Chapter 66: A Tower in Flames

"Let's focus on the challenge at hand: who is this villain, and how is he so strong?" All Might changed the subject as the hero, student, and infernal snake looked towards their opponent, who seemed less like a man and more forceful of malice given form.

"He wasn't that strong at first. It's the professor's device, designed to amplify quirks, this…" Midoriya paused to keep his balance as the roof continued to shift as its compromised structure was continually ripped apart and because this wasn't a pleasant topic. “This attack was staged by him and his assistant.”

“What?” All Might looked at both, stunned that they'll never make such an accusation, and from David's daughter no less!

But when he looked into her eyes, he could see nothing but an emotional storm. Anger, disappointment, fear, and confusion were the most visible, but there was so much else he couldn't identify at the moment. Seeing that was enough for him to grimly accept. He wished he had more time, that he could speak with David. Part of him wished that it was some big misunderstanding or that his old friend had been tricked or forced into this.

However, he was no fool. He was an old dog, a veteran hero who had reigned as the world's best for decades. Such a long reign came with plenty of experience and chances to refine himself. Because of that experience, while his heart wished for all of that, his gut and mind only needed Mellissa’s look of utter despair and devastation to know such hope would be fruitless. “I see…”

"If this villain's only this capable because of it, then we should aim to smash it. I know this isn't ideal, but can you help me with that?" All Might took a breath and focused on what he could do.

“Of course,” Midoriya could pack up on that before turning to Koharu, still protectively curled around Mellissa. “Koharu, please protect Mellissa.” His snake friend nodded, as this was no place for someone like the Shield girl.

"What about you? You couldn't beat him before." Mellissa asked them, as Midoriya's been throwing all he had at this man, and he shrugged off 2 of Uncle Might's attacks. Couldn't they wait for help to arrive?

"Alone, I couldn't, but the thing is," Midoriya started, his shoulders as the stone fans in his shoulder and chest started to rapidly spin, drawing in air into the glowing, hot pits of his furnace core. “I haven’t been alone this entire time.” At that moment, Wolfram had sent another attack against them. While Koharu scooped up Mellissa and made a hasty retreat, and All Might jumped out of the way, Midoriya remained in place as his jaw fell open.

“Serpent’s Fireball!” With a boom akin to a small volcanic eruption, Midoriya unleashed a titanic, neon-green conflagration of seemingly liquefied fire. With its searing hot depths, churned magma forged in his core while around the fireball, flames seemed to flow off its like air over a cannonball. The attack was well over triple the size of his previous one and, despite its size, moved even faster as it screamed through the air.

Wolfram threw up another shield against it, but this time, the attack didn't so much borrow through it as explode. The 4 meters of metal proved no match for the attack, its forward-facing side having started to melt before the attack reached.

Wolfram didn’t worry, throwing up another barrier, a thicker one at 8 meters that was also totalled but had done its job. “Oh, you got some more firepower in you, little girl? Well, bring it on!” Wolfram laughed as he was nearly blinded by that attack and could feel the heat from it even from his perch.

But he wasn't so blinded that he couldn't keep an eye on All Might, who was trying to smash his way to him but was being slowed by his almost limitless supply of metal to throw at him.

‘Don’t focus on regeneration, keep up the assault, don’t give him time to think!’ Midoriya had to force his body to only repair the essentials as he was still sucking in as much air as his 3 vents could take, making it impossible for him to sneak when he sounded a turbojet engine set to max power. All Might took the chance to try and close the distance between them.

His power was legendary. With but a single strike, he could change the weather. Wolfram knew this and thus tried to counter him by sending several massive square tentacles toward him. All Might didn't move, trusting in his student.

It was a trust well placed. “Serpent’s Fire Scales!” Again, Midoriya blasted another fireball, just as big if not bigger than the last one. Flying over All Might, it exploded, raining down several small yet still powerful balls onto those metal tentacles, lighting up the roof with green flames and molten shrapnel as they were destroyed, giving All Might the chance to try and get close.

“Detroit-” All Might pulled back his right fist, clenched and ready. “Smash!” He shattered through a hastily made wall, only to be sent flying when Wolfram manipulated the metal beneath him to rise like a geyser. All Might held on, and just as he was about to handle the issue-

“Hawaii Smash!” Midoriya launched towards the base of the metallic geyser, his fist pulled back as he formed a volcanic rocket on his elbow. He also shifted his fist so that his knuckles formed tiny vents. When he threw the punch, he was aided by an explosive eruption from his elbow rocket, and on contact, he fired off an intense blast of heat akin to Endeavour's own Vanishing fist.

The impact, coupled with the explosive force of an eruption of fire and magma, didn't just break the pillar's base but eradicate it, melting the weaker metals so fast they liquefied in seconds. The rest warped, bent, and was pulverized into super-heated shrapnel, which Wolfram had to pull a barrier up to protect himself from.

“Not bad, young Midoriya, not bad at all!” All Might landed, no worse for wear, but the same couldn't be said for Midoriya's, who was also destroyed, leaving a leaking stomp from the elbow down. “Should work on control though!”

“Noted, All Might-sensei!” Midoriya grunted, his reserves getting close as he regenerated his arm and followed after All Might, trying to clear his path to Wolfram, but the villain was persistent. His quirk, boosted by David's device and with such a large supply of metals, made his position hard to handle. It was not helped by the fact that Midoriya could see that All Might was already pushing it. His limit was 3 hours, wasn't it? Had it shrunk since then? How long had he held his hero form? For the Gala? For the entire day?

Midoriya didn't know, nor did he have the time to think about such things. All he could focus on was helping him. On stopping this villain and making sure that the people were safe! To that end, he didn't dare pull the throttle back even as he felt himself approaching his limit with all these big, flashy, and powerful attacks in rapid succession. If anything, he just pushed it further.

‘More…’ Midoriya dodged an attempt to smash him into past, forming his tail and zipping through the wreckage, using the extra space to form yet another air intake vent, this time on his upper and lower backs to funnel even more air into his furnace. ‘More!’

“Keep feeding the inferno!” Midoriya roared as he dashed right for Wolfram. Having launched off using his tail, he twisted his body around, flames shooting out his rapidly formed hand cannons, rocketing him faster toward Wolfram. When his jaws fell open, he didn't so much fire off another massive blast as he cloaked himself in them, turning him into a spiraling volcanic cannonball. “Cobra Meteor!”

“Cheeky brat!" Wolfram met his challenge, forming 3 barriers, each almost 10 meters thick to counter. Midoriya didn't slow; he didn't alter his course. He rammed right into and then, to the shock of the villain, through the first one. His fiery form pierced like a giant drill through wood, leaving nothing but slag and molten ruin behind.

He then hit the second one, and while it took a couple of seconds, he pierced through that one as well. He perhaps could have handled the third and final one if Wolfram hadn't shifted tactics and sent some wiping towards Midoriya, managing to ensnare him. While the cord was already heating up and losing form, it was enough time for Wolfram to send him off course, Midoriya's rushed strike sending him crashing into the roof with a boom.

"And don't think I forget about you, All Might!" Wolfram roared as he sent a much larger wall of metal towards All Might, the hero having charged him and thus sent the largest tentacle of metal yet. All Might could have been able to smash through some of it. Still, with no stable ground beneath him, he was sent crashing back into the already unstable tower, which groaned under the strain.

All Might now found himself pinned as he had to keep the attack from smashing through the tower and possibly destroying the top floors. He had to buy Mellissa and Koharu time to escape to a lower level via the stairs.

'Crap,' All Might felt blood rushing up into his mouth, forcing him to cough it out as his body screamed for him to rest. Steam had already started to flow off him as his form almost shrunk. He had been holding his hero form for too long and was well past his limit. He wasn't sure how long he could last.

Off to the side, Midoriya slowly crawled out of his melted crater, gasping for breath as he tried to maintain his transformed state. Even if he dropped to Yellowstone, he might gain some speed and agility, but this was a fight that needed more firepower and durability.

"This isn't good…" Midoriya grunted as he felt his inner flame start to wane, requiring force to keep it burning and more oxygen to keep it strong as he burned through his reserves. His battle with Stain was nothing like this; it was mainly regeneration that sapped him, but here it wasn't, Midoriya needing ever larger and more taxing attacks.

"It doesn't matter!" Midoriya roared as he raised his two hand cannons, the flames building up so much that his arms started to shake, his torso cracking as he pumped in more heat, flames, and pre-power into this than he would otherwise.

Wolfram noted the uptake in the shriek of air being pulled into a raging inferno and smirked at him. “You'll need more than that to stop me, kid!" He was already moving to wave his hand towards Midoriya, to smash him before he could get off his shot, and then focus on killing All Might, the hero having to worry about something as stupid as the tower's safety, putting himself into a bad position.

"Then try this." Wolfram didn't have time to react or turn as his other side was blasted with a towering cold front. Frost spread across the metal, quickly followed by ice, which crystallized, forming chunks across his metal and freezing it in place.

“What?" Wolfram yelled as he turned. Seeing others had arrived on the scene, he immediately understood who they were, but his focus went towards the giant fireworks array that sure as hell hadn't been there before!

"Fire!" Yaoyorozu gasped, having worked overtime and burned through considerable lipid reserves to create the weapon once they bumped into Mellissa, who explained the situation. Lucky for her, Iida and Kaminari were more than able to carry it.

Kaminari smiled as he pulled the firing string, lighting the improvised rocket artillery and firing over two dozen of them toward Wolfram. Yaoyorozu, having only known how to make signal flares, meant that even as they flew, they lit up the night sky before exploding against Wolfram's quickly shifted defense.

"We'll do what we can; just keep up the pressure!" Todoroki yelled as he and Monoma stood side by side, the latter having copied the former's quirk and sending another freezing-cold blast toward Wolfram. Recalling Hosu, Todoroki shifted to fire and let loose a gale of fire as hot as he could manage.

Wolfram growled when he felt his metal, which had contracted in the cold, swell with the heat too fast as it started to weaken and flake, audible cracks forming across much of it.

"Here's a nice top-up, Midoriya!" Monoma yelled as he fired off a blast of red-hot flames towards Midoriya. Wolfram was confused as to why, only to realise too late as Midoriya's jaw snapped open. He sucked in the flames, swallowing every last bit until not even sparks remained before his jaw slammed shut.

Through the holes that made up his eyes on his stone mask, flames seemed to pour out, his body struggling to contain the now supercharged inferno. So much so that even his snake hair hissed and raved as flames shot out of their mouths, discharging pressure. Otherwise, the vessel raptured, and even then, it didn't seem like it would be enough.

“Hado flame!" Midoriya bellowed. He had not stopped his charge, he hadn't dropped his stance, and now he unleashed hell as twin emerald infernos spiraled out of his hand cannons like vengeful serpent infernals, twisting and dancing with one another as they roared through the air. The attack was so powerful that it peeled back the stony barrels of his arms before it smashed into Wolfram's other side.

The villain cursed as he shifted, trying to match the power of the attack, but it seemed to smash through everything he had, forcing him to alter the battlefield again. With his footing shifting, his attack went off course, but Midoriya wouldn't be so easily countered. Unlike before, when he was a human bullet improvising, this time, this was an attack he knew.

Wolfram was in for a nasty surprise when the double spiral of snake-shaped flames turned and re-focused on him. "Oh, you got to be-!" He had to rapidly shift his defense to meet the incoming threat, which meant his attention.

"With my students so motivated, I can't let myself be held back by something as trivia as a limit!" Despite his exhaustion and pain in keeping his form up, All Might felt a second wind settle into his heart. His form stabilized, and then he returned to its full hero side as he tapped into the awesome power of One for All. Using that, he shattered the metal tentacle, tried to crash him, and launched himself towards Wolfram.

"It's time to be Plus Ultra!" He declared, willing his body to go further than before, to live up to the ideals he championed and defeat this threat before he could harm further! With Midoriya unleashing an inferno on one side, Monoma and Todoroki firing ice and frost on the other, and Yaoyorozu, Iida, and Kaminari operating a rocket artillery piece just to keep the villain's attention split, Wolfram was more vulnerable than ever.

Racing up towards Wolfram, he tried to stop him, but his attempts were too slow to catch him with everything happening. Too weak to slow him down as All Might jumped from tentacle to tentacle, using tendrils as ropes and swings. Smashed through walls and barriers.

Even as he faced off against a larger means to stop him, he faced it without letting fear or hesitation falter him. Instead, he raised his arms, folding them into an 'X' shape as he raced forward.

“Carolina Smash!” All Might used the momentum to release a tremendous amount of force, the double chop hitting so hard that it seemed to light up the battlefield, blowing loose bits of metal away. The students had to adjust their footing to remain standing. Wolfram, too, had to block his eyes with his arms just to keep from being blinded.

“Prepare yourself, villain!” All Might declared as he raced up, his fist already cocked and ready to-

Wolfram smirked; as right as All Might was about to land what was sure to be the finishing blow, tendrils shot out from beneath and behind All Might, quickly wrapping around his limbs and slowing him to a halt as he was suspended mid-air.

All Might only saw it was a distraction and was already pulling on his restraints to free himself. Now, when he was this close, he could still end things before his opponent could stop him. "Nice trick, but-!" Wolfram thought the same, reaching out and choking All Might, which was an impressive feat for the man.

“Prepare myself? You should follow your own advice." Wolfram shot back as his arm bulged, his muscles growing as newly tapped strength flowed through him—so much so that his sleeves were shredded as his flesh started glowing bright pink and red. “You’ve underestimated me!”

‘Where did…this strength come from?' All Might thought as to choke him out wasn't something any mere strength quirk could do, and yet it seemed like Wolfram was doing just that, but how? His quirk shouldn't be capable of that, but….no, it couldn't be. His body, why was it changing only now? Wouldn't it have changed before, as Wolfram's been abusing his quirk…

One of his quirks.

Wolfram smiled as he saw the realization and horror setting in as All Might put the pieces together, but he couldn't resist driving it home as he reached for the man's injured side and squeezed, loving how he was making the world's greatest hero yell in pain.

“All Might!” Yaoyorozu yelled, having to lean on the now-spent rocket artillery. The heiress was unable to make anything else.

“We need to up the pressure!” Todoroki yelled, only to rush to the side, skating along his ice as the roof's structure started to fail. It couldn't maintain stability much longer, not with Wolfram placing so much weight on one side, not when he had torn out so much of its support, and certainly not with them fighting on it.

“I’m working as fast as I can! I’m a jack of all trades and master of none, remember?!” Monoma yelled back. In contrast, he ran to avoid being swallowed by the collapsing stage, and Iida and Kaminari abandoned the rocket artillery piece to keep themselves and Yaoyorozu safe.

‘He’s going for All Might’s injury? But how? Why? When could he have figured it out?! All Sam and the professor said was that All Might was growing weaker, not how!’ Midoriya cut the attack, needing a new approach and fast.

He didn't have enough firepower, unlike this to best Wolfram, whose control over the area only grew stronger by the second. Even now, he could hear the tower groan and cry as it tried its hardest to hold itself up, but when so many of the redundant design features built into it had been compromised by the power-hungry villain, if nothing soon, then the tower could collapse, people could get hurt and he just couldn't let that happen!

'But how he's already matching All Might-!' Midoriya realized something, he could…but he'd never done it like this and with two targets who would be facing opposite effects. He…he could end up.

No!

No…Ryukyu believed in him. Hado-senpai believed in him. He had worked hard, and they had helped give him the means to get this far, but he couldn't stop now. He had to trust in himself, trust in his flames. “No time for doubt. No time for hesitation. I can only act.” Gasping for breath, feeling his limit approaching as his flames started to run out of fuel, he had enough in him for one last gamble.

Taking off into the air, he used the loose metal as springboards, his repaired arm cannons as thrusters, and his tail as a rudder to ascend higher. Watching with bated breath, All Might was thrown back from Wolfram and smashed between two giant metal cubes.

“Monoma, Todoroki!” Midoriya cried out as All Might was encased in more metal, more cubes, more everything that Wolfram could throw at him to try and kill him. “Hit me with everything you have!”

“What?” Todoroki yelled at him.

“Got it!” Monoma didn't question him; he just did it. Putting all he had into it, the sky was lit up orange and yellow as flames raced down his left side, creating a small firestorm that flew towards Midoriya. Todoroki sent one, moments after which Midoriya was engulfed. The living volcano started to drink, drinking all the heat and fire around him. His body shifted, breaking apart and reforming into something new.

“Too little, too late!” Wolfram laughed as he summoned spears of metal to impale into the smashed-together mess of cubes he had trapped All Might into.

In response to that, a deafening roar sounded, rumbled through the air, and seemingly shook the top of the tower with nothing but its sound. From within the cloak of orange flames, a monster slowly poked its head out; Wolfram and the rest were stunned at the creature that had formed from Midoriya's place. Its body was made from the same volcanic rock as he had been. Still, it looked rougher, less refined, and in constant flux as the lava that flowed beneath its surface seemed to create more scales to replace that sank back into the fiery depths or fell off.

Its body was coated not just in randomly placed mini volcanic vents but also in air inlets, sucking up not just the last of the fiery curtain but as much air as it could fit. Wolfram counted what had to be at least nine of those damned things, all of them the size of a tractor tire.

But it was those eyes that drew him. Brilliant balls of purple flames, the beast focused on him and his prison for All Might.

When the transformed Midoriya hissed, it was like hearing an oversized steam engine approaching. Flames escaped his body along with the sound as his jaw unhinged, and the man spotted what looked like the green morning sun.

There was no warning, there was no hesitation or pause. There was only fire.

From Midoriya's japing jaw, an eruption of searing hot flames shot out. The flames compacted so much that they seemed near solid, burning so hot that they were whiter than green. The rest had to look away as Wolfram, without thinking and feeling fear for the first time, threw All Might's Prison right into the line of attack while summoning what he could to create a multi-layered defense against this.

Midoriya's flames didn't care for any of it, as All Might's prison was engulfed and seemed to be incinerated, as the copper, steel, aluminum, and tungsten everything metal that made up the smashed-together cubes of metal melted in moments, with the heat so intense it didn't stop there, burning hot enough that the metal, already hot liquid, boiled and evaporated, giving the entire island a first-hand look of a small sun concentrated into a awesome attack.

Passing to Wolfram, he had thrown all he could into it, and even before the attack hit, he could feel himself sweating as if he stood next to a bonfire on a hot summer's day for hours. His defenses were already buckling even before the flames hit. When they did, they didn't melt much as they vaporized the metal barriers.

“This kid-!" It took all he had just to redirect the attack into the sky, and even then. Lighting up the skies over the floating island was so bright that someday, sensors were fooled into thinking the sun was rising, so they shut off street lights. However, it remained bright enough that one hardly noticed the difference.

The moment seemed to stretch on forever as the flames ascended, evaporating the clouds they had passed over before; at last, they ceased.

“What…was that?” Yaoyorozu asked, shaking and sweaty from the ordeal.

“I…I have no clue…” Todoroki replied, wide-eyed and confused by what they had just witnessed. The area was still warm as if the sun was shining on them.

“He…he…All Might…” Kaminari was left pointing at where All Might had been imprisoned, and now…there was nothing as if nothing had always been there.

Iida was just as shocked as them but wasn't convinced, while the rest struggled to comprehend what had seemingly happened. 'No, he wouldn't. He's trying to be a hero, so-!' Midoriya had healed his brother's injury with flames; he had done the same for Uraraka and himself. “Was that all for that?”

Wolfram was sweating like a pig; the height of battle was starting to fade, leaving him feeling drained, but he was still in this. “Jesus, that was a close one, kid. I nearly died with that one.” He laughed, looking at how he had lost half his metal to that. Where was it? What? Hell, if he knew, as he couldn't sense it anymore.

However, as jaw-dropping as that attempted incineration had been, he was still in this. All Might was dust, and the kid was nothing more than an oversized pile of cooling rocks. His eyes had already lost luster while his volcanic vents slowed and died. The only thing keeping him suspended now was Wolfram's tendrils wrapped around him. "But it looks like you're used up all you have, though you gave me a hell of a lot better fight than All Might did; maybe I'll market this device as the means which I used to kill you instead."

“Hahahahaha!” Out of nowhere, a booming, heaty, and familiar laugh sounded. It was one that people all over the world could recognize, a laugh that brought relief and joy to the masses and dread and fear into the hearts of all but the most hardened and capable villains.

But for Wolfram, he felt that along with a wave of fury. “That laughing, wait, how you not dead?! There was nothing left-nothing!”

“Well, allow me to explain it to you, villain!” Something-no, someone came flying in like a bullet, smashing through the carcass of Midoriya’s transformed body, grabbing the unconscious body that had been within it, settling him at Iida's side, and vanishing almost as fast.

It was only then that they could all see who did it, as standing before them, with his ironic smile plastered across his face, was All Might, very much alive and feeling better than he'd had in years. "I'm here because that young man is striving to be a hero! To save people, to bring hope, and to protect this world that you and your kind seemed set to manipulate, twist, and pervert to your own ends!"

All Might took his first full breath in years, only the faintest sense of what had befallen him registering as he had been nearly incinerated so fast he could have missed it. But he was-not fully and from that inferno, he could feel his body reforged just as it once was. His side felt free, odd in a way that only came after growing used to it being abnormal. His body felt lighter, stronger-faster. His limit felt like a thing of the past.

And to think, all because of a young man who young Iida was quickly covering up with his jacket while Monoma made a small ice wall to prevent Yaoyorozu from seeing him. "I have carried the torch for many years, and he's proof that the next generation will burn even brighter than I ever did! So the least I can do is clear the way for them!"

“Enough of the bullcrap! I know-!” Wolfram made to try and smash him using what he had left, only for All Might to near teleport, and in his wake, his metal was shattered into a million pieces. “What?! This speed, he’s moving faster? But how?” He couldn't keep up; one moment, All Might was on one side, and the next, he was on the other, leaving more of Wolfram's tendrils and tentacles destroyed before he could even think.

It had to be impossible. He heard Sam and the professor, and he saw it with his own eyes! So why?! “You were getting weaker! How?!”

“I already told you, villain!” All Might laughed as he zoomed past, and with that, he used Missouri Smash to not so much smash but obliterate the left side of Wolfram's tower of metal, throwing him off balance as he struggled to stabilize himself.

“To hell with you, I’ll kill the both of you, All Might, even if I have to bring down this entire tower to do it!” Wolfram roared as he summoned forth every last piece of metal he could, forced it together into a giant black cube floating overhead, and sent it hurtling onto All Might.

The symbol of peace, seeing this, only laughed more as his smile grew wider. The man did not dodge or run; instead, he widened his stance, pulled his fist back, and called on the power of One for All. The quirk he'd cultivated for decades, though no longer his, still left its embers in him, and with his body back to full form, to use it felt so…natural, so free.

“Plus Ultra…” He called out his school's motto, which he'd lived by since he was a student there. “Texas…” It was a motto that he would always live by, one that, as a hero and teacher, he was so proud to see being carried out in his students and all their efforts that night.

“Smash!!” All Might called out, proud and strong, as his punch sent a gale-force blast of wind from his fist, unmatched power surging upwards into Wolfram's attack. The two attacks seemed even, but only for the moment as All Might's blow smashed through the metal. It was almost as if it was alive and gaining power as it chewed through, even as Wolfram desperately tried to reinforce the metal, slow it down, and redirect it. Nothing worked, as he yelled out before he was swallowed up by the attack.

In the silence that followed, the students watched in disbelief at what they had just witnessed. They waited for the other shoe to drop, for the villain to reveal he was still in this, only for his construct to start to fall apart, and they knew. “They did it…” Iida breathed out. It took a moment for it to settle in.

“Midoriya, you beautiful ball of fire, you…hell yeah!” Monoma yelled out in victory, the rest following with him as Yaoyorozu took a deep sigh of relief.

“Is…it finally over?” she asked as Kaminari came over to help her stand. The two of them were exhausted, yet they couldn't get the smile off their faces as they looked on at All Might, the man standing in victory as he always did.

“Yeah, I think it is.” Todoroki chuckled, falling on his butt after the mess they had been through. They somehow managed, and not a moment too soon as they could all feel the tower let out an almost irritated groan. "We should probably get to a lower floor."

Line Break

“Midoriya…!”

“Midoriya!”

“Izuku, wake up!”

“Wha…” Midoriya's eyes shot open as he looked around, seeing that he was wrapped in Koharu, her head resting on his chest and surrounded by the rest of the group. “Oh, hi, guys, why are you all in…my…room…” The events of the night caught up with him as he realized they were in the lobby once more, only now it was filled with heroes and the island's security handling the clean-up.

Vlad wasn't present, but his friends—they all looked so happy. Tired, hungry, dirty, and wearing ruined and torn clothing, they had smiles that seemed to light up the space more than the rising sun through the windows.

“We did it?” He asked, feeling a spark of hope in his chest as Monoma rubbed his hair.

“You did it, you fire dancer. I don’t know what, but you did it.” Monoma told him, gesturing to the side where the villains were all restrained, some still out of it, as they waited for transport off the island. It turns out a place with a near-zero crime rate didn't have proper facilities for housing dangerous villains. Who knew?

“Yes, it was like All Might was a new man after you well…incinerated him. I had no idea that you could achieve such so quickly.” Iida stated though Midoriya gave an awkward, if equally tired, chuckle at that.

“It’s a little more complicated than that.” He retorted as could he tell them? It wasn't like it mattered anymore, but it wasn't his secret to tell. 'I'm too tired for this; I just want a snack, a warm bath, and a nap.'

“Midoriya!” Mellissa couldn't keep it in any longer; before he or anyone else could stop her, she wrapped him up in a big hug. The girl started crying again after the emotional roller coaster of a night. Still, now they were tears of relief and gratitude. “Thank you! Thank you so very much,” she cried into his bare chest. Midoriya's face was red from the fact, but he couldn't resist the smile forming on his face.

Mellissa finally pulled back, wiping away her tears. Good Lord, she looked horrible, but that was to be expected after the chaotic night they all had. Even the guests to the side who hadn't done anything looked far from their best, most having been up for well over 24 hours now through an incredibly stressful night. "I'm so glad you're alive. I was so worried, but…you all did it."

"It was a team effort. If not for you retaking the system, All Might and the rest of the heroes couldn't have acted, and I would have been toast." He reminded her, returning her hug and looking at the rest in appreciation.

His attention was drawn to Koharu, who shifted when Mellisa launched herself into his chest as his serpent friend glared at him. “Never. Do. That. Again. Understand?” She didn't give him any option, so he nodded. You were so cold from expanding your reserves, I had to share almost all I had just to get you to wake up!” Oh, that would explain why she felt colder than normal.

"Sorry…Oh, my clothes!" Midoriya's sleepy mind realized his state of dress as he was only wearing a small pair of boxers!

“They burned away during the fight, probably when you did that transformation.” Todoroki filled him in.

Iida nodded as he chopped his hand at him. "Rest assured, he ensured that Mellissa, Yaoyorozu, and the rest didn't see you in the nude."

"You can thank Yaomomo for making you some pants. The best we had before that was having Koharu wrap around you or you tying Iida’s jacket around your waist.” Jiro pointed out, as she, along with Mineta, Vlad, and Uraraka, hadn't seen the chaos that was that last fight up close. Instead, they had protected Mellissa and kept Sam and the professor restrained until things died down.

“Oh…thanks.”

“You don’t sound all that thankful. I get it, class A and all,” Monoma started to say, and Jiro flipped the bird at him, only for Monoma to pock Midoriya's face.  “But you’re a walking ray of sunshine.”

"It's not that that, I promise. I really appreciate it, but," Midoriya was sincere with that, but…looking at himself, he couldn’t even imagine a shred of his outfit surviving. “My outfit was a gift from Hado-sempai for the big reception…”

Uraraka burst out laughing at that, followed by the rest, as Midoriya gave them all a tired pout. He was being serious about this! He really liked that dress! Uraraka, getting herself under control and being too tired to care about how all the bigwigs present were looking at them, finally spoke. "That's on your mind; pretty sure that got canceled."

"Don't worry about that; we can explain what went down. I'm sure she'll understand." Monoma chuckled before a twinkle came to his eye. “But I imagine she’ll have questions about all the times you carried Mellissa around like your princess.”

Like a lighting strike, his actions through the night also came back. In full detail. “Wha…but I…” His face grew pinker before with a puff of steam shooting out his ears, his eyes rolled back, and he passed out. Mellissa grew similarly embarrassed at the dig as she turned to Monoma.

“Monoma!”

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Vlad watched from the sidelines, having finished explaining things to the security and now waiting to make a call back to Japan to report this as well. 'Look at them. After all that, they focus on teasing their friend.' The man shook his head, smiling across his otherwise gruff face.

'They're strong in all the ways that count.' He could only conclude as such. Still, that last battle, from what All Might had said about it… 'This world will need bright lights like them if we're to continue to enjoy sunrises like this.’

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Finally, we're at the end of the movie stuff, and let me tell you, I regret adding it because, unlike with the villain path, which had a lot more planned out, I had very little and just winged it, which I really didn't like, as that's a big reason why early stuff sucks so much.

However, I was able to really throw it all in with it, which might also have to do with the fact that I was asked to help with an errand by a neighbor who was not in the best health. I couldn't really say no, so I really just blitzed this. It helps that what's left in the movie is just that last scene and some fluff, so yeah, enjoy. You'll enjoy it when shit hits the fan in the future.