章 2327: 69
Chapter 69: Crimson
A/N: And here goes the battle! Now commences the fight!
"Kaminari," Izuku muttered, turning slightly to the boy beside him. "You're the one best suited to guarding Mt. Lady at the current moment. Set a perimeter around her and yourself with your pointer discs and keep an electric field active."
"Hey!" Spinner erupted. "I thought that we told you guys to stop talking?!"
Highbrow huffed. "Fine then. I've been getting tired of all this standing around anyways." His muscles and skin noticeably bulged under his costume, and it was long after that he charged towards the duo of Spinner and Stain.
At the same moment, a giant smokescreen engulfed the two villains, shrouding them in the gray clouds. Highbrow's coughs lasted for only a few seconds before they grew silent. "You're going to have to do better than that to disable me, you punks!"
"Quick!" Izuku exclaimed to Kaminari. "Do it now!"
"But why?!" Kaminari asked. "There's just two of them! If we jump them—"
Izuku turned away from the fight, facing the cafe on the opposite side of the street. Gentle Criminal and La Brava had stood up and ditched their hats by then, but they weren't yet attacking.
Izuku realized when that was when a drone came out of La Brava's bag, rising into the air and hovering before the duo.
"There are four of them. Those two right there are part of this attack," Izuku said, causing Kminari to turn.
Upon eyeing the duo, Kaminari's eyes widened in turn. "That's Gentle Criminal and La Brava! I just assumed that they weren't here when— Wait!" Kaminari turned to Izuku. "How long ago did you notice them? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Almost right after Stain appeared, it didn't matter at the time, and they're why I suggested you be the one to guard Mt. Lady," Izuku listed off. "I'm going to fight them, or at least hold them off before backup arrives."
"But there are two of them!"
"But it won't be the first time that we've fought," Izuku countered. "And they won't have backup so readily available to help them this time around. I'll be fine."
–Hello everyone!– La Brava's voice boomed, reverberating over unseen speakers that were no doubt hidden long before. –This is La Brava and Gentle Criminal with another chronicle of Stain's escapades! This time we've gone after the voluptuous and gloryhounding Mt. Lady! But what's this? We've come into a bit of a kerfuffle with some interns and sidekicks!–
"Kaminari…"
"Rig— Right!" Kaminari shot out six of his pointer discs around him, the metal plates implanting themselves into the ground. In the next instant, the two pads on his shoulders opened and released the two tesla coils. Once fully revealed, electricity began arcing up their lengths, spewing forth until from their tips and branching out towards the pointer discs on the ground.
What resulted was a makeshift dome of electric energy, with Kaminari and Mt. Lady on the inside.
–Oho? What's this?– La Brava's voice came. –Looks like some sort of protective forcefield. We'll have to deal with that kid later then, eh Gentle?–
The older man stretched down his gloves, moving his glance away from Kaminari and towards Izuku. "Yes. It seems as if we will."
"How long can you keep that up?" Izuku asked Kaminari.
"Err… for as long as it takes for backup to get here, I think; as long as they don't show up late, that is. Or if I have to use my beam attack, that'll shorten my time."
"Save it for if Stain or Spinner try to take a potshot at you," Izuku said, taking a step forward towards Gentle and La Brava. "I'll be leaving you to it for now."
"Ki— Kid…"
Izuku turned back for just a moment and saw Mt. Lady begin to move, just somewhat, if just enough to speak. Her eyes betrayed her emotions, and the way she felt about the situation was obvious.
Izuku nodded in assurance, and then turned back to face his opponents. "It's alright Mt. Lady. I've got it handled. I know what I'm doing."
"Be careful Midoriya!" Kaminari said. "I'll try to take my own potshots if I can!"
Izuku nodded once more. "Thanks, Kaminari. Make sure to take care of Mt. Lady, mhm?"
As Izuku began walking towards La Brava and Gentle Criminal, he willed a swarm of bugs to gather behind him, moving them like a giant shadow mimicking his movements. He moved until he was but ten feet away from the duo, his mass of bugs covering them in its own shadow due to its sheer size.
–Aha!– La Brava's voice echoed. –And here comes our challenger! It's none other than Izuku Midoriya —Hero Name: Dragonfly! Now, I know that you viewers won't know this, but what's to come will actually be a rematch between dear Izuku over there and ourselves!–
Gentle nodded at Izuku. "A pleasure to meet again, Midoriya. Of course, I'd wish that it was under much more amicable circumstances, but alas, here we are."
"Indeed," Izuku said. "Though it's not so different as last time, I would think. Why don't you surrender? It'll keep you from the embarrassment of losing to me again. Unless that's what you want your audience to see?"
Gentle smiled. "Unfortunately, I'll have to decline, Midoriya. As formidable an opponent you were in our last match, that can of course change. We have some things up our sleeves now, and we full heartedly plan to beat you this time around."
Izuku sighed. "Suit yourselves, then."
The giant mass of bugs collapsed into a wave, splintering off into several separate swarms all at once. The very second the bugs went onto the offensive, however, a giant cloud of smoke engulfed both Gentle Criminal and La Brava.
Izuku willed his bugs forward still, but they almost immediately felt the strain of the gas as they entered the cloud. It was too much, and they were beginning to die after just a few seconds within the smoke."
–We've learned from last time!– La Brava's voice announced. –We've got some special gas too! Something much stronger than before! Now get ready for a whooping!–
Gentle Criminal shot out of the cloud of gas, no doubt a direct result of his quirk. With his momentum he shot forth through the air, though before he reached Izuku he used his quirk on the air in front of him.
Gentle bounced off the suddenly elastic air. He shot at an upward slant, and then he bounced again, and again, and again.
Izuku's mind reeled in realization. He immediately sent bugs after the finely dressed villain, smaller swarms flying through the air in pursuit of the ricocheting target.
The bugs found themselves colliding into the remnants of Gentle's quirk, crashing into patches of elasticized air and bouncing back with enough force to disorient most bugs, if not kill some of the more frail ones.
–And Gentle sets up a variable hodgepodge of air trampoline with his quirk! Just how will our resident hero deal with this?!–
Izuku maneuvered the bugs left and right, trying his best at dodging walls that he couldn't see all in an attempt to catch up to Gentle Criminal.
Izuku's efforts proved futile in the end, Gentle Criminal eventually landing before him in all of his usual glory.
Izuku assumed a ready stance, but kept it semi-loose, knowing that there was still a barrier of elastic air between him and Gentle.
"Going to try and keep me off balance then?" Izuku asked. He sent out some bugs into the endless array of elastic spaces, moving a single bug onto as many spaces as possible.
"But of course," Gentle replied. "It helps that I'm cutting you off from potential things you can use against me. Such as places where you can hide a whole swarm of bugs."
Izuku moved himself forward, something which instigated Gentle to jump off into his maze of air patches made by his quirk.
Izuku looked up as Gentle jumped away, and it only took a moment of hesitation before he made a decision. With the help of his bugs, Izuku was able to follow through somewhat, only stumbling from time to time as he traversed the landscape.
"I don't get it!" Izuku yelled as he chased Gentle, bouncing from one elastic space to another. "Why are you two even with Stain?! If anything, you seem like people that he'd kill rather than allow to follow him!"
"Well, apparently not!" Gentle yelled behind him. "In all honesty, I was a bit surprised too! Stain saw our ambitions and what drives us! He told us that he can admire something like that in people. It's what had him decide to let us join!"
"What ambition?" Izuku questioned. "To look good on camera? To rob, to steal? To go out to school festivals and attack students?!"
Gentle huffed, a hard glare appearing on his face. He growled in response, and then looked back at the boy chasing him from behind.
"You wouldn't understand!" Gentle yelled. He looked behind himself, eyeing as Izuku followed the same route as him. "And no matter how hard you try, you never will!"
Gentle used his quirk on the air behind him, making yet another solid wall of elastic air. Izuku, who had been following right behind Gentle, collided with the wall. Izuku bounced back, falling, but caught himself on another patch of air.
–Ooh! Right in the face! Though it seems as if dear Midoriya isn't letting that get to him!–
Izuku slowly stood himself up, his feet unsteady on the bouncy surface he found himself standing on. When he found his balance, he looked up, eyeing Gentle Criminal from below.
"And why wouldn't I?" Izuku slowly gathered a swarm around himself. He moved himself forward again, his swarm following suit.
Gentle went to move again, jumping from patch to patch.
"You were born with potential!" Gentle said. "With power! With smarts! With something that got you into one of the most prestigious hero schools the world over! Something I couldn't reach!"
–Uh… Gentle? Are you sure? The cameras...?–
"It's fine," Gentle muttered, more to himself than the drones following him. "He's asking, isn't he?"
Izuku made sure that the remaining patches had at least a single bug, making it so he felt every single bounce that resulted from Gentle's movement. "So what are you saying?" Izuku asked. "You were in a hero school before? And you dropped out?"
"Maybe I was!" Gentle jumped onto another patch of elastic air; this one was different, though. The hornet that had been laying in wait on said patch rose into the air and went up Gentle's pant leg.
With a simple sting Gentle let out a rather undignified yelp, stumbling onto his next jump and falling onto a layer of his air.
"Gotcha," Izuku muttered to himself. He moved his bugs forward, flowing them around the solidified spaces of air and towards Gentle. They swarmed him, causing the man to yell in response.
–Gentle! No! Midoriya Izuku; get those things off of him!–
"No can do, La Brava," the swarm said.
Izuku willed the bugs to pull Gentle over the side of his little patch of solidified air, causing the man to fall into a descent towards the ground. He didn't just go straight to the ground of course, instead bouncing off one air trampoline after another until he reached the ground.
Iizuku followed suit, and found himself towering above a still squirming Gentle Criminal. Izuku willed the majority of bugs off of the man, but kept a few of the more harmful ones in spots Gentle could easily see.
From his belt Izuku pulled out some spider threads, and bent down to begin tying Gentle up.
"Don't move, and you'll be fine, you hear? I'm sure that you noticed the spiders, so you know for sure like last time that I'm not bluffing. So, if you'd just so kindly—"
A scream of anguish had Izuku jolting up from his crouched form. He jerked his head over towards the noise, and his mind froze in terror.
A few minutes before…
Kaminari looked on in agitation as he stood in the relative safety of his dome of electricity. He was just a few feet away from the cloud gas that held Stain, Spinner, and Highbrow.
A few glimpses here and there revealed that the gas was noxious, the two villains within the cloud wearing gas masks. Highbrow had been coughing at first as well, but those eventually ceased over time. Something to do with his biokinesis, for sure.
Kaminari looked down at the prone form at Mt. Lady at his feet. "How are you doing down there?"
The hero's mouth opened slightly, her tongue fumbling to form a coherent sentence. "Only… mostly mouth… good."
"Right," Kaminari muttered, staring back into the smoke. He barely caught another glimpse of Highbrow when the yell suddenly pierced the moment, causing the hairs on Kaminari to stand on end.
An upward cut from Stain's blade went straight across Highbrow's face, slashing his eye and causing blood to splatter on the pavement.
The inevitable came, and Stain licked the newly received blood from his blade. However, much to Kaminari's surprise, Highbrow remained standing, ready to fight.
"Like I said!" Highbrow's voice came, "You're gonna need a helluva lot more than petty tricks to take me down!"
A dash of movement from behind, and Spinner attacked, slashing across Highbrow's other eye. Spinner eagerly handed over his own sword to Stain, which he immediately licked. Unlike the last time, Highbrow did fall to the ground, unmoving.
"Hypocritical of you to say such a thing, when you yourself are using small tricks to fend us off," Stain snarled. "Though hanging your blood type at the last second was something unexpected, I'll give you that. Shame that you could do it again so quickly. Is it strainful to do?"
Stain kicked the downed hero. "I'll be coming back for you; I'll be off to the main target now."
The smoke slowly began to dissipate, Spinner and Stain emerging from its midst.
"Kid," Spinner began, "make this easy on yourself. Give us the lady and we'll be on our way."
"Never!" Kaminari yelled. "You'll never be able to reach me, anyways!" His statement was followed by a rather startled yelp as a dagger collided with his dome, ricocheting off as it hit.
"Resourceful," Stain muttered, lowering his hand from the throw. Then he smirked. "Spinner."
The reptilian-looking man shot forward, sword raised and belaying a warcry.
Kaminari — quite predictably — panicked. The coils on his shoulders revved up in energy, electricity coursing from all over Kaminari's body. The light up in a yellow glow, the electricity surging down to a single point at Kaminari's hands, where a pure beam of electricity shot forth, straight at Spinner.
The swordsman howled in pain, collapsing to the ground as his limbs twitching at the overcharge of electricity.
"Yes!" Kaminari exclaimed, shooting an arm upwards. He sent a mocking face towards Stain. "Take that you... failure... of a…"
Stain was looking at Kaminari with a rather impressive face of contempt. But that wasn't what had Kaminari stuttering.
The fact that — at that very same moment — Kaminari realized he had used up all the electricity he could before short circuiting himself, didn't help his nerves one bit. That, and his dome was down too.
And Spinner was steadily making his way on his feet as well, only a few burns present on his shaky body.
"Uhm…" Kaminari gulped. "I'm still working on the technique?"
The gas had finally cleared, and the scene was quite possibly everything Izuku was hoping against.
Highbrow had finally succumbed to the duo of Stain and Spinner, his battered form slumped up against the wall of a nearby building. A small pool of blood was slowly seeping from the lack of his eyes on his face, and his breaths were short and ragged.
But the centerpiece of it all was Stain. The man was raising his blade, poised to strike downwards and penetrate the vulnerable form of Kaminari at his feet. Mt. Lady was under him, his body shielding hers. But unlike the unconscious Kaminari, Mt. Lady was fully awake. A look of pure terror adjourned her face, her eyes looking death straight in the eye.
Izuku didn't even have to think. He abandoned Gentle and shot himself straight towards the Hero Killer. His eyes widened as the blade began to descend, but all it did was make Izuku even faster.
Only one thing was obvious of course: Izuku couldn't tackle Stain – or rather, wouldn't. The blade was already moving downwards, so even if Stain was pushed aside there was a chance that the sword wouldn't. Then Kaminari might be injured in a much more dangerous place than his torso.
So Izuku did the next best thing, and threw himself over atop of the unconscious Kaminari.
He braced himself, putting his hands in front of himi in an attempt to lessen the force of the blow. He couldn't help but close his eyes on instinct, awaiting the moment the blade came down.
He laid there for a few seconds, and eventually came to realize that an attack never connected. He cautioned his eyes open, and found Stain staring at him with narrowed eyes.
"Uh… boss?" Spinner questioned from off to the side. A quick glance at him revealed that he had mostly recovered from the shock Kaminari had given him. By now, he had yet another grenade in his head, pin ready to be pulled. It was that little tidbit that kept Izuku from immediately calling in his bugs for support.
Stain tilted his head in thought. He pulled the sword over to his side, resting it at his hip and removing the immediate danger from either Izuku or Kaminari. But Izuku still didn't make a move, he didn't dare risk it.
There was a lull in the battle, where neither Stain, Spinner, nor La Brava or Gentle moved. The latter had long since gotten up from the ground, the bugs that had been keeping him pinned long since abandoning their duties. All that was left was Stain and Izuku, eyes locked in uncertainty.
Stain huffed. "You know, you were such a pain to plan against. Counters and contingencies all specifically tailored for you, a simple boy who could control bugs as his quirk. Your mere presence made this whole fight much more difficult than it needed to be."
Stain crouched down, his face coming to a mere few inches away from Izuku's. "I would have preferred any of the others. That girl who can separate herself in various pieces, that boy with the grape balls, or even that vine-haired girl. They would have been simple to fight against."
"I've read up on you, of course. A bit rough around the edges, and the origin of quite a few controversies. But never was anything malicious ever truly your fault, was it? Still, considering your accomplishments, however admirable some of them were... I would've done whatever I could to have them replace the obstacle that you posed. But now..." Stain hummed. "Now I'm not too sure."
Stain stood back up and began to pace. Spinner looked as if he wanted to say something, but with Stain's face as serious as it was, he held his tongue. Eventually, Stain stopped and aimed his glare down at Izuku.
"You would really sacrifice yourself for a classmate, and a hero you barely know?" Stain leaned downwards just a little. " You'd use your body as a shield for an arguably lethal attack? Just like that?"
Izuku gulped. "I… I– Of course." He steadied his breathing. "I didn't even need to think about it."
Besides, I'm pretty sure that his sword wouldn't have been able to pierce my costume, so there's that. But I'm not going to bring that up.
"Hmph." Stain straightened himself out, properly sheathing his swords into their hilts and patting himself off of the dust and debris that lined his clothes.
"Spinner," he said, "make sure that the two idiots over there are ready to go. We're leaving."
Spinner widened his eyes. "But boss! Mt. Lady—"
"Will be getting a temporary pass," Stain interrupted.
"But why?" Spinner asked.
Stain looked back at Izuku. Suddenly, the man's sword was out faster than Izuku could follow, the blade resting just under his chin. "Mask. Off. I want to see your face myself, Midoriya. The look in your eyes, the creases in your face. Everything."
Izuku slowly followed through with the order, knowing full well just how vulnerable he was making himself be. But he had a suspicion that it was the right decision at the moment. Or so he hoped.
The mask came off, revealing Izuku's sweat-ridden face to the serial killer. The sword found itself under Izukus chin once more, lifting his face upwards to more easily be viewed by Stain.
A viscous smirk coming to Stain's lips. "I think society as something rotting on the inside, something that's slowly destroying itself with its own biased and hypocritical ways. You all know this."
Stain turned and began walking away. "But today's showed me that society may not be as doomed as I believed it to be. Not if true paragons of heroism like Midoriya here still exist at such a young age."
Stain put a hand on Spinner's shoulder. "I'd rather not snuff out such a promising person before they can bloom and spread their presence to others. You understand, don't you?"
Spinner eagerly nodded. "Of course sir!"
Stain nodded. "Good. Get the others ready."
Spinner nodded once more and shot off towards La Brava and Gentle Criminal, the former already gathering her drones as the latter was looking on in interest.
Stain looked back at Izuku once more. "I hope that you don't lose that spirit of yours, Dragonfly. For both our sakes."
A/N: And there we all are! A little bit of the aftermath next time, and some other new additions as well.
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