"Luna Arc!"
The Rabbit Hero: Mirko's front facing axe kick dispelled the rushing beams of purple light. A resounding crack echoed out amongst the rainfall. The attacks felt limitless, her arms burned at the minor scratches that cascaded down her body. At the bruising from being slammed into a still standing apartment wall. Her senses screamed at her to run, that it felt hopeless.
—her back was killing her!
…But she didn't quit because that's how Losers thought.
Her blood caked lips twisted into a shit eating grin, this was exactly what she needed! Screw the other heroes for getting their shit kicked in. If being bait until the Number One got here meant this? Then she'd take that over digging people out of their ineptitude!
Snatch pulled her raised foot down with his sand, she was seconds away from losing the appendage.
A horizontal knife-like edge shot out in a pie curve around the villain that sliced the surroundings slightly below her knees. She ducked low within the raised rubble to escape it. Over the last few minutes she couldn't remember how it began exactly, her mind was kinda muddy from the last blow. But the Bozo had decided to open up with a whirlwind of blue fire, when the villain wasn't looking. It was a pretty big thing and it gave her the opening to get a few licks in.
She flipped up in a handstand and tucked deep into a roll, the sky was screaming, with a deft kick she rose up into the air. Her left hand firmly clasped the smooth metal of the light pole several feet away from her as she descended at the end of her arc. A single rotation was enough to kill her momentum, tucking the pole under the back of her knee to keep her hanging.
Mirko observed her surroundings.
Her eyes followed her once mentor as he rushed as a single mass of sand, speedy and flowing like a river. Using his quirk as his main body while his lower body went limp within. It looked funny when she first saw the way he used his quirk to move around. Back when she interned under him, but she wasn't stupid, the old man was smart.
With a grunt and a two handed hold, Mirko kicked off against the pole.
Destroying it all in one go, as it shattered into shrapnel.
Rushing like a bullet in the torrential sky, her view was a blur, another razor sharp barrage buffeted the area further ahead, two quirks fought for dominance. Bozo was overdoing it, but that was exactly how it would go. The rabbit hero pivoted instantly, kicking frontwards with both her feet. Killing her speedy trajectory to stop into a controlled fall. The air became visibly distressed from the micro shockwave, her long hair was clipped by the stupid beam before her. As she fell vertically straight down the chasm that led into a ruined second story apartment.
—That was a close one.
She didn't stop her sprint as she landed on a sofa and leapt over Hound Dog. With a tight open palmed strike. Her supervisor slammed a large palm under her feet. Giving her the momentum to escape another set of beams with a closed arm pirouette as she re-ascended.
The structure crumbled.
The attack looked paler and wider. It didn't matter; she just needed to reach the villain a second time. With a backwards kick she fell diagonally to where she needed to go. The building behind her exploded as Hound Dog crossed her from below and dug his claws over a ruined van, denting the roof with his large frame as he barreled through the ruined vehicles on the street. His more bestial-feral attitude? She wasn't sure what to call it, but he was letting loose and she was more than okay with that!
She didn't have time to link up with him to explain the details and she couldn't stop now to do so or the kid and Snatch would die from lack of support.
When they first ambushed the man, she expected a lot of resistance. Maybe the white-haired kid was full of shit, not because she doubted that the villain was strong. But because he was said to be on par with All Might? there was a scale to things. And the difference between the number one and two was insane.
But once she did, she noticed how thoroughly outclassed she was, how lame was that? It felt as if she was hitting a steel wall with everything she had, and she was the coughing little toddler; it was funny. There was a deep ravine of difference between her current level and someone truly strong. And she found it here of all places.
Could she reach that peak? She wouldn't know unless she tried.
A whirl of flames engulfed the standing criminal from behind as he turned to the two of them in attention.
"Flashfire fist: Jet Burn!"
The thrum of the iridescent fire at first looked sloppy in its execution. She'd probably be pissed at just how reckless the kid was but no, his quirk was just that powerful. Mirko's mind flashed back to the burns that he didn't bother to hide on his body, they were evidently self-inflicted. The pattern of the still fresh wounds showed the way in which he manipulated the quirk. They always pointed outward away from him.
He was more self-aware of the heroes around him, when he parroted the number two's signature techniques, she'd give him that. Mirko had seen Endeavor at work from afar, when she had the rare chance to leave Hiroshima for work study; and this was not it. These flames looked like unrestrained demons that wanted out.
It was like his quirk couldn't help but rattle against the prison of his malnourished body. That or she was just making shit up as she went; and she was overthinking things.
Mirko heard the guttural yell from the dog hero to her right and then the next instant a huge section of the pavement was ripped free and sailing in the wind. It exploded when the solid material made contact with All For One, it did no damage. But it gave Snatch the exact opportunity to sneak through his guard. Already preoccupied by the kid's searing attacks, the ground exploded into sharp spires that dug into the villain's body.
Were they effective? She wasn't sure.
With a lateral flip, the rabbit hero dodged the next set of attacks in an instant. Her mind and her eyes were rapidly scanning and turning everything into a processed image in her head. And she rushed forward taking in Snatch's floating form for any cue on the standing villain's next move.
This was the best chance she had to contribute.
Her open hands eagerly used Snatch's pointed pillar as a foundation to deliver a devastating Luna Rush from below the villain. The rotating heel kick pounded against the steel wall, she felt no give. Another ear shattering impact made contact with an impenetrable defense, it didn't work. The last full-body two feet dive into the man's back created music in her ears, but that was all it did.
One, two, three!
Her feet felt scorching as the burning villain was no doubt blinded from sensory overload. But she wasn't stupid, she was waiting for the tell. She was a bug and he was the exterminator.
There!
As soon as— no! before she could fully recover.
The villain let loose and re-used the first attack that started this all. In an instant the dome expanded in a second, she didn't have time to run away this time. But she was ready for that, as she flipped and used Snatch's still solid sand pillar for leverage. Time seemed to slow to a halt around her. Eyeing his limp lower body, her eyes locked with his grainy reforming face and he nodded to her. In the next second she snatched his foot and shot off like a rocket away as the energy dome blew up in a critical mass.
"Mirko, why's the lad not evacuated?" Snatch's deformed cloudy voice told her when the rest of him caught up to her. The top half was all sand, and she could barely make out his lower face as he spoke to her.
"We couldn't get away, apparently the criminal was his caretaker or something at his foster home. I dunno, he kept talking and some of it went…" she pointed at her right ear, and then used her thumb from her other hand to the left to signal that she lost most of the details of what he told her. " —Point is, the villain is hunting them down. If you can get them out, then we can escape. But we need each of us to even survive or he'll kill us one by one."
She wasn't at all surprised that the sand hero was capable of looking at her with some disappointment. But her explanation seemed to give him a push to keep going. Even as he slowly reformed, was he running low on his stamina? It looked like a migraine was starting to build up, up there in his sandy noggin.
She shrugged her shoulders, not her fault that she missed most of it. She was a hero not a transcriber —or whatever they were called. She shook her head and told him the most important information while the bastard up there was distracted. Hound Dog was animalistic as he swiped against the villain, he was a crescendo. And he became a living blender as the hero attacked in ferocity.
"Look, apparently the villain's quirk isn't that manipulation energy thing, it's actually a meta-ability stealing quirk." The sand hero's clump of dust rose up in question, "crazy right?"
"Basically, don't let him touch you with his palms. And you should be alright—" with an instant rush of speed the teenage hero dodged a barrage of solid orbs that flew in their direction. A wave of spindly-like flames rained down from Tōya's nails, intercepting most of them.
But it wasn't enough, because each of them exploded, further devastating the landscape. She still had on her ear plugs because by now Mirko knew that she would have gone deaf.
Bozo was farther away from the two of them due to just how much land they had crossed in the distance to escape death via crushing.
If he didn't look like shit already, he looked hideous now. The bandages she painstakingly used on him went to waste as they turned to ash. She was kinda mad at that. Hound Dog rushed under the debris, rising up to rake his sharp claws on the criminal's open back in a quick drive-by. Sparks flew and it was like steel because when the heteromorph made contact with the villain, the air shrieked.
They were razor sharp, and she had seen just how much pain he could dish out in a short time. Especially when they took down those drug fueled criminals earlier in the day. If Hound Dog hadn't confiscated the contraband, then she'd be tempted to use it right now.
Her eyesight was pretty great and she could see the clothing taking the brunt of the damage, the villain basically lost the top of his suit, but the skin underneath was unblemished. The stupid man was smiling at them in amusement as if he were untouchable, his red eyes thoroughly entertained. Hound Dog had been their quickest hero, perhaps what kept them alive until now.
But there were too few attacks that the hero could do without getting up close and personal.
In a second the villain turned and then in another he flipped his arm upward in a cleaving fashion, cutting a deep gash onto the heteromorph's lower leg. She was too far to see if he lost the entire thing.
The beast hero was then sent flying when the criminal created a solid wall of light, and he used it like a springboard, the impact made her wince. In one moment she saw the hero as a still hovering image. Of blood and man, and then the next he was gone. But she moved forward nonetheless, it wasn't perfect but she had been working on strengthening the muscles in her legs.
It was strange how that worked, she could barely make out the kid speed up away as he rushed to Hound Dog in the sky.
Somehow a few months back she had learned how to overwork and stress her muscles regardless of the strain of it. It made her faster, stronger! But it wasn't enough when the criminal turned to Mirko and buffeted her with bullets of energy. She rolled under a crooked fallen hanging lamp post, barely missing the chance to become swiss cheese. Flipped over a hill of fine rubble as the monster used his second hand in conjunction, and she dug behind the four colored boxy metal trashcans that lined the edge of the sidewalk as the whole area dissipated into nothing but fine particles in the air.
She hadn't noticed her mentor until she was stuck in a bad spot and covered her head with her hands, was she dead? No, she wasn't but it looked bad. The sand dome saved her as the explosion rocked the ground, but she couldn't stop moving. Mirko grabbed the top rim of the husk of the car near her and dove feet first out from the driver's side to the passenger seat window.
Out and into even ground where she could move more freely.
It looked worse when she recovered and looked up, the kid. Tōya was using his blue fire to propel himself back to them. Where was Hound Dog? It was as close to flying as someone could get. The flames were increasingly covering his body —shit was he killing himself? She didn't know if that was a natural part of his quirk or if he was overdoing it. If she was honest with herself she knew for certain now that the rest of them were useless.
They were running on fumes at this point, and she wasn't willing to lower herself to scrub status.
Snatch's sand was heavily diminished, she knew it wasn't fatal but it would take him out of the fight once it got too far.
A crash sent the white haired boy back to the ground, as he was intercepted by the villain. If what the kid said was true, the bastard was making it look like he used his quirk to levitate himself with another hidden quirk. A nasty enlarged fist of light crashed into the right side of the kid's body, he crumpled from the blow. And was flung like a pebble from a slingshot. Tōya was grated and sanded down as he landed at her location. Her hands found themselves softening his last drop after he ricocheted like a flat stone on a lakebed.
She grunted, "fu– you good?!" Holding him up by his shoulders.
"...Y-yeah" He was still standing as she let him go if that was any sign of his condition, but he looked like shit. Slurring the word as it escaped his charred lips. His lower face and most of his body looked like rough dark overcooked jerky. And his right hand and foot looked limp, he was done.
"You don't look it." Her furrowed brows were contemplative.
Snatch was occupied with the villain as he wordlessly jumped into the fray to cover them, it wasn't good because he was their only dexterous hero. The earlier sand dome had taken All For One's attention. After he shot down the boy from the sky. Truly painful blows could be softened with his quirk, and now he was alone.
Fuck— It hadn't been more than a few single digit minutes before Hound Dog was taken out, and she had been saved, and then Tōya… It was all too quick.
The criminal clapped his hands and sent a gale force of wind that sent everyone reeling. The epicenter of the full powered attack took the sand hero flying in the air, lower body and all. Even as the hero used the last of his strength to create his solidified signature sand drill to kill the severity of the criminals' strike… It still wasn't enough.
Their attacks clashed in three seconds before one overpowered the other in a spectacular fashion of glowing cinder-like sand, she could see the shuddering of Snatch's form as it gave out at the last moment.
Fuck was this it?
"...No."
The young man huffed, he looked exhausted. It wasn't surprising, this villain was supposed to be on All Might's level? And he was just playing with them… Mirko could see it. She wore an ugly sneer, she was going to have to run wasn't she? Take him and run away when they still had a chance.
" —I still have this."
A deep purple little glow emanated from the center of his chest, as he slowly stumbled away from her.
He almost fell to the ground in exhaustion as his nose bled freely, his posture was shitty as he hunched over to keep himself standing.
"...I'm not going back." He whimpered.
The little flame grew, It now looked like an unstable X that criss-crossed his torso. His long hair that cascaded over his burned face blew back. It took a moment but he stood straighter than when she had first seen him
—something changed.
The rain that fell instantly vaporized before it could reach him. She had to step back from the heat that radiated off him. It started to increase in intensity as the flames turned into a bright blue radiant light.
Maybe, maybe this could change things?
If he and the rest of the kids could be this strong? then no wonder the bastard wanted them back.
"W-we… can still— you know what fuck it." She didn't spend another second thinking it over.
She rushed the monster ahead of Tōya, the kid looked like he was in a daze. Building up his strength and already she could see the intense raining blows of the villain in their direction. She needed to cover him.
Mirko was tired… really exhausted. But if she could do this little thing and make a tiny difference then she was more than willing.
She kicked one and then two and then five and ten. They were endless and she used the growing velocity from each hit to build up momentum for her next move. She could have worked with the kid, made up some plan but she wasn't that kind of woman. It was all instinct, you didn't think, Snatch and Hound Dog knew it. That's how they could work wordlessly together, sure a team was better. But each hero here did things solo and you had to learn not to step on each other's toes as you teamed up.
That was how she did things and she couldn't change how she operated.
Her legs felt dead, her feet burned hot with rushing blood. The soles of her metal boots were ruined, she'd need to find someone else for a better upgrade because these were not up to snuff.
The world, already a cacophony of sensation, became more of a blind blur when she weaponized a cartwheel into the offending flurry of attacks as they became too overwhelming for singular kicks.
She couldn't really feel any of the pain anymore, just straight feral adrenaline.
"LunaRing!"
It burned her to admit it, but she was dead weight, so she may as well do what she did best, and go out with a bang.
She finally made it, time crawled to snail's pace, the torrenting rain wouldn't let up. The man looked imposing, there was a wrongness to him that she couldn't well place. He looked down at her with those dead unimpressed eyes as if she was nothing. And wasn't that a bitch? Because she was above him as she used everything in her to execute a perfect…
"—Luna Fall!"
Time seemed to speed up and then die in a second… she felt like she blew out her eardrums from the impact against his head. The world and air around her cracked into glass shards from the seismic clash.
…Did she break her leg? Mirko couldn't feel her foot, now she'd be less than useless if that was the case. A short dumbfounded laugh escaped her.
She hovered over the man within the seconds that felt like forever.
She took a moment to look at the strong bastard, analysing his features with clarity, if she lived through this? Then she'd remember his face, and she'd get back at him. As Mirko's eyes burned at the purple build-up around him.
But for now? This was the best she could do, and time resumed.
—
The Rabbit Hero: Mirko was a blur when she crashed through a barely standing two story house. Far in the distance the building collapsed on itself. He was on his own, it was exactly how he expected things to go… fuck. He wasn't sure if they even slowed the man down.
All For One stood in front of him, as if he was patiently ready to indulge him.
"Hoh, what's this?" He lifted a hand to his chin. "What is this new curiosity?"
"Would you like to share with the rest of the class, young man?"
—Gladly.
Todoroki growled.
He was a blur as he shot off from his location to One For All, the ground melted and the rain cried before it could make contact with him. Tōya felt like he teleported in front of the surprised villain as he ignited the full power of Flare Circle. His body protested but his mind told him that this was the best way to start. The inferno behind him crossed over to his front like the hungry maw of a dragon and engulfed the old bastard as its jaws closed shut. The condensed explosion was more like plasma as it reached the old man.
Tōya wouldn't be able to hold this form for long, Phosphor was a bitch when he copied it against Shoto to re-invigorate himself and it was even more of a problem when he used it on All For One. When he was already depleted in more ways than one, mind, body, and spirit.
But that was fine, he didn't need to hold it forever, Hound Dog should be getting the two kids out of the ambulance right now. The deep nasty gash on his leg was a problem and he would have bled out, but a quick cauterization stemmed the bleeding before he lost too much.
Tōya continued the move as he crossed his arms to cut the offending criminal into pieces with his own supercharged rendition of Hell Spider. All For One's figure was moving in there, he could barely make him out. It wasn't happening though, no matter how much he tried, he wouldn't be able to cut him.
Todoroki couldn't split him into pieces, and yet the sky was split ten ways by his attack as he flew to follow the crashing form of the villain. His world was a blur as he kept up with the man, he couldn't lose him while he had this chance.
As he held the attack, his unoccupied arm charged up the next move at his disposal. His hand was cocked back and he let loose, the Ignited Arrows pierced the flaming veil like needles to a pincushion. He couldn't remember how many he had shot off but he wasn't willing to stop. The explosion shattered like a scary mix between a carpet bomb and caustic acid.
They hit their mark, but now he couldn't tell if the man was still in there now.
His trepidation cost him as All For One lightly tapped his cheek with his forefinger from behind.
Fuck!
He swiveled on his hovering feet.
"Vanishing Fist!" The large man was ready for it, and he instead used a simple purple glowing fist to parry the blow. The air shimmered from the force of the two opposing forces. Tōya couldn't stop, he wouldn't let it end like this. The ground looked far away, he hadn't noticed how much ground he had made. Their surroundings burned in blue hellfire.
He noticed the purple wisps of Kurogiri at the last moment, he was there… he existed.
—So Todoroki now knew for sure how much the deck was stacked against him.
Tōya rushed forward as he cocked his fists back, then the closed fists shot off in the opposite direction frontward when he reached All For One in a heavy collision.
Hell's Curtain!
He blanketed the sky again and the old bastard with his azure flames. Buffeting his surroundings as he let loose. He could feel it, his body was reaching his limit. He lost the feeling in his jaw, he couldn't feel the muscles in his lower face as he sneered at the bastard! The muscles in his arms were completely visible and the upper layers of his skin were gone.
The sky was glowing blue and then mixed with the red of the landscape as they met into purple. The dark skylight glowed as if it were the day from that final attack.
It reminded him of that awful day, he truly was a bastard.
He thought… as his mind flashbacked to those heterochromatic eyes. They looked at him with defiance, and maybe familial love. But this time he pointed his own grievances on someone truly deserving.
He fell from the sky like a bullet due to the recoil and reoriented his lower body to the ground to land. His palms ignited with his quirk factor and he aimed down, shooting off the meta ability to slow his fall.
Melting the road and his surroundings all in one go.
Tōya blinked and turned as he readied his next attack on the old crime lord.
—In the next second he was speared, with a purple glowing bone-like quirk. Blood exploded from the wound and time slowed to a crawl.
His eyes blurred and widened in pain.
He barely registered the blow with enough clarity to move his body enough for the attack to be non-fatal. And yet he was still held in place as he worked to remove the offending quirk in his torso, melting it in the firestorm of his core.
"It's over I think, young man. If you won't aid me in life, then better in death. Your service will be more than appreciated, I can see that now."
The deep rueful voice spoke to him from afar.
Tōya didn't stop his burning arms and he snapped the weakened offending limb with his good hand as he judo chopped it in half while the other held it in place. The sharp snap resounded against the loud taps of the rain, and he shuddered in pain. The wound cauterized around the foreign object but he was afraid of moving the spear of bone because he could barely breathe.
Would ripping it out be a good idea?
Before he could finish that thought, a dirty kick to his right hip sent him flying into a still standing police station. Tōya crashed through the glass and he landed between the fiberglass reinforced panels of white oak front desk. It crumpled against him and caught fire as he arched his back in genuine pain. He could see stars in his vision. Tōya slipped as he pushed himself up with his shaky palm and then with his quirk.
…It was all he had left.
And then he turned and ran deeper as he caught sight of the shadow of the old villain at the foot of the front entrance.
Tōya jumped down into a roll as he pushed through the inner rooms of the building. He ran past the interrogation room, through the cells and away from the storage room. The front of the structure shook as explosions rocked the foundation of the building. His feet slapped against the clean epoxy terrazzo of the ground of the garage, the area was barren of vehicles. His ragged gasps were the only thing he could hear from himself.
He needed to escape, Kurogiri was a short term problem, more of a slight speed bump. As long as he had enough energy, any chance the Nomu had to snatch him would be met with a quick death via cremation.
Todoroki caught sight of the window from the hallway, a split decision was made and he crashed through it into the back alleyways.
It was a maze of barely standing three or four story buildings clustered together. With a rush of speed, he flipped over and behind a dumpster as the droplets from the rain reflected to him the light of the rushing beams of purple splintering behind him. The dumpster wouldn't hold as it exploded and Tōya melted the handle of the back entrance of the apartment complex next to it. The stairs leading up to the roof of the building would have been a pain in the ass to climb up to but he instead used his quirk to shoot up to the top.
The building was screwed anyway as it went up in flames.
But entering the abandoned structure gave him enough time to hide away to catch his breath.
He crashed through the door at the end of the roof exit access, the metal door slammed ajar against the brick wall. The clap of his burned feet was loud on the wet roof-top ground as the water sizzled. His gasps were raspy, his head felt faint.
Todoroki couldn't pass out now, he almost fell into a crawl… he was tired.
A rush of iron bit into him and he was crushed into the side of a rooftop water tank. The liquid exploded out around him as the tank crumpled around him. Instantly cooling his torso down and his lower body as he stared into the eyes of the man before him. His shadow cascaded over him, swallowing his weakening body.
The quick vice grip that All For One had on his throat clamped down. The demon lord was ignoring the wispy traces of the inferno that consumed him. That stupid grin was obnoxious, Tōya's jawbone cracked like wood on a campfire blaze.
" —Now, I've been meaning to ask you… how do you know that name? You said All For One, correct?"
The shadowed crimson eyes that bore into him, ignored the kicked up ashes that clashed with the torrential rainfall. Only now did Tōya's bleary eyes notice the helicopters that were a fair distance away, he couldn't mistake them for police helicopters. As he was lifted up into the air from the chokehold.
…They were the damn media, they were going to get themselves killed.
His weak trembling hand slowly reached into the pocket of his barely surviving pants.