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“Look out!”
Midoriya dodged out of the way of a bone spike just as it surged out of the wall, grazing his skin.
Landing on a large piece of concrete, he tried to ignore the fight happening on the other side of the enormous wall of bone that circled himself, Uraraka, Todoroki, and Shoji. He was sure the rest of them were surrounded similarly, but he couldn’t know who was with who, and most importantly,
What villain they were facing.
At first, there were two. A man with a mutation quirk, and a woman. She was the one who made these walls of bone and skin, deforming her own body in the process. The man was separated from her right at the beginning of the fight, so unless he had a duplication quirk, this plan wouldn’t have worked for so long with no backup.
They knew next to nothing about this fight.
“Todoroki, I need you to keep her distracted while we think of something, but don’t take any unnecessary risks.” The other nodded, running a few meters away so the other three wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire.
“Do you have any ideas?” Shoji asked, with two eyes on the fight and another two searching for a fault in the protruding walls.
Midoriya shook his head, watching as every ice spike was met with bone and skin coming from the wall. The woman was walking with no clear goal,large splatters of blood falling from her arms every now and again. She would drag her foot in the blood to connect the splatters too. A pattern.
“She can only use her quirk where her blood is, so there is a limit.”
Uraraka frowned and looked back at the walls surrounding them. “So they planned this beforehand.”
He nodded. “I’ll help Todoroki keep her distracted, you two go over the wall, see what villains we’re dealing with and help connect us. Kirishima, Bakugou, Satou, someone should be able to break through the walls, but they’ll need an opportunity.”
“Understood! Let’s go, Shoji!”
“Right with you,”
They both ran further away to avoid the villain’s attention, and Deku ran over to Todoroki to help him with the fight. Right as he landed, a wall of flesh surged to break them apart,
Deku quickly went to kick it, hoping it would break apart,
He didn’t expect the woman to grunt in pain as it did so.
“Don’t count on it,” Todoroki used his flames to keep her at bay, forcing the woman to step back. “Not even burning those things will slow her down,”
“Those things aren’t bleeding though, that’s good for us.” He lunged towards her with his fists ready, only to hit another wall of bone. At least it shattered with little effort.
Though, looking towards the larger, and much thicker walls around them, he doubted it would be so easy to get to the others.
As she staggered back, not looking at them, Deku had to remind himself this could very well be the League attacking again. Even if the League was clear on their intentions, no one said they couldn’t get a couple more members who didn’t broadcast plans to their opponents.
“Who are you?!” He went back to Todoroki’s side, watching her every move.
The woman’s entire body was deformed now, most likely from overusing her quirk.
Just then, the broken shards of bone and scattered bits of flesh melted into her blood and back to her, fixing the damage in a gruesome way. Sacrificing the area she could use her quirk on in order to fix her strategy.
“Who sent you?!” Deku yelled at her.
She snapped her neck towards them, and Todoroki got ready to burn anything that approached.
But nothing happened. “Fire and Iceborn… And the strength of an army…” She shook her head, throwing tiny specks of blood around them. “… You have lasted for too long.”
Right as she said that, small appendages with sharp bone on them started to wriggled towards them rapidly, giving Izuku almost no time to react;
He grabbed Todoroki and dodged, putting a good distance between them. “Break the wall, I can keep her busy.” He groaned, already rising a massive wall of ice to trap all the appendages.
Midoriya didn’t question it, and went towards the closest wall of bone, raising his fist to punch through it—
Instead, a sharp and thin piece protruded from the wall, almost hitting him in the eye.
Looking back towards Todoroki, he saw the woman looking straight at him, then turn back to step away from the fire.
But the good thing was how tired she looked. And Todoroki’s fire bothered her more than the ice did. They could do this. If she fell, maybe the walls would too, but even if they didn’t at least they could safely break through.
So Deku ran back to Todoroki, shouting, “Try using your flames more, give me a warning, and I’ll come in to knock her out.” Todoroki nodded and switched to his left side, surrounding her with fire.
The woman was getting more desperate as the flames rose, sloppier in her evasions, and had given up on watching her surroundings, but Todoroki was still quiet.
Finally, a large amount of blood was splattered, bone and flesh surrounded her, and right as she made to attack Todoroki called, “MIDORIYA!”
He went for it, the woman was too focused on her task to notice him, until after Deku landed his kick, sending her across the circle of bone and flesh. The woman stayed, tried to get up, to move towards them, but fell again, staying down this time.
“Did we do it?” Todoroki asked, trying to see where the woman landed.
Without any sign of moving other than groaning and turning in pain, “I think so…” Todoroki sighed in relief, and they ran over to the wall once again.
It stood as tall as it was at first, with no signs of giving out. Worth a try, at least she wouldn’t create more of those.
Todoroki started to freeze the bone to weaken it, and Midoriya would be the one to break it.
He sighed, throwing his head back and with his eyes closed. Hopefully everyone would be okay, and they could arrest the villains without any hiccups.
“All done.” He opened his eyes slowly, and then froze.
The man from before was standing right on the top, and ready to throw something at them.
Without thinking, Midoriya pushed Todoroki out of the way, feeling a sharp pain on the back of his head instead. He tried to open his eyes and look at the other boy, but Todoroki was unconscious.
Still dizzy, Izuku turned to look at where the man was, and saw him climbing down the wall using large claws and a long tail that ended in a sharp tip. Once he reached the ground, he looked first towards where the woman was, then back at Izuku and Todoroki, and broke out laughing.
“Hahaha! Look at ya, whore! Couldn’t even handle a couple of little school boys!! Man,” The man got in a fighting stance, claws out and flashing large teeth towards Izuku. “How times change.”
Izuku charged first out of desperation; For himself, for Todoroki, for the rest of his friends —Desperation to escape this, and immediately regretted it. His punch missed the target, and couldn’t get out of the way in time, leaving an opening for the man to grab him by the neck and push his head down. Then switched to grab Izuku by the throat and quickly moved to the wall, lifting Izuku up to—
“AAAHH!” Drop him on a bone spike, now covered in his blood and coming out right below his ribcage. He knew he was hyperventilating and that he needed to stop. Focus. Find a way out, but the dizziness and now this pain ruined all chances Izuku had at thinking clearly.
“You… Are a pathetic…” He heard the woman grunt, clearly still in pain. “… Bastard…” She seemed to be better now, but Izuku couldn’t see them; he felt sick, ready to throw up and pass out. “Ugh… Who should’ve died… With the rest of his vermin…”
He heard a growl, and what he assumed was the man punching the wall. “Do your damn job right next time, or you’re gonna look just like that guy back on the other side.”
What?… What happened- Who is he talking about?!
“Wa-wait- You two- You can’t-”
“Eh? Ya still breathing?” Izuku cracked an eye open to look at them. The man had dark hair and black markings all over his skin, and he was smiling widely, showing sharp teeth. “Still not doing your job, bitch~”
The woman had brown hair and white marks on her hair and skin, and she looked pissed off. “Leave him there.” She said, and then glanced down and let her blood drop below him.
Three more spikes surged, two through his leg, another through his side. He screamed again, adrenaline pulsing through his body but with no outlet.
The man cackled. “So you didn’t magically grow a conscience, you just got fucking weaker! Good to know!”
She turned around to walk off, the other side of the wall dissipating to return to her and fix more of her body. “Shut your filthy trap for once.”
“Don’t play high and mighty with me, fuck face.”
That was the last Izuku heard, as his breaths were too loud and so was his mind. He didn’t see much, just tried to get out of the situation with no success at all, only worsening his pain more and more. All of that ignoring the terror at the back of his mind at those words. Someone was hurt, badly, and he couldn’t do anything to help-
“Midoriya…? Shit!-” Todoroki stumbled over to him, freezing the smaller spikes to break at the base and remove them easier. The large one impaled below his ribcage however, that took more time.
Todoroki had to use his ice to get up higher and carefully helped Izuku out of there, both terrified of what might happen sooner or later, but he couldn’t stay suspended like that.
Thankfully, the sounds of an ambulance were close by now.
Todoroki put Izuku on his back and raced over to the sound, almost crying in relief when he saw a group of paramedics running in his direction. From where he was, Izuku could see most of his classmates, beaten and roughed up, but all of them fine.
As they put him on the stretcher and someone explained to him he was the luckiest person on Earth: by a miracle, nothing major was hit, and he would be just fine despite everything. Not even one inch, and it would have been catastrophic. Although, as he saw people moving outside, one face caught his attention in the middle of it all.
Shinsou was standing near another ambulance, his chest covered in blood but with no one looking over him. Someone else’s blood then.
While everyone else looked relieved, Shinsou’s expressions changed from distraught, to murderous.