"Damn it... I can't... hold it!"
Tetsutetsu's voice was a metallic squawk, choked by a violent cough that echoed inside his own steel skin. His body flickered, reverting to flesh and then back to metal, in spasms.
"It's burning me from the inside! It's like swallowing acid!"
"Hold on, Tetsutetsu!" Itsuka Kendo shouted, shielding him with her gigantic hands, using them as a makeshift shield against the rock.
The air around them was a thick, pink fog that clung to everything.
"We can't go down, it's suicide! And we can't stay here!"
"I know, I know!" he growled, punching the stone with a metal fist. "But my lungs aren't steel!"
Ochako was crouched down, breathing shallowly through a damp cloth she had soaked with her water bottle. It barely helped. The chemical poison stung her eyes, making them water, and every inhale felt like breathing hot needles.
BANG.
A bullet hit the rock right next to her head. Stone fragments scratched her cheek.
"Shit! That was close!"
"What's wrong, heroes?" Mustard's voice, distorted by a loudspeaker, rose from the fog below. "Run out of air? I thought Class A and B were the elite! What a disappointment! Come on, jump! I promise it'll be quick!"
Ochako gritted her teeth, ignoring the taunt. Her attention was fixed on the small device strapped to her wrist. The screen flickered weakly. It showed a single number: 170.
Beats per minute.
"No, no, no..." she whispered, her voice trembling. She wiped the tears from her eyes, but they were a mix of poison and panic.
"Why so high, Izuku? What are you doing?" she murmured to herself. "Come on... move from there... run..."
"Ochako chan, what's wrong?" Tsuyu's voice was hoarse, but strangely calm.
She was stuck to the wall of the ledge, higher than the others, her frog physiology resisting the gas a little better.
"Is it Midoriya kun, kero?"
"His pulse..." Ochako said, feeling the panic tighten her chest, making it even harder to breathe. "It's at 180... And he's not moving! The location tracker says he's still! He's in the same spot, but his heart is going to explode!"
She jumped to her feet, a reckless move that made Kendo yell.
"He's fighting! He's fighting someone alone... and we're trapped here, doing nothing!"
BANG. Another bullet. This time it hit Kendo's giant hand, and she grunted in pain.
"Ochako, get down! Do you want to get killed?!" Kendo grabbed her uniform and pulled her hard onto the rocky ground.
"I have to go to him!" Ochako screamed, punching the stone with her fist. It hurt, but she didn't care. "I have to help him! I can't... I can't leave him alone!"
In a desperate move, she tried to use her Quirk. She activated her zero gravity on the air in front of her, a pulse of repulsion to try and disperse the gas. The fog swirled for an instant, briefly revealing the forest floor meters below, and then settled again, thick and motionless.
"It's useless!" she sobbed, frustration breaking her voice. "I can't move it!"
"Uraraka san, calm down!" Kendo held her by the shoulders. The taller girl was strong, and her grip was firm. "If you jump down there, you'll die! Panic is what he wants! He's cornering us! He'll kill us all one by one if we lose our heads!"
"Then what do we do?! We can't stay here!" Ochako challenged her, eyes full of furious tears. "Tetsutetsu is suffocating! And you just got shot! And Izuku...!"
"No."
A new voice, calm and filtered by a respirator, cut through the hysteria.
A grappling hook lodged in the rock above them with a metallic thwack. A second later, Momo landed on the ledge with silent agility. She was already wearing a sleek, functional black gas mask that covered the lower half of her face. Her face was pale, her eyes fixed on the same tracker Ochako wore on her wrist.
"Yaoyorozu!" Kendo exclaimed, relief flooding her voice. "Are you okay? How did you find us?"
"I followed the gunshots," Momo said. Her voice was tense, muffled by the mask. "I see his vitals. He is in mortal danger. There is no time to lose."
Her Quirk was already active. From the exposed skin of her arm, four gas masks identical to her own emerged, fully formed.
"Masks! Put them on! Now!"
She tossed one to each of them. Tetsutetsu caught his and put it on with desperate gratitude, taking a deep breath of filtered air.
"Oh, my god! Air! Clean air!" he coughed, his voice clear now. "I owe you one, Yaoyorozu!"
Kendo and Tsuyu put theirs on, their tense breathing instantly calming.
Ochako put hers on, but she kept staring at her tracker. The number was still flashing.
"Momo chan, we have to go! We have masks now, we can get through the gas! Forget him! We have to help Izuku!"
"We can't!" Momo grabbed her shoulders, her grip as strong as Kendo's. "This villain is between us and him! And he's hurting other students! Tetsutetsu was seconds away from passing out!"
"But Izuku is going to...!"
"Izuku is fighting!" Momo shook her, forcing her to make eye contact. The glass of Momo's mask reflected Ochako's panic. "He's doing his part! We have to do ours! Izuku would want us to neutralize the threat first! He would want us to protect the others!"
"I don't care what he would want right now!" Ochako yelled. "I care that he's alive!"
"He'll die if we don't trust him!" Momo retorted. "And Kendo and Tetsutetsu will die if we run away like cowards! Trust him, Ochako! And trust me!"
Ochako stared at her. The panic in her eyes fought against Momo's logic. Finally, the fear gave way to focused rage. She nodded sharply, just once. This wasn't about surviving anymore. It was about winning. Fast.
"Fine. What's the plan?"
"Getting comfortable up there?" Mustard's voice called up again. He sounded irritated by the lack of panic. "It doesn't matter! The gas will rise soon! No more hiding spots!"
BANG.
The bullet bounced harmlessly off Tetsutetsu's arm.
"Try that again, you bastard!" the steel user shouted.
"Mustard is down there, confident in his gas." Momo crouched, peeking over the edge. The fog was too thick to see anything. "We can't attack him if we can't see him. And he can shoot at us blindly."
"So what do we do? Wait for him to run out of bullets?" Kendo asked, rubbing her injured hand.
"No. We take away his advantage." Momo turned to Tsuyu. "Tsuyu san, I need your tongue. I need you to pinpoint his exact location. Sweep the area below, feel where he is. Can you do it without him shooting you?"
Tsuyu nodded. "My tongue is fast, kero. And he's too busy talking."
"Kendo san, Tetsutetsu san, prepare for an impact. I'll need your strength."
"An impact? Against what?" Tetsutetsu asked.
Tsuyu didn't wait. Her tongue shot out into the fog. It moved in a wide arc, sweeping the hidden forest floor, feeling every rock, every tree. The villain was too focused on shooting upward to notice the subtle movement below.
"Got him!" Her voice, also filtered, was clear. "Twenty meters southwest, kero! Next to that big rock formation! He's alone. And he's reloading his gun."
"Perfect." Momo nodded. Her face tensed with concentration and worry for Izuku. "Ochako, get ready for this. I need you ready the instant he appears."
From her back and shoulders, Momo began to create something massive. Metal, plastic, and wiring sprouted from her skin.
It was an enormous industrial fan. A wind turbine with multiple blades.
"What the hell is that?!" Kendo gasped, taking a step back. "How did you make that so fast?"
"I've been studying mechanical engineering," Momo grunted from the effort. Lipids were visibly burning off her skin. "It's our way out! Ochako, now!"
Ochako understood instantly. She ran and touched the turbine's casing. "Got it! It's weightless!"
"Tetsutetsu san, Kendo san! Anchor it! Hold it steady! Don't let it move!"
Kendo and Tetsutetsu used their combined strength to stabilize the enormous, weightless machine, which now floated half a centimeter off the ledge.
"Aim the blades down! Toward Tsuyu san's position!" Momo ordered, her command indisputable.
"What?! Impossible! My gas!" Mustard's voice now sounded confused. The machine's movement, even weightless, had created air currents. "What are you doing?!"
"Ochako, release it!"
Ochako released her Quirk. "Releasing!"
The massive weight of the turbine settled onto the rock with a dull thud that shook the ledge.
"Now!" Momo yelled. "Use your Quirks! Turn it! With everything you've got!"
"RAAAAAH!!"
Kendo enlarged her hands to their maximum size. She used them to grab the giant blades and force them to spin.
"MY TURN!" Tetsutetsu, turning his body to steel, positioned himself behind the casing and began to punch it rhythmically. Each steel blow forced the spin, adding momentum to Kendo's rotation.
The result was a gale. A hurricane force wind descended on the forest. The poison gas was sucked up, ripped from the ground, and thrown violently in the opposite direction, clearing the area in seconds.
Below, twenty meters away, a skinny teenager with a gas mask and a revolver looked up, completely stunned. The gas that had been his shield was now gone. He was exposed.
"Impossible! You cheaters!" Mustard yelled, raising his revolver.
"My turn!" Ochako was furious. She saw a large rock next to her. She touched it. The rock rose, floating in the air.
"Eat this!"
She used the repulsion pulse Izuku had taught her, an application of her Quirk that was not zero gravity. The rock shot out at high speed.
Mustard barely dodged the rock; the improvised projectile smashed into the tree behind him. But the evasive maneuver sent him right into Tsuyu's range.
"Got you, kero!"
Tsuyu's tongue shot out from the ledge, faster than Ochako's bullet. It wrapped tightly around the villain's torso, pinning his arms.
"No! Let me go! Cowards!"
"My turn, bastard!"
Tetsutetsu jumped from the ledge. He didn't care about the fall of ten meters. His body was already steel. He landed in front of Mustard with an impact that shook the ground, kicking up dust and leaves.
Mustard didn't even have time to struggle.
A single metal punch connected with the villain's jaw. The sound of the impact was sharp. Mustard's gas mask cracked. He dropped, knocked out clean.
The battle was over. Fast. Merciless.
Tetsutetsu spit. "That's for my lungs."
Ochako didn't celebrate. She didn't look at the fallen villain. She turned to Momo, Izuku's tracker in her hand.
"Momo chan... he's still fighting."
"I know." Momo was already creating grappling hooks with the rest of her fat reserves. "Kendo san, Tetsutetsu san, thank you. Take care of the villain. Tie him up. We have to go."
"Wait!" Kendo shouted, shrinking her hands. "You can't go alone! Mandalay's report... there are more villains! It's dangerous!"
"Our leader is in mortal danger." Momo's voice was cold, her determination absolute. "There is nothing more dangerous than that right now."
She tossed a grappling hook to Ochako.
"We're going to save Izuku."
*******
"Damn it, Bakugo! Don't split off! You're leaving us exposed!" Kirishima yelled, blocking a flurry of blade teeth with his hardened arms. Sparks flew.
"SHUT UP AND FIGHT, SHITTY HAIR!" Bakugo roared, his explosions lighting up the forest with violent flashes. "This bastard is mine!"
"He's not yours, he's ours!" Todoroki sent a massive wave of fire, forcing Moonfish to retract. The tooth blades disappeared underground. "If you keep attacking like crazy, you're going to hit us. You've already almost hit me twice."
"THEN GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
The fight was a chaos of ice, fire, and explosions. The three of them were clashing as much with each other as they were with the villain.
"Flesh! Flesh!" Moonfish hissed, his voice muffled by the straightjacket. He was bound, but his teeth erupted from his gums and from the ground, piercing through Todoroki's ice. "So much delicious flesh! Tender! Explosive!"
"You're gonna eat those words!" Kirishima yelled, charging straight ahead, trying to find the main body.
"Kirishima, no!" Todoroki shouted.
A wall of teeth erupted from the ground. Kirishima smashed through it, but it slowed his charge.
"This guy is everywhere!"
"Stop melting my ice, Bakugo!" Todoroki snapped, creating another icy ramp to block a lateral attack. "I'm using it to track him! When you melt it, he moves!"
"STOP FREEZING MY EXPLOSIONS, HALF AND HALF!" Bakugo landed on the ground, his gauntlets smoking. "YOU'RE JUST GETTING IN THE WAY!"
"Almost! Almost!" Moonfish laughed, his teeth now falling from the tree branches. "So much anger! Such tasty flesh!"
"Shut up!" Kirishima punched the ground, frustrated. "Man, this guy is insane! We have to...!"
"Both of you, shut up!" Todoroki said, his voice dropping to a cold snarl. "Bakugo. Do you want to win, or do you just want to yell?"
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"
"Later. Kirishima, get ready to block. I'm going to freeze the entire ground. When he surfaces... Bakugo, use a concentrated explosion on his body. Just on him. Can you do that?"
Bakugo glared at him, his red eyes shining with fury. "Don't give me orders!"
"Here he comes again!" Kirishima shouted.
"Do it, Bakugo!"
"DON'T...!"
A tooth blade zipped past Bakugo's ear, cutting a lock of blond hair.
He froze. His smile turned murderous. "Fine. But if you miss, Half and Half, I'll burn you."
"Deal," Todoroki said.