts the monster and the lightning wraps around it, another pained screech erupts from its mouth.
Hurts… pesky… pesky Angels. Must… devour… Angels. To their horror, the creature continues to move forward, albeit slowly.
Kouchi feels himself get larger, feels the addition of four more arms, all six transforming until they’re sharp as knives. He wills a portal open in front of him and another one underneath the belly of the beast, before going through, coming up right underneath the monster. He begins to slash at the underbelly with his insect arms, the pained screeches getting louder.
It looks as if this way is going to work, until the colossal bug figures out where the pain is coming from and kicks Kouchi, knocking the Garnet Angel back through the portal with a yelp. “Kou- chan! Are you okay?” Hokuto crouches next to him, brow creased worriedly.
“Fine. I’m fine. But what the fuck do we do about that thing?” The creature roars again, breaking out of the lightning’s electric embrace, its body steaming, exoskeleton spattered with craters from the acid. The Silver Angel collapses, but luckily, Juri is there to catch him, flying back to Hokuto and Kouchi. Shintaro and Jesse join them, their brains working a mile a minute to figure out what else they can think to do.
The space bug is even more incensed, zeroing in on their position, creating another portal. They make to fly back, until growls emerge from behind the Angels, catching theirs and the monster's attention.
They watch in abject horror as what looks to be a horde of zombies dash at the creature, ripping, clawing, biting at its body. No matter how many times the monster kicks at the crowd of the undead, there’s still more left.
“What the hell are you guys having so much problem with one fuckin' thing for?!” A rough voice growls at them, and they see a man who looks to be around their age with spiky, ash-blond hair and eyes that glare at them with a piercing yellow-green, matching his glittering chartreuse wings.
“Bakugou, don’t be an ass. They’re probably new.” A new voice pipes up, coming from a smiling redhead who's got black wings that give off a sheen of violet when they sway, matching the dark pools he’s got for irises. “Sorry about him.” He addresses SixTONES then with a sheepish smile. “He’s a little hotheaded. You guys are doing just fine!”
“Stop talking Yukihira, and just beat the motherfucker!”
The other Angel, Bakugou, flies into the air, facing the monster. A thick swarm of insects swirl around him and bombards the monster when he directs them forward. The bug screeches as insects pelt its face, stumbling backwards on its now unstable two legs.
Yukihira then flies up behind the monster, and as the members look on in awe and bewilderment, the Angel swipes his hand, a black hole appearing right behind it. The gravitational pull from behind, in combination with being pushed by insects from the front, means the space creature is torn apart and its remnants disappear through the black hole.
The black hole goes away and the undead horde crumbles. As they touch down next to SixTONES, the cosmic hazmat suits come back, this time only with the task to restore the world that was destroyed to its original state. When time spins back into its natural progression, the two new Angels turn to the watching group.
“Uh… thanks for saving us,” Kouchi stands up, holding a hand out. He winces at the sharp pain that suddenly pierces through his side. Yukihira takes his hand, shaking it firmly, but gently, with a smile. “Of course, us Angels gotta help each other. Besides, you guys weakened it.” Bakugou scoffs and turns away, but doesn’t retort.
“Ignore him,” Yukihira says with a playful roll of his eyes. “He’s always like this.”
“Can it, asshole.” His partner growls at him, and if looks could kill...
"Oh!" Yukihira starts, remembering something. "It's, uh, it's customary to start with an introduction, I believe. Yukihira Souma, Mage of Antimatter."
He nudges his companion, who sighs, but acquiesces. "Bakugou Katsuki, Mage of the Dead."
It takes SixTONES a good moment to process those before they decide they should return the greetings.
"Yugo Kouchi, Mage of Adaptation."
"Tanaka Juri, Mage of Earth, and this is Kyomoto Taiga," Juri gestures to the still unconscious male in his arms. "of the Weather."
"Matsumura Hokuto, Density."
"Lewis Jesse, Mage of Light."
"Morimoto Shintaro, Liquid! Also, I had a question. Where did you guys- like, how did you find us?” Shintaro asks the question all six have on their minds.
“Ah, we were looking for something to do, when a signal came up from here, so we followed it.”
This statement opens up more questions than it really provides answers. “A signal? Where- how did you receive a signal? We didn’t send any up.” Hokuto is eyeing them warily, although the smile that Yukihira turns to them does ease that a little bit.
“I don’t mind explaining anything you want to know, but we should at least get out of the humans’ way.” That isn’t a statement anyone can argue with, so they all take to the sky. Yukihira goes to Juri, who still has an unconscious Taiga in his arms. “Do you need help with him?”
The Emerald Angel tightens his grip on his friend almost unconsciously. “Oh, no, I’m okay. Thank you, though.”
“Of course, just thought I’d ask.” The eight of them land on the roof of the tallest building nearest to them, Juri setting Taiga down so the other can rest on his lap. Jesse goes over to Kouchi and places one hand on his side, another directly underneath the sunlight.
“So. You asked about the signal. Well, when Bakugou and I were looking at the map, we got six beacons coming from here-"
"Wait, wait, sorry," Kouchi holds up his hand. "map? What map?"
Yukihira looks at them, a baffled look on his face. "You guys don't know about the map?"
"Whoever the hell taught you guys did a shitty job," Bakugou snaps, causing the members' hackles to rise.
"For your information, nobody taught us anything." Jesse speaks out, a frown on his face. "We were just given these… things and then left to figure it out on our own."
The Chartreuse Angel lets his body fall slack, brow furrowing in something that isn't quite anger. His companion smiles at them sympathetically. "Sorry about that, we had no idea. Gotta hand it t'ya, you guys've learned how to use your abilities well enough already, considering you all taught yourselves."
He holds his hand out then. "Take my hand and make sure you're all holding onto each other. I'll show you the map."
Jesse, who’s next to him, eyes his hand warily for a second before deciding they don't really have another choice. He puts his hand in Yukihira's, holding his other out behind him.
When all six are connected, Yukihira extends his other hand to Bakugou, who clicks his tongue and turns away, but not before grabbing his hand, interlocking their fingers together.
The sprawling skyline of Tokyo disappears, once again replaced by the velvet black of deep space. As they hover in it, another iridescent hologram surrounds them.
There's so much to take in that at first, the newer Angels don't quite know what they're looking at.
There are countless spirals, extending all the way to the borders of the map, and then some. Yukihira raises a hand, seemingly picking a spiral at random, and then the map shifts to show multiple areas, all with different amounts of spherical orbs and huge, bright stars.
Yukihira picks a solar system and the map then provides a look at the planets in that system. "See that?" He touches the figure of one of the planets, the map zooming in closer. There are two beacons of light in colors they don't have the words for, pulsating.
"Those are Angels. This is how we found you guys." The members of SixTONES are, to put it simply, absolutely fucking dumbfounded. There is silence for a while as they take it in.
Then the silence becomes too much and they decide they want answers instead. “So, how do you get… here?” It’s Shintaro who raises the question, hand flopping as he vaguely indicates the space around them.
“As long as you’re in your Angel form, you can just think about it, and you should end up here! A lot about us lies in the strength of our minds.”
There’s another silence that falls until Hokuto pipes up, almost hesitantly. “Where are you guys from?”
Yukihira gives him a smile before he turns to the map once more, and with practiced ease, finds what he’s looking for. He points to a large planet in one of the swirling galaxies he had touched on. “Planet Minea, in the Magniyari Galaxy.”
His declaration is met with mystified stares. He chuckles softly. "Yeah, 'm not sure how far, but we're a good distance away from you guys."
"Do- do all Angels have the ability to traverse the universe just like that?"
"Sure we do! It's how we're here now. It's difficult to get the hang of, but you'll know it when you need to make it happen."
His smile becomes a little more mischievous. "Usually though, Angels stay where they're designated to because there's a reason they're assigned there. Bakugou and I, well, we get bored easily."
"C'mon half-wit, we gotta get back. Aldini's gonna yell at you." Bakugou's statement makes his partner wince.
Yukihira smiles at them, friendly and a little apologetic. "Don't beat yourselves up about the monster today, you all seriously did really well. We'll definitely try and contact you if we need saving next time."
Despite the way the battle had gone, and despite having a bunch of information simultaneously dumped on them only to find out they still don't even know the half of what the hell is going on, there is something reassuring knowing they aren't the only ones.
Mostly thanks to how comfortable Yukihira makes them feel, they can all bring grins to their faces to see them off.
"Well, it was really nice to meet you. Hopefully we'll see each other around, but 'til then, stay safe!"
"Don't die, newbies." Bakugou doesn't smile, but he does regard them with a look of something that if they squinted, might even be akin to respect?
And with that, the pair take off into the vast space, hands entwined.
The members watch them until their figures disappear beyond a haze of stars. "How old do you think they were?" Shintaro asks eventually, turning his eyes to the rest of his members.
"They're not even from our galaxy, their time may not even work the same way ours does," Hokuto answers sensibly, violet eyes roaming the diaphanous map.
"Should we head back?"
"I definitely want to," Taiga mutters exhaustedly, the first thing he's said since coming to a little bit ago.
They grab hands again, making sure they were all clearly thinking about home. They land back on the roof they had come from, and use that opportunity to fly to a hidden alleyway and transform back.
The day's events leave everyone tired as all hell, so they part without much fanfare, intent on getting a good amount of sleep to prepare them for whatever else may come.
Hokuto opens and closes his fist, gaze burning holes. Was there a way he could use his ability on himself more efficiently?
Something… the vestiges of an idea, barely there, but it's there, dangles in the back of his mind just out of reach, and he feels like a fucking horse, reaching for a carrot dangling on a stick that he can't get to.
"Fuck!" He falls backwards onto the bed, disliking the idea of having to pull his legs on as well.
So he doesn't. He lays completely still in what is surely the most uncomfortable sleeping position known to man, and falls right the fuck asleep.
Guess his brain had had enough.
His doorbell is what jolts him awake, that weird feeling of displacement after an unexpected midday nap hastening his wakefulness.
The ringing is incessant, and Hokuto can instantly narrow it down to four suspects. "Fuck, shut up, I'm coming!"
He wonders which of his idiots it is as he pulls the door open, before instantly exhaling in slight exasperation.
It's all of them.
From the fact they stopped mid-motion, Hokuto assumes they had been taking turns.
Kouchi is hanging behind them, an apologetic smile on his face as he waves hello. Hokuto's face softens then, and his brow isn't as furrowed when he turns to the others.
(Besides, these four had stupidly cute smiles and Hokuto was weak as fuck to them, and he knew it.)
He does still school his expression into one of unamusement though, because he has a reputation, goddammit.
"You better have a damn good reason for rudely waking me up from a great nap." It wasn't, not really, but they didn't know that.
"We should train," Kouchi says, and Hokuto immediately drops the faux irritation. "Yeah, that works." He says nothing more as he grabs his keys and locks his house.
When they're heading out of the complex, he asks, "Dance studio?" Jesse throws an arm around him. "Smart boy!"
Hokuto sends him a glare that's a lot more impish than it is annoyed. "Of course, the hell do you think I am?"
"Beautiful. I think you're beautiful."
Hokuto rolls his eyes and jabs Jesse in the side with his elbow. "And you're dumb."
(If the reaction was to hide him being flustered, he'd never say.)
"I mean, it's not that hard to figure out. It's the only place we'd be able to have to ourselves easily without question," Taiga points out, snark in his tone and a smirk on his face.
Hokuto directs the same glare to him. "Whatever you say, young master." Taiga sticks his tongue out petulantly, face scrunching in disgust at the nickname. "Fuck you."
"Don't wanna." The resulting glare he gets makes Hokuto grin widely.
"Quit flirting you two, we're here." Shintaro admonishes cheekily, giggling and jumping out of the way of Hokuto's and Taiga's fists.
They enter one of the rooms in the dance studio and lock the door. Even if nobody would see them in their Angel forms, they didn't want to risk someone thinking the room was empty and trying to use it.
Once the transformation is complete, they stand there in silence for a few seconds. "Well. Everyone ready?" Kouchi exhales a quick breath, clapping his hands together.
The group "woo"s half-heartedly, anticipating how difficult this was going to be.
Outside, Juri sits on the ground, palms connected to the Earth. He closes his eyes, breathing slowly, deeply.
He can feel everything; the immovable gravel directly underneath him, the packed, loose dirt and mud underneath that, the roots of the trees and plants stretching out, the little creatures who have made the underground their home. If he concentrates hard enough, he can even feel the other layers leading to the core of the Earth, which is molten, burning hot.
To do the training he needed to do, he needed to unite with the Earth more. He could already utilize her visible characteristics, but it's the ones he can't see that he wants to learn to use.
As Juri continues to explore his kinship with Mother Earth, Taiga takes to the skies. He, too, focuses on connecting with the atmosphere, the vast sky, the countless dotted clouds.
His current battles had shown him that it wasn't enough for him just to use the weather, he had to make it devastating. And to do that, he would need to make them bigger and more frequent. Would he also be able to create two weather anomalies at once?
Taiga exhales. He had his work cut out for him.
Jesse's got an abundance of natural light to work with outside, so he takes his training out there, too. If he could mold light and he could throw it, couldn't he make multiple projectiles? He tries it; forms the light into small bullets and shoots them from his hand upwards.
They're really fucking fast.
He's pretty sure the only reason he can see it go is because he's so focused on it. He isn't sure why he's so surprised, though; when light moves, it moves at lightspeed after all, one of the few universal constants.
Well. That was easier than he had thought.
As Jesse ponders over what else he can try, the three left inside aren't as lucky.
Shintaro sits on the floor, chin rested on his fist. He could control liquid, so what fell in its realm? Water, obviously. Did mud count? What about sweat, saliva?
Blood?
Shintaro sits up straighter, taking a deep breath as his eyes close. He forces his mind to laser focus on any fluid in his vicinity. With delight, he finds that blood is the easiest to detect and grab hold of. He's not sure why, but maybe it had something to do with blood continuously being pumped into every part of every organism.
More than being able to utilize it, however, he had to understand it. Starting with himself, he explored his blood with his mind's eye, learning its material, what it did, how to use its natural flow to coax the blood where you want it to go.
He doesn't attempt to do anything to anyone's blood, nor is he gung-ho about using it often.
So, he focuses on testing other things he can control. At least he knew now that it was an option.
For a long while, Kouchi has no idea what he could do. Adaptation was best tested in the heat of the battle, but he couldn't just wait for that every time.
He needed to get stronger; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to protect them. And if he couldn't even protect his own teammates, how was he supposed to protect the whole Earth?
He decides he'll go outside too, observe all the different evolutions brought about by Mother Nature. He's sure if he has any chance of finding an answer, it'll be from her.
Hokuto is as stumped as he was before he had taken the nap. He grits his teeth, annoyed at his own powerlessness. Powerless… that word piques something in his brain; something… on the tip of his tongue. Phasing.
He gasps. Holy shit. Hokuto chuckles to himself with a mixture of relief and exasperation. He had finally figured it out.
You must be wondering why you've been summoned here. With a hand clutching Kazuya's, Koki shrugs. "We're used to not knowing what to expect from you."
Jin scoffs next to them, clearly not wanting to be here. Yuichi stands next to him, a gentle hand on Jin's shoulder, the only force keeping him from turning tail and getting the fuck out.
Junnosuke and Tatsuya are silent, crowding close to the others as they anxiously await whatever they were called here for.
We will be returning your abilities temporarily.
Well, that wasn't what they expected. "Um, thank you? But… why?" Kazuya smoothes his voice out as he asks; even if the methods were batshit, respect was a given when speaking to them.
This all-encompassing entity in their universe, the greatest force one could ever encounter.
We need you to conduct a test of skill. For a group you know well.
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