Chapter 27: Assault Stalls; Counter-Attack Begins

“Text” – Normal speech

‘Text’ – Thought

“Text” – Quirk Spirit speaking in the human world

“Text” - Attacks

“Text” – Radio/Communication lines

“Text” – None Japanese speech

(text) – Subtext/meaning behind a spoken word

Chapter 27: Assault Stalls; Counter-Attack Begins

“The number you have dialled is unavailable at present. This could be because the number is A) Disconnected. B) Out of service range. C) the phone is switched off. Please try again later, or contact an alternative number.” All Might cut the call. The symbol of peace, the world’s strongest hero wasn’t what people thought of, as he wasn’t his large, muscular self but presently, was an emaciated man whose suit hardly fit his skeletal frame with his hair lacking most of the lustre it typical had.

This had been his reality for the last 5 years now, thanks to a injury that by all accounts, should have killed him. Yes, he survived, but it and the surgeries required to save his life took their toll, leaving him with but a fraction of the power he once held as he had gone from being able to work seventy-two consecutive hours to only having around 3 hours of stamina in him a day, anymore and he risked dropping his muscular form at the wrong time, or shortening his time limit even further.

That time limit was biting him in the ass as he had used up nearly all of it on his way to school, he had been lucky that his class with the hero students didn’t require much moving from him as he had finished his class with 10 minutes of hero time left.

‘It’s strange that I can’t contact any of them, they wouldn’t let their phones just day, especially when they could be contacted by the dean.’ Nezu had been quite clear on that, even ensuring that all staff her personal phones and then work phones which they were required to have on their persons throughout the work-day. ‘Though, perhaps they’re too busy handling the class and are just ignoring my calls.’

All Might sighed, recalling how displeased Thirteen had been when he had informed her of his insufficient time. The kind woman had torn him a new one when she learned why he didn’t have enough to help as he had been expected. He shivered as he was lucky that he told her instead of Vlad or Aizawa was Symbol of Peace or not, those two were intimidating.

‘I can’t fault them for not answering my calls, as a teacher, I have a duty to be there for my students, to put my all into that and I didn’t.’ Sometimes, All Might wished that he wasn’t so…All Might, as he had seen so many small crimes and incidents on the way to school that he couldn’t help himself but intervene, even in cases where other heroes were already on the scene. Yet, he didn’t think he could ever not step in when there was someone in need, it was just written into his very DNA.

‘Damned if I do, damned if I don’t.’ All Might thought to himself, recalling how he and his old sidekick used to argue about that all the time whenever he spent extra time out on a shift, enough that his agency staff could clock in, do their shifts, clock out and head home and return the next day and he would still be out and about.

‘But…no, this isn’t then, I took this job to prepare the world for a future without me, I need to learn how to step back and allow others the chance to grow, to become heroes that can pick up the slack.’ All Might flexed his hand, making a fist and releasing it a couple times as he came to a decision.

“I can still make it for the end of the class, part some words of wisdom and leave before anyone is the wiser.” All Might nodded as he stood up, bulking into his hero form. “I am off!” He declared, his voice back to its familiar, hearty boom, only for the door to the lounge to side open.

“Hold your horses if you will, All Might.” The figure who opened the door spoke, their size made it that All Might didn’t just look down, but crouch as he waddled closer, nervous as they might have sounded chipper, but he could be anything but.

“Oh, Dean Nezu? How are you today?” All Might asked him, losing his muscle form to converse his time for when he left…hopefully.

The small humanoid smiled back, smartly dressed in a vest, dress-shirt, red tie and slacks with a pair of orange running shoes which All Might was sure he wore just to further confuse people when he could have gone for regular office shoes. “Indeed I am, what care to guess what I am? A large mouse, a small bear, or a weird dog? The answer is…I am a dean!” Nezu laughed at his own joke, All Might joining in.

“As for me, I’m doing just great. The weather was excellent this morning and so was my tea, plus my keratin supplements are paying off with how smooth and healthy my coat has been these last few days.” Nezu continued, their conversation light but with little substance.

Then there was a shift, hard to spot, but if you could, you felt it in your bones. “Though I am curious, but you can help me with that, All Might.”

“Ask away, sir.” All Might started to sweat under the beady gaze of his boss and a being that was far smarter then he and everyone else on campus.

“Hmm, I was under the impression that you were scheduled to aid our first years in their rescue training. That class is happening right now and yet…here you are, why is that?” Nezu didn’t hold back, All Might flinching at the innocent question from the dean.

“Oh…well, you see.”

Nezu kept it up, pulling out his tablet which he had…somewhere on his person. “Well, I can always pull up the schedules to confirm and yes, it says it right there: Vlad King; Thirteen; Eraserhead and All Might. Quite strange, wouldn’t you say? But perhaps it could be because of an interesting series of articles I read this morning during 1st period.”

Nezu changed the page to a new site he frequented it, with the biggest headline being front and center:

“‘All Might handle 6 incidents in only 1 hour’!” The man looked away as Nezu read out the headline, tapping the screen and showing off some of the pictures that had been taken of the incidents. “I was pleasantly surprised when I read this, as I thought you had found some extra time but it would seem that you instead used up time that should have gone towards your students, right?

“The fault primarily lays with the ruffians that have decided to cause trouble ever since you came to town, but you can’t respond to every incident anymore, All Might. You’re just not equipped for that and should leave such to the many other heroes.” Nezu scolded him like he was a child.

"But since you're here, perhaps I can give you some pointers on the finer points of teaching, which I have learned over my 21 years in the profession." Now, All Might couldn't mask the groan or the shudder, as this was what he feared.

Line Break

“Please tell me you have some good news, Tokage.” Tsuburaba asked as Tokage’s ears and eyes floated overhead, taking in everything that was happening in the USJ. Along with them, it was Thirteen, Yanagi, Tsunotori, Uraraka, Sato, Kamakiri, Koda and Kodai. The rest having vanished through portals not too long ago.

Tokage could see their two teachers fighting in the central plaza, working pretty well together against the hordes of villains, though she was unnerved by the fact that the one she would bet to be the leader, and the large beaked one remained still. Other zones she couldn’t see into on account of them being domed themselves, but she could make out fighting in the others, along with some distinctive quirks being used.

“Everyone’s scattered, but as far as I can tell, they’ll all still here. A few of them are putting up a damn good fight.” She relayed back to the group, which breathed out a sigh of relief. Thirteen more so as she had been powerless to save them even as they screamed and panicked about being dropped through warp gates.

“That’s good to here, but we have our own problems with this fucker. Physical attacks mean nothing to him.” Kamakiri growled, as they had tried to jump the villain once they realised what had happened, but all their attacks failed or were reflected back at them. of course, he couldn’t warp them away either as they kept an eye out for that, leaving them in a stalemate.

“And we can’t get too close else risk being warped away.” Yanagi reminded them, as she had to pull a couple of them out before they were warped away during their attack, and keep an eye out for portals that targeted her.

Thirteen didn’t think about the fight, or rather, she didn’t think about only the fight but what they would gain if they won. This was a tough opponent, he was keeping them in check by his lonesome, which bought time for his allies to do who knew what with her students and colleagues. But thier plans did give her an idea. “Which one of you is the fastest?”

“Excuse me?” Sato asked, but she kept her attention on the villain, who remained silent as he watched them like an eagle.

“Please answer the question, which one of you is the fastest?” She repeated it, the idea forming in her head, getting more details as she did the math and came to the conclusion that it could work.

The students looked amongst themselves, recalling their quirk apprehension test and its results, or they recalled which ones among them got the placed higher. “Well, Tsuburaba got the best time out of all of us in the 50m dash, but Tokage managed to get the furthest in the cooper test Eraser had us do.” Tsunotori replied, the rest nodding as they recalled it the same.

“Then you’re up Tokage, I have a job for you.” She started. “Run as fast as you can back to the main campus and report what is happening here.” Tokage and the rest looked at her in surprise at her proposal.

“The alarms aren’t sounding and our phones don’t work, but while that is grim, it also tells us that the villains don’t have the means to fight us head-one, that is why they waited for us to be isolated.” Thirteen explained the reasoning, and tried to instil a greater sense of hope in them that things will turn out okay. As sure, an attack like this was big, but it wasn’t the worst and they could get through it.

She didn’t need to look at the central plaza to know that Aizawa was doing his thing, one could make out villains yelling about their quirks not working before they were quickly taken down. “The sensors are based on infrared rays, but despite Aizawa erasing quirks repeatably, they aren’t sounding. They must have a means to jam them, either a support item or someone’s quirk, either way we don’t have a means to know its effective range, so your best chance is to rush back to campus and rely what happening.”

“It’s not ideal, nor is it the fastest means of communication, but it’s the only one we have.” Thirteen dug in her pocket, before pulling out a steady looking phone and tossing it towards Tokage, who caught it and looked it over, noting that it had no personal touches and looked as dull as it must have when it came out the box.

“There’s my work phone, every 20 seconds try and call the school, even if they don’t pick up, they’ll notice something’s wrong.” Thirteen told her.

“But what about you guys?” Tokage asked but the others stepped up, the entire group forming a wall between her and Kurogiri.

“What about us? Don’t worry, we can handle these punks.” Kamakiri’s blades shot out, sharp and ready for some action.

“We’ll hold out, but first we’ll give you a way through this guy.” Uraraka told her, as she just needed to get close and she could either make the warp user float, or hit him and send him flying the regular way. Either way, it would buy Tokage time to escape.

“Yeah, he’ll regret ever stepping foot into U.A.!” Tsunotori shot out two horns where they floated at the redy.

"I overestimated you, Thirteen; only a fool would discuss their plans in front of their enemy!" The villain yelled, their quirk extending outwards like a wave once more, set to crash into them and teleport them who knew where.

"We didn't bother because it doesn't matter if you know!" Thirteen clapped back, lifting her finger up and uncapping it, her black hole quickly springing to action as the tremendous force of attraction pulled in every last bit of the cloud-like substance before it could even reach her or her students. “Black Hole!”

Line Break

Thirteen was right to have faith in her students, as while they were green, they were skilled and had potential. While Vlad and Eraser worked to handle the central plaza, the students sent to the frost and ruins zones had already managed to claim victory. On the boat that was placed in the centre of the flood zone, the students kept the villains at bay using Mineta’s balls and Ashido’s acid, Iida and Shishida diving in helped sowing chaos as even without air, Iida’s engines worked as he powered through the water like a human torpedo, Shishida swam like a bear, and hit as hard as one.

In the landslide zone, the villains were fighting an literal uphill battle as the students had managed to find one of the larger mounds and were battling any that dared to assault it, Komori’s mushrooms sprouting on any and everything messing with movement, even growing in their enemies while Kaibara went toe to toe with them, his limbs spinning like drills making his punches and kicks all the harder to just tank while Kaminari run through them like a human taser, with assists coming from Kuroiro and Fukidashi.

The former one jumping in and out of shadows and dark clothing, punching and kicking as he went, while the latter created all manner of sound effects that caused explosions, bright flashes of light, bursts of sounds or just maid the area damp and warm to increase Komori’s effectiveness.

In the mountains, Monoma was talking a big game and backing it up as he copied quirks left and right and used them against the stunned and disorganised villains, meanwhile Tokoyami held back along with Jiro who tracked them via sound, protecting her and taking out any stranglers like Shoda and Kendo were in the melee along with Monoma, Shoda’s small size not taking away from his boxing experience, while Kendo hardly needed her quirk at all, relying more on martial arts.

That didn’t stop either form using their quirks as those Shoda hit would randomly and without warning, be hit by stronger, impacts, throwing them off and making it all the easier for him to land more blows while Kendo at times just bat opponents aside with her enlarged hand.

Line Break

In the conflagration zone, a area that was known for its intense heat and flames, the area had fallen cold as ice and frost covered an entire street, the many fires that had one been present snuffed out. “Was…that it?” Todoroki asked, looking at the mob of villains that he had so easily defeated. Even with the ice melting thanks to the heat of the place, that same heat meant that he didn’t need to worry about his limit as much, so he could easily just repair and reinforce what he had already created.

“I thought you would be a challenge, being villains and all but hate to say it but all I see is a bunch of adults that don’t know the first thing to do with their quirks.” He shook his head, those that had been warped with him into the zone remained silent as he had his moment. He more then earned it by soloing this group.

“This guy…” One of the villains, frozen up to their necks chattered out.

“As soon as he saw us, he took us out.” Another, whose quirk gave them flaming bird like wings started, in disbelief his those same wings were frozen solid.

“Is he really just a kid?” Another asked, looking towards Todoroki as he approached them, treating the encounter like it was nothing, and as much as it pained them to admit, he had every right to be that cocky.

“Scary…!” Another gulped as Ojiro, Kirishima, Shoji and Rin just watched.

“Jeez, remind me never to get on his bad side.” Rin uttered, walking over to some of the ice and tapping it, finding that it was still solid.

“To be able to create that much ice in a zone that should have been his weakness…it’s unreal.” Kirishima had felt the heat even before they fell all the way through the warp and landed in the place, but that heat was gone as all the ice kept the temperature more tolerable.

“Guys focus! I can hear more coming!” Shoji caught their attention, his tentacles having grown ears and tracking the moment of at least another dozen villains, maybe more but the flames were making it hard to get an exact number.

“I’ll handle it.” When Todoroki turned, Rin placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

“We appreciate the thought, but let us get out licks in, too. We can’t have you do all the work.” He suggested, the others nodding as while it was impressive to see Todoroki work, they were all training to be heroes.

Whatever response Todoroki had was drowned out when the villains turned the corner, and as Shoji had suspected, it was over a dozen of them, ranging in size and appearance. “There they are!”

“What the hell? Where’d all that ice come from!” Rin fired his scales at the villain, knocking him back with a cry of pain as the rest turned to him.

Rising his other hand, he let more scales sprout along his arms. “I would focus less on the ice, and more of the 4 opponents you’ll need to face.”

“Let’s see how tough you are!” Kirishima hardened his upper body, slamming his fists together before he charged into them, Shoji supported him, using his bulk and multiple arms to punch and grab and toss villains like toys, while Rin kept to the rear of the two, acting as a human turret.

Todoroki watched them work and could admit that they were impressive, what one would expect from his classmates but that also gave him another opportunity, one that he was sure they wouldn’t have agreed with. “Well, if they want to handle some of you grunts, I won’t stop them, but that does leave you all in a pretty bad spot. If I don’t stop freezing you, pretty soon your cells will start to freeze and die.”

Todoroki stated casually, the villains started to shiver and sweat, and not from the cold as his cold grey and blue eyes gazed through them, a frown painted across his face.

He walked up to one of the villains, frost flowing off his right side as he held his hand to the terrified man’s face, letting him feel the chill coming off him. “I want to be a hero, and that means I want to avoid unnecessary harm, even to villains but that doesn’t mean I will lose any sleep over you.” Todoroki started, the villains around him freaking out as they couldn’t tell if he was bluffing or not, all while unknown to both, Shoji had an ear aimed in their direction as he fought.

“So answer my questions, starting with what make a bunch of fools like you think you could take on All Might?” Todoroki questioned, and the villain, a hardened criminal, broke and started to telling him all that he knew, others pitching in to try and garner favour to be let go before frostbite set in.

Line Break

In the landslide zone, the villains found themselves on the backfoot as despite thier numbers and the element of surprise, their targets had rallied and came together in a last stand defense which they couldn’t break, the amount of fallen around them a testament to that.

They knew they were all still alive, the students hadn’t done anything too crazy to them, but that didn’t help morale, especially when their bodies, much like everything else sprouted mushrooms, leaving some buried in that stuff while those still standing kept swiping, ripping and tearing at the damn things growing off them.

“Dammit, someone do something about the mushroom!” A woman yelled as she clawed at the mushrooms growing on her, before from her shadow, Kuroiro popped out and kicked her in the back, sending her trembling with a cry of shock into Kaminari’s arms, where she was swiftly electrocuted and dropped to the floor, defeated.

“Like what? We can’t get to the little brat!” Another yelled as they fought against Kaibara, who when surrounded, turned his entire body into a drill and lunge into them, cries of pain following as he pierced through their attempt of ganging up of him.

Komori, at the top of the hill made from dirt and a collapsed building, kept on spraying moisture into the air, happy as can be. “Brat? Oh, how cruel you are. I’m not a brat, I’m the mushroom princess and I don’t need any plumbers to handle my problems, Bowser!” She giggled at their enemies suffering, her bob cut hair parted just a little to reveal how bright and cheerful her eye was at this chance to cut loose.

“I don’t look like a damn turtle!” The villain in question looked more like a crocodile as he snarled back at her, trying to break through to take her out, but once more, Kuroiro popped out of his shadow and punched him in the face.

“You might not share resemblance to once, but you and everyone else are sure are as slow as them.” The black-skinned student smirked as he vanished back into the shadows before the villain could retaliate, leaving him angry as he yelled at him to come back and fight like a man.

“Man, why didn’t I ever think of this before, electro hugs, they’re the shit!” Kaminari laughed as he didn’t need to fight as much as he need to touch people, and grabbing him in hugs was proving to extremely effective, others couldn’t even break them up as if they touched him or his target, they just got electrocuted as well.

“It’s weird that you never did, doesn’t your quirk work  through contact or something?” Fukidashi said before he took another breath and cried out “Crash!” Which sent a massive onomatopoeia at the villains, which when it landed, as the sound entailed, came down like a car smacking into them.

“It can spread out, and that’s kinda how I’ve always used it, so it wasn’t so good when fighting in groups.” Kaminari dodged an attack from someone’s quirk, one that seemed to control dirt. Yeah, he would need to handle that one before he was taken out.

“Still, you mean to say that you always let loose a full charge?” Fukidashi asked him, turning to another group that had managed to get past Kuroiro’s attempts of stalling them, once he saw that his classmate was safe in the shadows, he attacked. “Boom!” As he willed it, the explosion sound flew into them and detonated, sending villains flying all over the place with cries and shouts of surprise, frustration and pain. One landed at his feet, dazed so he took care of that. “Thud.” It wasn’t as strong as the others, but it did the trick as the sound effect smacked the villain like a bat, knocking them out.

“Can we please stop bullying me?” Kaminari whined, as he got it, he wasn’t the most creative with his quirk but he was still helping!

Komori let out a haughty laugh that could only come from an arrogant princess, all she was missing was the twin ringlets. “We’ll leave our electro type alone for now, onward my knights, we have to spread as much fungi as we can, let our spores cover the planet!” Fukidashi adding the words ‘damp’ every now and then must made it all the easier for her mushrooms to spread, big and strong as she laughed, leaving even her allies perplexed.

“She’s really getting into it.” Kaibara weakly smiled, as they were lucky, she had something to disinfect them before she let loose, else they would be mushrooms gradings like the poor bastard the faced them, but that was something for later-right now they had villains to defeat so that they could get out of here and hopefully link up with anyone else.

Line Break

They weren’t the only ones that had found their footing as in the mountains, the students were not just holding their own, but pushing back the villains who quickly realised that their numbers advantage worked against them, not just because they had to worry about friendly fire where their targets did, but because a certain loudmouth was using their powers against them.

“Wow, that quirk wasn’t nearly as good as the other one. Minor telekinesis, and it only works on rocks the size of your head? Man, you must have been a menace on the playground but in a real fight, not much to write home about.” Monoma mocked after having copied a new quirk, the 16th one thus far, and using it to pick up some rocks to block a punch from one villain before sending others at a group of them.

When a villain came up behind him, pissed and ready to finally shut his mouth, he used one other quirk he copied, turning his arms to iron to block the block, doing so was still contact as he activated his power and copied his attacker’s quirk. “Oh, but this power is pretty good. Heightened reflexes, great for brawls and back-alley fights, it could have even been a acceptable power in the hands of a pro? Did you try and miserable fail? Is that why you’re a villain?” Using that in conjunction with his iron arms, he would switch between them and attack with lighting fast jobs and right hooks.

“Can some shut him up?!” One villain yelled, sick and tired of this brat as it was a little amusing in the start, but a few minutes in and they were down by half.

“We’re trying but the bastard is a slippery one!” Another yelled back as she came at him with a spear, only to be snatched up by Kendo who tossed her into another villain, sending both tumbling into the ground with groans of pain.

Monoma hardly cared about that as he just kept laughing and talking shit. “I have you know my parents were happily married when I was conceived, but I can understand why you would make that mistake. After all, we’re just freshmen, and you all adults, hardened criminals and yet here you are, struggling to handle us. How embarrassing as that have to be? I wouldn’t be able to show my face again after this.”

“He does enjoy the sound of his own voice.” Shoda pulled back, fists held up as he looked for another opponent to take on, but they had caught on a while back and were giving him distance.

“If he wasn’t an alley, I would be partial to silencing him as well.” Tokoyami added as Monoma just kept on disrespecting their foes, driving them up a wall and making them angry, making them sloppy which he was more then willing to use against them.

“Speak for yourself, above us!” Jiro called out, Tokoyami looked up to see someone having jumped at them, knives in both hands.

“Dark Shadow!” Tokoyami called out as his quirk turned round and slammed the villain into the side of the cliff, the man dropping his knives as Dark Shadow pulled his hand back, letting the knocked-out man fall to the ground face first. With Kendo, she had picked up two large rocks in her hands and slammed them into a villain that had proven to be tougher then the rest, leaving them stumbling for a moment before they too, fall back.

Shoda worked his way towards Monoma, the two stood back-to-back as they fought, the smaller of the two proving to be faster while Monoma acting like the hammer to his knife, dealing the knock out blows while adding Shoda’s quirk to his ever-expanding arsenal. Using twin impact on another, he kicked them in the chest, using a copied quirk that gave him the kicking power of a kangaroo, which sent the bunny suit wearing woman back into a man seemingly made form paper.

“Duck!” Kendo yelled at them, and both obeyed without thinking, as Kendo’s massive hand swung across the area, taking out many of the villains either by knocking them over, or sending them flying into others.

“We have more coming!” Jiro alerted them before they could celebrate their victory, and true to her warning, another 2 dozen villains seemingly materialised out of the crevices and shadows.

“They’re stubborn, I’ll give them that.”

“Persistence even in the face of certain failure is not always a respectable trait.”

Line Break

The door that lead into the frost zone had been sealed since the start, and had been undisturbed by the villains as they had been warped directly in. That wouldn’t remain so as there was a thud, followed by another louder one before an explosion blew the door wide open, with Tetsutetsu being the first out, coughing through the smoke. Following him where Hagakure and Asui who had stuck close to Midoriya in his flame form, with Yaoyorozu being the last.

Stepping out from the cold of the place, even with its winds still hitting their back, they just moved to the side and finally relaxed. “Damn, that took longer than I thought.” Tetsutetsu stretched as Yaoyorozu and Hagakure shed their thick winter clothing.

“I’m just happy we’re out of there, great job on the explosive, Yaomomo.” Hagakure praised as the girl had stepped up when Midoriya wanted to blast their way out, made some explosive and set a timer before she had then all hide as it counted down.

Yaoyorozu smiled at the compliment as she folded her clothing and set it aside. “Thank you, I learned to make breaching charges a few years ago.” Hearing commotion, they looked to the and saw at one ide, was the mountain zone, and to the flood zones. In both cases, they could make out fighting.

“Looks like they’re still fighting happening in the other zones, so our classmates are holding on.” Midoriya noted, though he couldn’t tell who was where from this distance.

“Great, we weren’t the outliers.” Hagakure agreed with him, but her words took on a tint of worry. “But are you and Yaomomo good? You did use your quirks a lot back there.” The other two nodded in agreement as while they had all done their part, Izuku and Momo had done the lion’s share.

Dropping both his flame form, and even allowing Faunalution’s power to recede to her. “Now that I don’t need to keep myself warm, just give me a second to catch my breath.” Midoriya smiled, though his sweaty forehead didn’t make his words that convincing. Still, he wasn’t as exhausted as he had been earlier, so they could accept it, at least for now.

“I’m not at my best, but I still have some lipids should we need to enter another fight.” Yaoyorozu admitted, as she felt a bit winded, but nothing she hadn’t trained for.

The sounds of battle continued around them did have Asui ask something. “(Kero) We might need to do that as if everyone else is fighting, what do we do? Do we just sit here and wait for help, or try and assist others?”

It was a good question, if they remained where they were and waited for pros, it would be ideal, especially as any villains that wanted out of the frost zone would need to use the entrance so they could guard it. but on the other hand, the USJ itself was sealed, so did it matter if villains got out of one zone? Besides, what if their friends needed help?

Seeing a dust cloud form from what could be a heavy impact in the plaza, Momo made a suggestion. “It would be prudent that we go for the engagement in the plaza, it’s the central point of the building. If we can clear it, it means we have a better shot of getting out.”

“What if that warp villain is there? We can’t really fight him if he just warps us away.” Tetsutetsu reminded her as he didn’t like his chances against a guy that looked to be made of that same stuff as his warp gates.

Midoriya greed with Yaoyorozu as he got up and rolled his shoulders. “We’ll stick to range attacks. Besides, we need to figure out a means to handle him and that…thing, sooner or later.” His face pinched as he thought about the black skinned beast, his quirks sharing in his unnerved feeling.

“What are you talking about?” Hagakure asked him as Midoriya frowned, trying to put it into words.

“I don’t know, but that creature that was standing next to the villain wearing hands, it just gives me a bad feeling.” He couldn’t quite describe it, as it was someone trying to tell you to describe the taste of air, it wasn’t impossible but it would be difficult even for a professional writer. Even with that one glance at the beginning of this mess, he felt something just wrong about that thing in his bones.

“How do you know it’s a creature? It could just be a heteromorph.” Asui asked, Midoriya turned his gaze towards her, noting that her face seemed to be the same, but her eyes were not, they were piercing and he figured that his answer would need to be a damn good one else her opinion of him be irreversible changed for the worse.

“No, I’m sure of that…whatever is happening with it, it’s sure as hell not human.” Midoriya replied, to which Asui held his gaze for a moment longer, before looking away. If she believed him or not, he couldn’t say, but that had to wait for a better time to speak with her.

Yaoyorozu having witnessed the little staring contest between them, wondered what it was about before getting back to the situation at hand. “So we’re in agreement then? We secure the plaza and then move to assist the other zones?” At her words, the group nodded before they turned and made their way over to the plaza, trying to be discreet about it so they could have the element of surprise.

‘I don’t know what that thing is but,’ Midoriya thought to himself, narrowing his gaze as he recalled that beast one more, feeling his quirks grow restless in him. ‘I’m going to find out, and put a stop to it.’

Line Break

Well, I’m finally started working on more chapters of the Emerald Furnace stories, as I’ve already plotted out 2 chapters worth of content, enough for November as December…well, that’s typically when I take time off to relax and be around family. I was aiming for 3 but I had to revise some of the stuff which took longer than I expected.

I did manage to watch that first episode of Arcane season 2 and it’s just amazing, I fell back in love with its animation and direction less then 5 minutes in, with the characters and story picking up right where things left off and carrying on that legacy of peak story telling. I would have watched the second episode, but I did need to get this done.