Home Sweet Home?

Aurdel watched the console, carefully. Things were not going as planned. Though if he were to be honest, this ‘plan’ wasn’t exactly based on ideal circumstances. Only moments ago he’d left Reach, commandeering a damaged Frigate that had landed on the planet's surface. However he’d noticed that something was off the moment that the ship had entered slipspace, doing so via a method he couldn’t say that he had ever seen before. Not human, not Covenant. The standard method of slipspace travel for the UNSC always seemed like it was punching a hole through space, pushing a ship through into another where it could close the larger distance in a shorter time. But this was much different. It was more like space had folded around the ship and surrounded it, and that rather than move through it he would be moved with it. And if that were true, he didn’t think that he was going to make it back to Earth. Or, at least, not his Earth. He still remembered the number of voices that he’d heard before he’d left the bunker on Reach, the ones that had told him where he would end up. Personally he didn’t believe them, but there was very little that he could do except prepare for whatever awaited him on the other side. He was just about to close his eyes, allowing himself a moment of rest, when alarms sounded. Quickly he looked down at the main control station in the bridge, searching for the cause of the problem.

At first, he was confused. According to the readout the shielding on the slipspace drive was cracking due to overuse, something that shouldn’t have been possible given the fact that he’d almost just set out. Then he saw the second readout. Somehow the ship had traveled nearly a hundred times the distance from Reach to Earth, and had done it in only a miniscule fraction of the time. He was left dumbfounded, then came back to reality. Turning off the drive while it was still in slipspace presented an extreme amount of risk, but the alternative was letting it collapse and scattering his molecules over several different dimensions. The moment the drive turned off the blue light surrounding the ship began to falter, the superstructure of the ship beginning to flex and compress as the portal began to unfold. Breaches opened in numerous sections and certain hallways collapsed inward as a result of previous damage and the current force acting on them. Right before the ship exited slipspace he quickly strapped himself into the captain’s chair, magnetically locking his boots to the floor as the portal ended. The ship dropped out of slipspace and Aurdel was hit with an immense amount of whiplash. The captain’s chair violently managed to uproot itself from the floor, nearly sending him across the bridge were it not for his boots. Once the ship had settled he turned off his magboots and walked over to the holotable, opening a projection to compare the surroundings of his current location. At first glance it would seem that he was in the Sol system, and that the jump had worked properly. However, it soon turned out that there were a number of differences. All the planets he knew were still there, but each of them looked different. For example, rather than the industrialized terraformed world of Mars that he knew he was greeted with an uncolonized red world. It was beautiful in a way as it brought back memories of the planet he only ever saw in textbooks, but anxiety inducing as it confirmed his fears of being in the wrong place. With further inspection he found that his assessment was correct, as not a single station or even satellite circled around the planet. Without any other recourse, he tried to restart the drive.

Upon traveling to the reactor room he found that the condition of the slipspace drive was almost beyond repair, and that if he did somehow manage to get the drive to jump despite the damage then it would likely result in his death. All he could do now was use the ship's fusion drives to travel through normal space. He then took the time to inspect the rest of the ship. Weapon systems, life support, vehicle bays and hangers were the most important sections of the ship and fortunately they were all intact. Taking stock of all the equipment and supplies on the ship, he found that the armory was only about half equipped, with most of the standard issue assault rifles and magnums missing alongside most of the high explosive weapons. The MAC gun was still in working order and had a full load of ammunition, though he wasn’t sure if it could charge up with the reactor's current state. Two thirds of the archer pods remained, half of the point defense gun blocks were still in working order with ammunition and three of the twelve coil guns could still be operated. For vehicles there were a dozen Warthogs, four Scorpions, a group of six Mongooses, two Falcons, three Hornets and three Pelicans. There was also a pair of Longswords, both had full stocks of ammunition but only one of them was functional. If the Covenant somehow managed to find him now, he gave himself slim to no odds of surviving a battle. Right now his only choice was to travel to Earth, gather more gear and attempt to repair the damage to the slipspace drive.

Heading back to the controls he fired up the fusion drives, bringing the ship about to face Earth. From here it looked almost the same as his Earth, though there were still a number of differences. Just like Mars, many of the stations that he knew to circle the planet were simply not there. There were no orbital defense platforms, space elevators, orbital shipyards and a very limited number of communication satellites. The planet itself however appeared to be much cleaner, with much less light pollution. Even the Sahara seemed to be a little bit more green than he remembered it, but it was only something that he would have to look in later when he had the chance. The ship jolted forward as he gave half power to the engines, beginning the journey to Earth and allowing himself some amount of time to think

Once he landed the ship he was going to have to find a way to hide it from the rest of the world. If news were to suddenly come out that a man in what was effectively an alien spaceship, there would be a massive panic across the globe. But if he were to be perfectly honest, there weren’t exactly many places that he could land on to hide himself or his ship. If he left it somewhere like the moon then it was sure to be spotted by some astrologist or rovers who happened to be observing the natural satellite. And If left in orbit of the Earth, it was bound to be spotted and reported much quicker than the previous idea. And so there were really only two options that he could reasonably pick from. The first was to scuttle the ship before he arrived on planet, denying its existence to anyone that bothered asking. But he was unwilling to lose his way back home, leaving him with option two. Landing the ship and hiding it. Ideally it would have been nice to land somewhere that wasn’t readily accessible, somewhere that had a lot of natural barriers that prevented it from being explored or even being seen. But he knew that if he were to get the ship down onto dry land, that was an impossible thing to ask.

That was when he had the only idea that he thought would properly work. He would land the ship in the ocean and go underwater. Or rather, he was going to let it crash into the ocean. Without proper equipment or attention, it would just seem like another fragment of an asteroid that was going to fall and land harmlessly. And by landing somewhere deep in the ocean, it would ensure that a lot less people would be interested in trying to find it. Ideally, he would have to crash it into the Pacific Ocean. Given the youthful appearance of the Earth, it was safe to assume that it was roughly in the twenty-first century. And so if he were to land anywhere near the United States, the only thing he was guaranteed would be the army, air force and navy on his doorstep and much too willing to take what wasn’t theirs. Canada would probably be much more friendly to his arrival, but they didn’t have the resources he needed. However, the one country that he knew he had to avoid was China. If what he remembered was correct, their response would be just as bad if not worse than the United States. So as far as he could tell he was only left with one option, a wealthy country with access to resources but did not bend fully to the whim of another country. Japan.

A little less than three hours had passed by, but in that time the situation had gone to absolute hell. After setting the course and putting on the autopilot for the ship Aurdel had gone to gather the supplies he would need when he was on the ground. That meant guns, ammo, grenades, flares, camo netting, medical supplies, etcetera. But almost as if the ship was completely aware of his situation and knew that he was trying to get off the ship with his life intact, it decided things had to screw up. One of the main fusion drives on the port side of the ship blew out, pluming with fire, smoke and plasma. He had to sprint back to the bridge to correct the ship's angle and only narrowly avoided the ship being put into a nosedive that would have caused it to be destroyed upon impact. To ensure that it didn’t happen again he shut off the fusion drives, letting gravity alone handle it with only some minor assistance from the ship’s systems.

After that he ran fast, using the usually off limit maintenance shafts to cut a path straight for the hangar. With the sudden change of course it had meant that the ship would enter atmosphere earlier than expected, meaning that he would have to leave the ship earlier than expected. He slammed his fist onto a button and opened the doors to the shuttle launch bay, a fire visibly beginning to trail around the ship as it began to fall to the Earth. Aurdel sprinted over to the Pelican he had set up, tossing in the gear, quickly switching on the engines and shutting the rear door behind him. Then he throttled up the engines, gaining enough speed to launch out the ship as it fell and only slightly damaging the landing gear. The rear engines clipped the side of the ship as it dropped out, causing it to spin out of control and into a freefall as he fought with the controls to bring it back into a normal descent. Alarms sounded over the immense g-forces and the damage to the engines. After nearly five minutes of plummeting to what could have been certain death, he managed to get the pelican under control and breathed a sigh of relief. But things could never be that easy. Like a last ditch effort to screw him over, the rear engines exploded and it completely threw him off course. All he could do now was use the chemical boosters to try and crash this thing without dying, not wanting to take his chances with another jump.

Boots on the Ground

“It’s going to be alright Kota…” Midoriya stood firm in front of the young boy, staring down the tall, leering villain. He could feel One For All surging throughout his body as he became resolute in what he had to do. “I will save you!” Midoriya stood his ground, waiting for the Villain to act so he could get his move in

But the villain just scoffed, “You’re going to save him? Really? Ha! You kids really do act like you’re budding heroes and what not, you spout off about crap like justice whenever you show up and how you won’t back down in the face of a villain. It’s real cliche if you ask me.” Bits of flesh extended out from the cloak the man wore, traveling the length of his arm before seemingly forcing its way through the skin and combining to form what looked like another layer of muscle. Was this his quirk…? “But your name is Midoriya, right? You wouldn’t believe how high you are on our kill list!” The man threw off his cloak, his upper body left only covered by a tank top. Those same growths covered his other arm, amplifying it in size. If he had to guess what they were, they were muscle fibers that could be controlled at the will of the Villain. “I’m going to enjoy tormenting you, show me some blood!” Midoriya prepared himself as the man came charging at him. He needed to gauge this guy's strength if he was going to beat him. One for All Full Cowling!

Using One for All Midoriya jumped to the side, the villain blowing past him and planting his fist straight into the nearby rockface. The stone cracked, and when he removed his fist and imprint was left behind. “You’re fast kid, that’s good. It’ll make it all the better to play with you.” The muscle fibers on his arms visibly increased as he spoke, “By the way, would you happen to know who Katsuki Bakugo is? I’ve got another job to do here, and it involves him. So if you know where he is you might as well tell me before I get to killing you.” Kacchan? What did these villains want with Kacchan?! Midoriya dodged again as the Villain attacked, leaving another imprint. “I’ll take that as no then, okay? I don’t really much care about all this cloak and dagger stuff really anyway, it’s too boring for my taste. I just want a good fight!” The next time that the Villain launched forward, Midoriya wasn’t to avoid the blow. With an incredible speed he’d driven his knee into his stomach, sending him flying back into the nearby stonewall. This guy’s quirk didn’t just make him strong, it made him fast too. He looked back, Kota was still standing there. Frozen in place with fear. But no matter what this man did, he had to stand up again. No matter what happened, he had to save Kota! “Didn’t you say you were going to save him? Doesn’t look like you’re doing a very good job at it! What do you say kid?” The VIllain turned to Kota with an evil grin, only affirming his fear further.

“You’re not going to lay a hand on him!” Midoriya shouted and launched from the ground and into the air, One for All…! He feigned going for a direct blow, leading to the Villain only attacking where Midoriya would have been. In reality he leaped off to the side before using the wall like a backboard, bouncing himself off of it this time going for a direct hit. “Detroit Smash!” Midoriya slammed his foot into the Villain’s chest, not aiming for his head as doing so could have very well killed him..

“You’re going to save him with weak power like that?” His eyes widened as the Villain spoke unfazed, with a smirk on his face. “It’ll take a lot more than that to stop me.” He grabbed him by the leg. Unable to break free, he was thrown into the wall and pummeled with a punch from the pain. The pain was awful, but he grit his teeth. He couldn’t win this fight by holding back, not if he wanted to save Kota! “Come on kid, where’s that drive?!”

“Shut up!” He came out swinging from where he was against the wall. One for All, one hundred percent! He struck with his right fist, striking the man in the abdomen and sending him flying backwards. A good portion of the muscle fibers produced by the man’s quirk broke apart from his arms and legs due to the sheer force of the attack, splintering and retracting back into his body. Midoriya fell to his knees, he was out of breath. I really didn’t help that right before the attack they’d been doing exhaustive and intense physical training. But that wasn’t something he could gripe about right now. His focus had to be on getting Kota back to the camp safely and informing Mr. Aizawa of the villain he defeated.

Standing back up a little shakily, he offered a hand to Kota who still appeared to be frozen with fear. “Let's get back to camp, it’s not too far from… here…” Midoriya soon realized why Kota was staring past him and turned around. No way…

“Now that was a strong one, but you sure did telegraph it. Not bad Midoriya, I have to give you props for that.” How was this Villain still standing?! He’d used one hundred percent! That should have been equal to the same power All Might has! “It looks like you’re not playing, so I won’t either. I’m putting in my serious eye.” The Villain took out the false eye from the scarred side of his face, replacing it with a more intimidating one. What was he supposed to do? It was almost certain that if he tried to run away with Kota and find Mr.Aizawa then they would both be run down. And if he told Kota to run away and warn Mr.Aizawa, the Villain would simply overpower him in order to kill Kota and then subsequently kill him.

“Why does the League want Kacchan?! What do you plan to do with him?!”

“As if I’d tell you,” the Villain scoffed, “Ready or not, here I come.” The layers of muscle dramatically increased on the man’s arms and legs. Midoriya picked up Kota with his unbroken arm, leaping away from the attack. This one was much faster and much stronger, leaving what was practically a miniature crater where he impacted on the ground. He was telling the truth, he had been just playing with him.. Making a game out of killing them...

A hail of rocks filled the air and threatened to shred him and Kota. Rather than see it as an obstacle, he would use it to his advantage. “Delaware Smash!” He curled back one of his fingers, then let it loose. The massive gust of wind blew the projectiles back towards the Villain, it was enough to give him a few seconds to think. The man bulked up his muscles again, swinging his right arm and easily swatting aside all of the rocks.

“Now that’s not playing fair kid! I thought we were going to have a brawl!” The Villain launched himself up from the ground and into the air where Midoriya was, swinging his massive arms. The only way he could describe it was like fighting a living, breathing and talking mass of pure muscle, one that had a sadistic personality. He curled back another finger, using the Delaware Smash to hit the man this time. But rather than blow him back a good distance like he’d wanted, it only sent him back a short ways back while blowing through a chunk of the bulked up muscles. Midoriya landed back on the ground, putting Kota down. There was no way to outmaneuver him now, nor could he outrun or outrange him. This guy was bigger, faster and stronger than him. All he could do was delay him. “Now That’s what I like, kid. Put your money where your mouth is!”

“Kota, stand back. But not too far. Seven feet should do, I don’t want him chasing after you.” Midoriya gripped his fist, “I’ll keep him back. When he gets me, I want you to run as quickly and as close to the camp as you can get. Don’t look back.”

“What do you mean when he gets you?!” Kota finally shouted back, panicked. “Your punch didn’t do anything to him! Our best chance is to run!”

Midoriya remembered where he’d come from, all that he’d worked towards. ‘A Hero can always break out of a tough spot, no matter the Villain!’ That’s right, “Because that’s what a Hero does. They don’t stop until people are saved and the Villain is defeated, even if it means sacrificing themselves!”

“Man kid, you really are great!” The Villain gave a sadistic smile before charging forward.

“One hundred percent Detroit Smash!” Using all the strength that he could muster, he brought up his broken arm. With one hundred percent it smashed against the wall of muscle in front of him, damaging both it and himself in the process.

“That’s good kid, but it’s not nearly as strong as before!” Midoriya grit his teeth as energy coursed through his veins, spiking in the air around him. His resolve grew and he kept pushing forward.

“Shut up!” He shouted to the man’s face.

“THAT’S IT, SHOW ME YOUR BLOOD!” The man shouted back at him, pushing him further and further back. Midoriya could feel his feet sinking into the ground as it cracked beneath him, he was on the verge of blacking out. That was when something completely unexpected happened. The man pummeling him into the ground suddenly bound back. “Who the hell are you?! Get off of me!” The Villain spun in circles, swinging his arms around where his head would be. Midoriya used the chance to quickly step back, going over towards Kota and being ready to shield him no matter what happened. But the Villain was suddenly thrown hard into the ground. Someone in what looked like a green suit of armor stood above him, a boot planted on the villain's chest. He then stomped hard repeatedly, using the force to punch through the layers of muscle that covered the Villain. “I SAID GET OFF OF ME!” The Villain shouted and grabbed the leg of the man, trying to throw him to the side. But the man corrected his position with what looked like rocket boosters, shooting back towards the Villain. He then grabbed the Villain by the shoulders and, in an impressive show of strength,lifted him into the air, spinning him around before driving him headfirst into the ground. With a clenched fist the man struck the Villain hard, knocking the lights out of him. The muscle quirk dissipated, leaving only a deflated version of the man that he’d just fought.

Midoriya then became defensive as the man who’d just taken down the villain turned towards him, Midoriya pushing Kota behind him. “Who are you? Why did you help us? Are you with the League of Villains?”

“Calm down kid, I’m not going to hurt you. I can’t tell you who I am but I saw someone attacking two kids and decided to step in. And I don’t know who the League of Villains are either, so I’m not a part of them.” Midoriya couldn’t see the man’s face, it was obscured by his helmet. That fact alone made it hard for him to believe what he was saying and decide if he was truly being genuine.

“I don’t really know if I can trust you, even if you did help us against that villain…”

“Look, if it’ll help you I’ll even drop my weapons just to show you that I have no intention to hurt you or him.” Weapons? He hadn’t seen any weapons. The man suddenly pulled out several handguns, placing them on the ground. He also put down a rifle, several grenades and a knife from a pouch. Why was this guy carrying so much firepower?! He had to think this through logically. The Villain had told him that the League of Villains had a kill list, and that Midoriya was one of the people on that list. If this guy was with the League it wouldn’t make sense for him to prevent him from being killed, nor would it make sense to put down his weapons just to get his trust. Not to mention he looked like a fish out of water, completely different from any other person he’d ever seen. Midoriya would just have to trust him.

“Alright. Our camp is under attack by a group of VIllains known as the League of Villains. For some reason, they’re trying to kidnap one of the students and at least kill me. I don’t know why. But everyone is scattered and I need to get Kota back to camp, where he’ll be safe. Can you help us?”

“Villains? Are there Heroes too?”

“There are Heroes as well. Two teachers and four others that the school brought in. I-“

The man suddenly muttered, “Heroes and Villains, does that mean there are superpowers…?”

“Huh? What are you talking about? Do you mean quirks?”

“I don’t know what you mean by quirks, but sure. It’s something to talk about later. Right now if the goal is to get you all to safety, then that is exactly what we’re going to do..”

“Okay!” The man picked back up his weapons as Midoriya led the way, running back towards camp with Kota on his back.

Heroes and Spartans

Aurdel ran alongside the boy, slowing his pace in order to make sure that he didn’t outrun him and somehow get lost. His motion tracker wasn’t working properly, but he didn’t exactly need to take his helmet off to find out. The air was filled with smoke, and where there was smoke there was fire. At one point they charged through a cloud of the smoke, pushing straight through the nearly pitch black obstacle. After that, he ran into his first ‘Hero.’ “Mr. Aizawa!” The boy he was following called out to another person. He was wearing black clothes, using what looked like a long stretch of white cloth or bandages as a sort of scarf around his neck.

“Midoriya, get back!” The man shouted, throwing out the cloth in his direction. Aurdel’s reacted fast enough to grab the cloth and redirect it.

“Wait! He’s not a villain! He helped me defeat one of the Villains!” The boy quickly explained, and the man suddenly stopped.

“He did what?” The man looked at him with suspicion. ”Where did you come from? No signals have been able to get out about the Villain attack.”

“I didn’t get any signals, I just ended up here."

“Just ended up here…? Forget it.”

“Mr. Aizawa, I need you to take care of Kota. I need to find Mandalay and tell her something, I found out why the villains are here!” Midoriya seemed anxious to go and do as he said, but he was stopped by his teacher.

“In that case, I need you to go tell her something too.” And so after relaying the message the four of them split up. Aizawa ran back to the camp with Kota on his back, Aurdel ran with Midoriya to search for Mandalay. As they ran Aurdel opened the trauma kit hardcase on his right leg,

“Who is Mandalay?” He pulled out a syringe, filling it with a painkiller. Aurdel figured that given the condition of Midoriya’s arms, he’d broken one and was working through the pain by adrenaline alone. He was probably bound to collapse the moment it stopped pumping. He also prepared a salve of medigel, slathering it onto a cloth so it would be easier to apply.

“She’s one of the Pussycats, the Heroes that are fighting off the Villains right now, she has a quirk that lets her telepathically communicate with people.”

“Useful. How many Heroes are with her?”

“Tiger and Pixiebob are fighting alongside her right now, but there’s another hero named Ragdoll too.”

“Then where is she?” He motioned for Midoriya to come closer, and he did. “Here, this will stave off the pain for a little and do at least some basic healing for your arm.” Midoriya willingly took the shot and the salve, the latter beginning to work almost immediately.

“We were supposed to be doing a test of courage, she would be with anyone half way through. I don’t know if she has encountered any Villains though.”

“I’d guess that she has,” Aurdel put away the medical gear. Mere moments later they found those Heroes, three of them fighting what he assumed were Villains. The Heroes… were dressed in what appeared to be cat outfits, with paws and everything. The Villains were more diversely dressed, with one carrying a giant magnet and the other a humanoid talking lizard. This was far from the worst he’s seen..

“Mandalay, I have a message from Mr. Aizawa!” Mandalay, the Hero in a red uniform, turned to Midoriya, shocked by his injuries but still paying attention. “He’s telling Class A and B to fight back, he will deal with the repercussions!”

At first she looked unsure, but then accepted the order. A voice then spoke in his head and everyone else’s. “Everyone! Your teacher Eraserhead has given you permission to use your quirks and fight back against the Villains!” As the message was sent out, both Midoriya and Aurdel assisted the Heroes in their fight. Aurdel slammed into the person wielding the giant magnet, driving a shoulder into their chest and forcing them back. He then grabbed the magnet and used it like a baseball bat to hit them, first across the side and then across the head. Their glasses shattered as they fell to the ground. Midoriya meanwhile went to help Mandalay against the lizard, using some form of super strength to crash through the giant weapon it had made up of various blades. With a single kick the various chunks of the weapon snapped like twigs. Granted his legs were now covered in cuts, but he’d disarmed the Villain. He and Mandalay simultaneously attacked him from multiple directions. With repeated strikes from both of them the Villain was at a clear disadvantage, quickly going down after a number of hits. “Midoriya, I don’t know where you found this Hero but his timing is impeccable.”

“No time, there’s one other message we have to relay!” Midoriya spoke quickly, trying to get the words out as fast as possible. “The Villains are after Kacchan!” At first both groups were stunned, but that soon faded as Mandalay sent out the next message.

“Shigaraki was right, this kid has to die!” The one who had the magnet tried to reach out and grab Midoriya, but failed.

“You won’t be killing anyone, Villain,” Tiger proudly said, keeping a foot on their chest. Without another word Midoriya soon ran off in another direction, leaving Aurdel with no choice except to follow the boy.

“You should get back to camp, even with what I did your injuries are still severe. I can look for your friend while you’re being tended to.”

“No way. If Mr. Aizawa thought you’re a Villain, then so will Kacchan. He’s headstrong and won’t accept help from anyone.”

“Fair enough.” The two ran on the trail, then Aurdel stopped. A loud rolling noise like thunder came from the trail ahead of him.

“What is-?” Midoriya didn’t have enough time to finish his sentence. Aurdel pulled him away at the last minute, a black mass impacting the ground they’d just been standing on. “Tokoyami!” With a closer look at the thing, he found that at the top of it a boy with a bird shaped head was engulfed by it. He looked to be in strenuous pain, trying to control whatever it was. Aurdel dragged Midoriya into a nearby set of bushes, avoiding another attack

“Midoriya? Who is this you’re with?” Aurdel turned his head, another student. This one looked relatively human aside from extra appendages growing from his body.

“Shoji, what happened to Tokoyami?”

“We were hiding when we got attacked by a Villain, one with blades forming from his mouth that he could control. I pushed Tokoyami out of the way of the first attack, but the villain got one of my arms.” Shoji showed the bloody stump, “It’s fine, it’ll regrow. I told Tokoyami the same thing, but apparently it was too much for him and Dark Shadow went on a rampage. Now it’s attacking anything it hears or sees. He’s trying to control it, but so far it hasn’t worked.”

“Does it have a weakness?” Aurdel asked, mulling over what non-lethal items he had with him.

“A weakness? It gets timid when faced with light, but we don’t have any sources of light with us.” Midoriya said, gears clearly turning in his head. “Hey, uh… What should I call you?”

“Aurdel.”

“Okay… Aurdel. If we bring Tokoyami towards Kacchan and Todoroki, they should be able to use their flames to calm down Dark Shadow.”

“What about the Villain?” Shoji asked.

“We’ll try to fight him before we get to them, that way Dark Shadow can take him down.” A plan like this was both full of risk and opportunity, the kind of plans that ONI made all the time. Frankly, he’d heard much worse.

“You’ll run the risk of him catching up to us while we try to find your friend. And if that happens, there’s no guarantee that we will find him. I’ll deal with the Villain, you focus on finding them.” Aurdel pulled out a cylinder from one of his pouches.

“What are you doing?!” Midoriya stammered out, trying to keep quiet. Aurdel struck the cylinder and leaped out of the bush, grabbing the attention of ‘Dark Shadow.’ It’s first instinct was to try and attack him, but when it noticed the light coming from the flare in his hand it timidly began to back away. With it now confirmed that something like a flare would work, he turned on the high powered lights of his helmet. A bright light covered the area and Dark Shadow, causing it to shrink back to what was probably a normal size and leading it to whimper. Once sure that it was safe he approached and held a hand out to the boy who’d been enveloped by it, helping him up from the ground.

“Thank you... For getting Dark Shadow under control. I tried my best but wasn’t able to do it.”

“Don’t thank me yet, which way did the Villain that attacked you go?” Aurdel turned down the lights to not blind him.

“That way,” Tokoyami pointed down the path, “Bakugo and Todoroki are down that way, though I can now understand why the Villain went that way.” He looked at the tops of the trees, columns of ice were visible from this far away. “We must find them before the Villains do.”

“That’s if they haven’t already. Midoriya, is there anyone else in the forest?” Aurdel asked.

“Uraraka and As- Tsuyu came in after them, so they’re most likely still in the woods on the trail. I don’t know if they ran into Ragdoll, but if they did then it means we can ensure that no one gets captured.” Aurdel didn’t know what would let her do that, but if the kid said it then he would have to believe it for now.

“Alright. Midoriya, you’ll come with me to find your friends. Shoji, Tokoyami, you two will have to find those other students. Take these,” he handed two flares to Shoji. “Remove the cap and strike hard twice away from yourself, you should know what to do from there.” The boy nodded and the pair then ran off in one direction, while Aurdel and Midoriya blazed down the other. With damaged walls of ice lining the trail becoming more common as they went, he felt it was safe to assume they were getting close. And that they did. A man sat up high in the air, wrapped in a straight jacket and with long contiguous blades coming out of his mouth at odd angles and piercing the ground. They had to be strong if they were capable of holding up the man’s weight.

The Villain had a hard time speaking given how his mouth was pretty much full of knives, but he was able to make some noise. “Ah, more flesh to caress. So soft, so nice.” Midoriya launched into the air, using the heel of his boot to crash through the blades heading his way. They shattered and splintered on impact. Aurdel followed him into the air, using his Magnum to fire off two rounds in the direction of the Villain. In response the Villain used several layers of the blades to stop the bullets, just barely managing to do so. With a knife in hand Aurdel charged forward, using his other hand to grab and snap the blades. With that the Villain fell closer to the ground, rapidly trying to steady himself and fight back. But Aurdel kept fighting through the blades, shattering layer after layer with fist and knife as they closed in on him. Soon enough he had made his way through, driving his fist into the lower jaw of the Villain. It was strong enough to knock out the man, forcing the teeth to splinter apart as they retracted. The Villain would suffer some internal injuries to his mouth, but that wasn’t his concern. Aurdel landed feet first on the ground, then ensuring that the Villain was out cold.

“Midoriya, who is this guy?” One of the two boys asked, cautiously looking at Aurdel with flames on one side of his body and ice on the other.

“He’s not a Villain, Todoroki! He’s been helping us around the camp to make sure everyone gets back safely.” Todoroki lowered his guard after that, ceasing the ice and flames. Bakugo didn’t seem to be any less angry with the situation though.

“We didn’t need your damn help, I had it all under control! I bet you’re the one that told them to send that message Deku!” The blonde haired boy jerked a thumb back towards himself, “I can protect myself, no matter what a weakling like you thinks!”

“It’s good to see your spirits haven’t been dampened Kacchan,” Midoriya said, a little deflated. “We need to get back to the others. Shoji and Tokoyami are looking for Tsuyu and Uraraka, then we’re going to look for Ragdoll.”

“We passed her on our way through the forest,” Todoroki commented, “But that was a while ago, you should have passed her.”

“Then it’s likely that someone or something got them. Again, insist that you go back to the camp while I-“

“Deku! There you are!” A girls voice shouted,

“Uraraka, Tsu, I’m glad you're both safe,” the boy let out a sigh of relief.

“A-ah! Don’t get it wrong, it’s not like I was looking for you specifically! I just knew that since Bakugo was the Villain’s target, that you’d be where the fight was!.” She seemed way too quick to cover up her thoughts.

The second girl, one with much longer hair tied into a bow on her back, spoke, “We’d run into a villain when Shoji and Tokoyami found us, though I don’t know why she went after us...” She put a finger to her lip, then pointed to a wound on the other girls side, “For some reason she wanted our blood, and she took some of Uraraka’s.” Someone wanted to take their blood? This was all extremely strange. They wanted to kill some of the students, capture others and even take blood from others. Just what were they after? “But who is that?” Tsu pointed at Aurdel.

“He’s a friend, he’s been helping us.”

“Let me clean the wound and cover it up, you don’t want it to get infected.” At first Uraraka was cautious of him, but ultimately allowed him to perform the first aid..

“Have either of you seen Ragdoll?” Midoriya asked.

“No, we didn’t get to the halfway point because of the attack.” After cleaning the wound with a disinfectant he slathered it with medigel, then applied a medical cloth and wrapped it around the wound.

“If these attacks are as widespread as they seem, then it will be difficult to find her.”

“I think we have a bigger problem on our hands now,” Todoroki said, having watched their surroundings as they were busy. Aurdel quickly turned, brandishing his magnum at a large green creature that stood as tall as him with an exposed brain and power tools for arms. Next to him was a man in a yellow overcoat and a large top hat, with a mask on his face.

“Well what have we here? A band of students and someone who wasn’t on the list of people that were supposed to be here.” The man tapped a cane on the ground, “I’ll let you handle the legwork my friend.” The creature then sprung to life, charging Aurdel head on and trying to cut him to pieces. With gun in hand he unloaded the rest of his mag, putting several bullets center mass and several to the head. And it did stun the creature at first, but then the wounds from the bullets suddenly closed up and healed almost instantly. “I’m afraid your little peashooter won’t do much to my Nomu here,” the man leaned on his cane, “After all, it can regenerate faster than you can hurt it.” So, it regenerates? Then he needed to outpace the regeneration.

“In that case,” he shoved the Nomu back and unslung his MA5B, loading in a drum mag of shredder rounds. The shredder round was a special type of ammunition, one that was made for the purpose of cutting through groups of lightly armored individuals. And on top of that? The MA5B had a damn fast fire rate.

“Good lord!” The man in the coat suddenly fell to the ground, ducking to avoid the fire. The Nomu wasn’t so lucky, as when he pulled the trigger and opened fire he cut through the creature like a hot knife through butter. Green flesh and blood splattered everywhere as Aurdel worked his way up towards its head, making sure to completely destroy whatever it was that would allow it to regenerate. But with it gone he noticed that the man who’d come with it was missing. In fact the students had disappeared too, vanishing into thin air. Aurdel rapidly scanned around using his motion tracker, searching for them but to no avail.

“You’re a bit of a nuisance.” Those were the last words he heard it went dark.