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He felt the spike of adrenaline before anything else. Hot and cloying, his heart beating fiercely against his ribcage as the seconds tick by, thrust from the nothingness of unconsciousness to a ferally anxious rage. His sweat, “nitroglycerin-like” in nature, beads at his hairline and drips down his face. The clink of chains clang loudly in his ears as his body jerks uncontrollably, the haze he was in; a defense mechanism for his wavering arrhythmic heart rate. His chest pinches uncomfortably as he thrashes, and he blurrily swims through his memory to find what he remembered last.
That Icy Hot bastard, after all the shit he said to Deku in that hallway he had the gall to use his fire in their fight, only to wimp out when fighting Bakugou himself. It made his blood boil all over again, and he reached for the pops he oh so often used to calm down the rage in his blood, before he finally realized that something was amiss.
The lethargy, that he regarded as simply his overwhelming adrenaline pumping through his veins at the very break of unconsciousness after a hard fought fight, slammed into him as he realized he hadn’t yet opened his eyes. Actually, moving too much at all was still difficult, only spasming in feral jerks in his.. standing? Position.
Snapping his eyes open, his eyelids flutter and the first thing he notices is the metal directly over his nose. A spike of fear caused alarm bells to ring in his head and he started to look frantically around. The room was dark, no windows. Looking down he wasn’t surprised to see quirk restraints on his wrists, though the chains were new. Thick metal chains wrapped around his body and seemed to secure him to a cement pillar, while the others anchored his arms to the ground.
His memory finally returned fully and he realized the face of Todoroki wasn’t the last thing he remembered before he was thrown into unconsciousness. Which, for one, he’ll have a thing or two to say to Recovery Girl after this. It should’ve been in his medical file that his quirk caused low blood pressure, and knocking him out was a dangerous game. Not even considering doing it twice in a row.
He’d just not wanted the fucking metal. His blood boiled at the memory and he let his anger fill his body as the adrenaline woke up his lethargic body and the jerking of chains continued back up in earnest.
Just then a door opened and a woman and man entered while chatting idly. The woman, with a stern expression and a well tailored suit, was speaking with a tall well built man, who quietly followed, along with two others.
The moment Bakugou recognized Todoroki and Tokoyami his struggle was renewed and a string of muffled curses escaped the stuffy metal muzzle. He finally looked around and realized he was chained to a lowered podium, recognizing the distant sound of the cheering crowd far above their heads. Bakugou seethed. Of course they couldn’t just let him leave, what kind of pride would UA have to be so weak as to let a student leave just because they wouldn’t receive a medal? Of course they needed to show him his place. His mom would sure get a laugh when she saw his state.
As the two adults approached, the two students seemed to figure out who they were being led towards. Todoroki’s eyes widened in shock as Tokoyami's feathers puffed up and ruffled distressingly.
“What is this?” Tokoyami asked in disbelief, turning the question to the adults who had led them here.
“Bakugou was being excessively violent and we had to restrain him in order to keep him from storming off and ruining the award ceremony." The taller man looked down and towered over Todoroki as he spoke. “If I remember correctly he acted quite villainously after your battle. It was our intention to restrict that behavior as not to shame the school. I’m sure you understand how that goes?” Todoroki glared, his shoulders hunching to his ears, his eyes turning to the floor, his fists curling into clenched balls.
“But.. isn’t this too excessive?” Tokoyami practically pleaded, thoroughly unnerved by the situation.
The man started to get impatient, looking anxiously at the stern woman who was ignoring the entire situation, distracted by her phone. She waved a hand dismissively and ushering the boys onto the platforms next to Bakugou, who by this point had begun to emit a growl like noise, blood pumping with adrenaline and fear. He had tried to speak through the muzzle around his jaw, only to find a piece of metal lodged between his teeth and against his cheek and lips.
He wouldn’t let himself be scared. Wouldn’t let himself whimper or cry or beg. He wouldn’t be weak for these useless extras. So his growling doubled in its volume and he thrashed around, if nothing else then to rid himself of the adrenaline making him feel as if he would pass out where he stood. He was sweating into the cuffs and the muzzle, unable to spark off and dissipate the excess. He could only passively breathe in the fumes he was only resistant and not immune to.
A sudden jolt beneath their feet made Bakugou pause in his struggle, moving his head left and right to figure out what enemy was going to come at him in his state. But it was just the rising of the podiums. There, next to a chained and bound Bakugou, a stoic and cardboard-faced Todoroki and an uncomfortable and fidgety Tokoyami came into view. One could’ve written off their behavior as stage fright if not for the raging child chained in the middle of a stadium on live television.
As Midnight droned on about the winners and thanking the crowd for their time, saying something about the one with the medals running late, Bakugou had not been paying attention. He had been on high alert since waking, mind in a constant state of survival mode.
Maybe that’s why he saw it. One by one behind the glare of the sun and all the rows and rows of seats and audience. An unforgettable purple portal started to form. And not just one. No, these portals began to appear speckled in corners no one would see unless they were right in the middle of the stadium. Just like Bakugo was in that moment.
His struggle was renewed with a new fervor as he leaned towards Todoroki, pulling on his chains and shouting muffled through the gag and muzzle. Todoroki startled back at first, in the background Midnight made an off color joke about Bakugou being like a rabid animal. At first it looked like Todoroki was going to ignore him as he spat and snarled, but Todoroki was smart, and could see the flicker of desperation and fear in Bakugou's eyes that was different than before.
The moment Todoroki turned his focus directly to Bakugou he began to jerk his head and eyes towards the portals that were still slow in their process of forming. After Bakugou jerked his head back and forth, screaming over and over “OOOOK UUUUUGH OOOOK UUUUHH” before Todoroki finally lifted his gaze above the many rows of bleachers and squinted through the glare. When he finally saw the portals his squinted eyes widened almost impossibly, pupils pinning from the sun and fear. Immediately he jumped down the podium and yanked the microphone from Midnight's hand, startling her so badly she didn’t even stop him as he pulled it forward and shouted with a seriousness that raised the hairs on everyone’s arms.
“THERE ARE VILLAINS COMING! KUROJIRI FROM THE USJ HAS OPENED PORTALS! HEROS AND-“ just as Todoroki had barely managed to say a full sentence, a portal opened straight in front of him, and before he could even bring his ice to his hands, exhausted from the continued battles, a pale and sickly hand reached through and grabbed at his upper shoulder causing dust to start to replace the remnants of his uniform and soon his actual arm.
It was only a few milliseconds before a spike of ice tore up from the ground, only barely nicking the hand before it escaped back into the portal as it popped out of existence. Todoroki was left with his arm held onto his shoulder by a threat of muscle, a great chunk missing and gushing blood. Even with his high pain tolerance he still felt the pinching shred of his muscles and snapping of tendons tear through him as his vision whited.
It took him a moment to realize the screaming he heard wasn’t just his own. Opening his eyes, the world around him spun, in the wake of the first attack on Todoroki, the portals widened and Nomu of all sorts and sizes had flooded into the arena. Midnight, who would likely have been there at that moment helping him, was fighting a Nomu with a gas mask, thoroughly countered. In his pain soaked haze he was just barely able to ice over the shoulder of his arm to hopefully save it. The last thing he thought before passing out was how ironic it was he would lose the arm that created fire on the day he decided to use it again.
…
As Todoroki fell to the ground before Tokoyami's eyes, fear had frozen him. Blood was already flowing down the bleachers into rivers of gore and death. Bile crept its way up his throat as Dark Shadows' voice crooned and skittered in anxious excitement.
“Danger danger, must keep safe, must attack and stop and kill. Come on Fumi, you know we have to, won’t you let me?” It took every ounce of strength in his body to hold back Dark Shadow from letting loose within the mad banquet of darkness.
As his mind raced he heard the sound of small pops and jingling chains. Turning his head rigidly, his eyes widened at the sight before him. If he thought before that Bakugou was struggling he was clearly mistaken, for Bakugou was letting out explosions within the quirk restraints in an attempt to break them from the inside out. It was clear by his expression that it was a painful process, even still it seemed to be doing little to free him. Then Bakugou suddenly turned to him with a restrained lunge and Tokoyami was lurching forward to try and help remove the devices. Some straps were easy to remove, releasing Bakugous legs from the pillar which were immediately added to the attack on the arm restraints.
The arm restraints didn’t seem to have any latches to grab and undo. Even worse, a keyhole seemed the only way to open them. Leaving it for now Tokoyami reached to unstrap the muzzle, probably the only moment in the last hour he thought Bakugou had been still. He vibrated in place as the device was pulled from his face, red marks on the rim of his lips and a trail of saliva and blood following the muzzle's metal mouth piece before it was thrown to the side. Bakugou spat on the ground and let out a yell of fury as another explosion pounded against the metal restraints, his lip curling down in a mixture of agony, terror, and blood scorching rage. Curses fell from his mouth one after another as he tugged on the chains fruitlessly.
A crash of thunder startled them both as they looked into the sky and saw a cover of clouds darken the previous clear blue. A shiver went down his spine as he noticed finally that the strain from Dark Shadow had stopped. Before he could shout a warning, Dark Shadow burst from Tokoyami's body and flew backwards right into the fray of blood and monsters, a bird-like cackle bubbling up from its shadowy beak as its claws extended and rendered deep gashes through a dog-like Nomu as well as the bleacher beneath it.
..
It was all happening too fast. The moment realization filled Todoroki's eyes he was launching himself off the stage, and in front of Bakugou's eyes met a terrifying defeat. Not a few seconds after commandeering the mic Bakugou watched as Shigaraki's hand nearly amputated Todoroki’s arm from his body.
All hell broke loose after that and he had little time to watch Todoroki’s body fall to the ground as the bodies were already piling in the stadium bleachers. Just as Bakugou feared, each portal opened to let through throngs of those terrible creatures from the USJ. He was ready to shout for Midnight, damn his weakness for asking for help, when a Nomu was already beating her into the ground, her quirk no use against the creature's gas mask.
He looked down at the restraints with a ragged determination, swallowing down any last dregs of hesitation or doubt. Without further contemplation he let the sweat that had built up inside the restraints explode. Even with his extreme resistance to his quirk, it still felt like he had burned off all the skin from his hands. The metal rattled and warped but didn’t budge, causing a pained growl to leave Bakugou's lips as he redoubled his efforts to break the thing.
Getting Tokoyami's attention had yielded better results than Midnight, but not enough. With the muzzle off he could finally breathe properly again, quickly expanding his lungs as much as he could to make his blood flow quicker. Being off the damn pillar was also a sight better than on it, adding his legs to his arsenal of weapons. But time ran out as the sky darkened, and Bakugou watched as Dark Shadow took over and started a havoc of its own.
Alone on the podium in the center of madness, unable to defend himself, a quiet hopelessness began to creep in on Bakugou. He covered it up with rage and force as he tugged on his restraints to the point he felt he was going to dislocate his wrists. A scream of rage paired terribly with the indignant tears welling in his eyes that he would kill you for acknowledging.
As he felt the pop of his bone follow the pop of his explosion, the gritted howl through his teeth was overshadowed by a wailing growl. With sweat matted hair stuck to his forehead and falling over his face, he saw through one bloodshot eye the unhinged jaw of a Nomu that looked a mix of a bat and an ape. Its webbed arms and pointy claws were angled forward with its strong back legs and hairy form hanging comically under it. As it flew straight toward Bakugou he started to see the rows and rows of spiraling teeth, and the blood that dripped from them. Closer still it drew, while the chain was kicked without mercy, Bakugou leveraging as much strength as he could on its weak points.
He looked up in terror as its strong hand-like legs dragged against the ground, digging up gravel and dirt, the drag barely slowing the creature.
In the last moment, before all Bakugou could see was the shadowed maw filled with teeth, he thought he heard a distant cry mirroring his own, and a flash of green lightning.
…
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“There was little to be said of the U.A. Sports Festival Massacre. The number of deaths of both student, hero, and civilian are still being counted, and families of those we could identify are still being contacted. All we can say is that U.A has spoken out against the backlash of student Bakugou Katsuki's tragic and preventable death.
Nedzu himself has spoken of the fact he was not present at the time of the attack and had no knowledge of the two unnamed HPSC members who had supposedly been the culprits of this disgusting and inhuman treatment of a minor.
We at the studio would like to add to the online discourse, reminding audience members that they had not reacted to the inhumane treatment of the “volatile” and “villainess” child that you now defend after his death.
Still, it can be predicted that U.A. will never truly recover after this event. Many speculate that the school will be shut down within the next couple of years due to this event. However others have more to say of the HPSC, who have yet to make any statement of Nedzu's claims and further no statement on the massacre itself.
Perhaps this is a wake up call to hero society. Open your eyes and realize that what we have normalized in our every day is just one moment away from bringing another unnecessary and otherwise preventable death to an innocent.”
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