Chapter 12: True Colors Part 2
"Woah!" Ojiro slaps his tail to the ground, helping him dodge several consecutive attacks.
He was in the mountains zone of the USJ and was currently… fighting for his life.
"Let's squash them for good League of Villains!" A well-built crook with a white mask and electricity quirk yelled out as rushed towards the martial artist with a small group.
He tried to get into his stance and fight back but a sonic attack from afar just wasn't letting him!
"Damn it... Sero!"
His classmate appears from behind and launches both strands of tape. "I got her-AHHHH!"
He had spoken too soon as vibrations jolted up his body, stunning him mid-attack.
"hE He..." the girl smirks at his pain, and with an additional attack, she then pastes him right on the wall.
"Sero!" Ojiro yelled out and then turned back to the villain group.
With the sonic attack directed to somewhere else, he was going to take this chance. "Fist of the Tail! Form 6: Tornado Tail Dance!"
He spun around and knocked several opponents to the ground, perfect to make an escape.
Meanwhile...
"Oof..." Sero lifted himself up. Turns out the sonic attacker was about to fire again!
With his ears ringing, he mumbles under his breath: "I'm gonna feel this tomorrow, won't I?.."
Sero braces for impact, however something manages to trip her up!
"Hsssssss!.." She looks around and spots the grappling hook attached to her right foot. "HaAaaaA!"
"Sero!" Yaoyorozu called from afar. "Time to get clear!"
"Right!" He let out a strand of tape, tied up a villain coming at him and knocked it into the sonic attacker.
However, that didn't affect her much.
The attacker got back up, ready to fire all the while Sero struggled to find his footing to escape. The impacts he got from all the fighting were starting to have their effect.
"I got you!" Ojiro shouted as he tackled Sero and pushed him out of the way, to the back of a boulder.
"Let's fish them out!" A grunt said as a ball of water gathered between his fingers and turned to ice.
The sonic attacker smirked and took aim towards the boulder. However, the electric villain didn't let her.
"Wait..." he said as he looked up to the ledge of the mountain. Or more specifically, the extra amount of stone that was positioned right over them…
"Why should we play their game… when they can play ours?"
Back at the boulder...
"Thanks." Sero replies to Ojiro as he shakes his head. "Nice save."
"Don't mention it." Ojiro says with a pretty serious look. He was clearly preparing himself for their next move.
And Yaoyorozu as well, she seemed distraught but still capable enough to keep a cool head and come up with something that they could do.
I guess, maybe while her teammates were preparing themselves, it wasn't the best to leave their opponents unattended to.
Sero slowly popped his head from the side and stared down at the small group of villains leftover as well as the out of control sonic attacker. With her black leather jacket, salmon colored shirt , and stereo-attached boots, it was impossible to mistake her.
The one that was giving them so much trouble all this time… was Jiro with a disgusting squid attached right on her forehead.
"GrrRRRrrrr, HAAaaAAA!" a distraught and infected scream escaped her mouth while a creaking but intense wave of sound followed right behind it through her speakers.
"I don't get it." he says. "How are we expected to beat someone who can attack us by only using their heartbeat?"
"We could…"
Sero turns and sees Ojiro, also observing alongside him. "If that person wasn't our friend."
He nodded in approval. If it was any other villain, it would have been easy… However, when it came to a classmate…
"We need to help her." Sero said and Ojiro joined in.
"If only we could close the distance between- Maybe with your tapes?"
"No..." he shakes his head. "Her attacks are too wide spread. One of us would be sure to get captured-"
"And even if we make that sacrifice… We wouldn't know what to do." they hear someone else say.
The two look down and see the crouching Yaoyorozu, who had pulled her legs close to her chest and was staring down at the ground.
"I already took a chance and tried to pull that squid off. It didn't work." she continues. "What else could we hope to achieve by getting close to her?"
Ojiro raises an eyebrow. "I could knock her out? I do have this move where I could wrap my tail around her and-"
"It wouldn't work." She interjects. "For all we know, the squid could just be puppeteering her body, which means knocking her out would have no effect on the battle and you would be taken down for nothing."
Ojiro hears this and, even though he hesitates for a second, he bites his tongue and turns his irritated gaze back to the field. "Tsk..."
"Hey..." says Sero, nudging him on the shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up. I'm not really that good here either."
The frustration was evident from his tone, as he then pointed to his elbows. "Without any place to hold on, I can't really move around and even if it was just shooting at each other from a distance, I would probably lose."
Ojiro looked down. Sero... was right about his situation. But there must be something that they could do.
"And you Yaoyorozu?" the tailed warrior impatiently asked. "Do you have something that can maybe give us an edge?"
"Maybe." She replies. "Without knowing what to create, I would only be wasting lipids…"
"...and fail to help." She crossed her arms and continued to look down.
Sero couldn't help but feel bad. He had brought up these things to make Ojiro feel better but he didn't notice that Yaomomo was also struggling to hold it together.
"Think Yaomomo, you have to think..." Jiro was relying on it, however her mind was just too frantically jolting around from thought to thought. It was in chaos. "Deep breaths…"
She inhaled…
And exhaled.
The best strategy she had, for stressful times like these, was taking a couple of steps back… and looking at it one more time.
She imagined the situation before her eyes.
One moment they were laying out villains on their backs to the ground, on another their friend had turned on them… So, what changed?
"We all agree that it is the squid that's causing her to act like this..."
"But what is 'the squid'?"
She recalled the group's first encounter with the thing. How it dodged Sero's tape and then immediately made its way towards her.
Putting her hand on her chin: "Considering that it had its own reflexes before… taking a host, it shouldn't be created with someone's quirk..."
Plus, the only reason for the squid to change trajectory was because of Jiro attacking it next and actually hurting it.
"It has some kind of feral nature, almost like it is an animal in the wild..."
She shook her head. "No… that's not it."
Something was distinct about this one other than the appearance… The sounds…
"There were only screeches before and now, only the tone changed to be more like Jiro..."
The key detail was that it wasn't talking to her, or anyone else for that matter. Not even in grunts like 'Ow!'
"A mutant type quirk doesn't do that-"
"Hey Yaomomo?" Sero asked.
She turned her head, distracted from her thoughts. "What is it?"
"Yeah, can you create some kind of shield for us?"
Yaomomo tilted her head curiously. "Sure..." Her arm glowed as something metal emerged. "But wh-"
Immediately the boulder that they hid behind shook with intensity and small stones dropped on them from above alongside some dust.
"At this rate, we're either going to lose our cover..." Ojiro says, making sure no big boulders fell off. "...or have the mountain come down on us."
"We'll huff and puff and bring your cover down!" Electric villain laughed as he commanded Jiro to increase the output!
The shield emerged from her arm. "I made it using perforated metal. It should help a little with the sound."
"Thanks." Ojiro said as he took that into his arms and blocked another blast from Jiro.
Yaomomo tensed up at the sight. It wasn't an alarming moment of anything, but it sort of brought her back to reality.
The reality… where villains had cornered them with assistance from their friend.
"I... do not know." Yaomomo accidentally muttered under her breath.
She knew that they couldn't hide and think forever like this, but what other choice was there?!
This… felt so unnatural, so foreign! She had never seen something like this before! So, how could she stop something she didn't know about?!
What was she supposed to do?!
"It's okay." she heard.
Yaomomo looked up once more. It was Sero again. Perhaps, was she saying these things out loud?
"You don't have to know it." Sero said and his friend followed.
"Yeah." Ojiro said. "Other heroes, like All Might, will arrive here soon. And once they do, I fully believe that they will know what to do."
She looked down on the ground, her mind continuing to race. Yeah, the other heroes should know what to do…
After all, they have been in the field before…
You're right…" She replied to Ojiro. "The one with the necessary experience would definitely have to be-"
Her eyes widened. Clarity had finally struck at the young woman's head.
"Yaoyorozu?" Sero asked, however it became apparent that she wasn't listening when his classmate started to turn her gaze towards the edge that looked over the center, almost like she had just sensed something...
"...another hero." he heard her finish. "Sero..."
"Yes, Yaoyorozu?"
She turned to her classmates, her partners against this assault of criminals. "It is perhaps a long shot however… I have a plan."
Her arms glowed pink and small flashbangs came out of her arms.
"Sero and I will keep the fighting here. If they are exploiting our ability to hear, then this might be the only way..."
The tape user was confused. "Wait a minute, shouldn't we all take this chance to escape?"
"No…" Yaomomo shook her head. "We can't afford them to then go down to the middle as well and put their weight onto Mr. Aizawa."
"Plus..." She recalled Jiro. "We shouldn't leave her alone..."
The group immediately had gotten the message but something was left unclear.
"Then what do I do? Go to the entrance?" Ojiro asked and Yaomomo shook her head again.
"No..." She weighed the possibilities and looked over to the next zone over… The ruins.
"Find the others, Ojiro." She said, "And then..."
Meanwhile
"Midoriya. Asui." Ben said as his glance moved from one friend to the other. "What did she do to you?"
Rojo's grin grew even larger. It was just plain great, seeing the brat who put her behind bars with his tail between his legs.
She could even pity the poor creature… if it weren't for their history.
"Isn't it obvious, Tennyson?" she replied slyly. "I've decided to expand my friends list! And have my rematch for putting me in the NULL VOID!"
But, Ben didn't even flinch at the remark. He turned his gaze to the ground and emerged thorns all over his body.
"Trust me Rojo..." he said with a bone-chilling voice. "Considering what you did here, I won't make this much of a match."
Rojo continued to smile though. "Oh, I'm sure you won't. After all, you wouldn't hurt your frien-"
Before she could even finish her sentence, smoke immediately covered the area!
"ThIs tactic again..." she said under her breath. "I can't let him pick us off one by one."
"Minions! Back to back!"
The three of them came together and stuck their backs against one another. "This is the one weakness of that tactic, Tennyson… Having eyes in each other's blind spots."
And in case he tried to come up from below, she pointed one of her gauntlets to the ground. At the lightest tremor, she would fire.
"Now to locate him."
With her other hand, Rojo pressed a button on her head piece and a visor rolled down above her eyes. Immediately she pointed to the left.
"Frog girl! 8 o'clock!"
"RibBit!"
Possessed Asui shot her tongue and grabbed something hidden by the smoke.
"You really think I'm a newbie, huh?!" She aimed her arm cannon.
*Bang!* *Bang!*
She lowered her arm. "How's that?"
However, when the smoke cleared, all they saw was a wall of vines with a couple of more pods adding to the smoke.
"Crap..." she crouches again to be back to back with her group.
And silence takes hold of the battlefield.
No quips.
No clever comebacks.
Just pure silence.
Rojo thinks: "Oh, he's pissed alrigh-"
Her visor beeps. It had detected movement!
"Salad hair! 5 o'clock!"
But…
The referred 'salad hair' didn't budge.
Rojo was irritated. "Do I have to do everything around here!"
*Bang!* *Bang!* She broke formation and shot in the necessary direction.
However, it was yet another dud.
"Grrrr!" Rojo brought her gauntlets together and opened fire in all directions.
When she was done, the surrounding smoke's color had changed from a white mist… into dark grey.
She grabbed Midoriya by the collar. "Why didn't you move, huh!"
The greenette stayed silent.
"Oh, the silent treatment, eh?!" She smiled with nerves getting to her. "I forgot! That you heroes only understand one language!"
Rojo raised her hand and slapped Midoriya with the back of it!
"How's that?!" she asked with a resentful tone. "Loud enough for you brat?!"
"UgH..." the infected Midoriya groaned and with a muffled as well as corrupted voice said: "I-i-I cAn..."
But he couldn't continue it.
"What, brat?" she asked, continuing to shake him. "You can, what?"
The greenette's lips moved and eventually grabbed the arm holding him up, but no sound managed to escape him. All he had to communicate his message was the pitying expression in his right exposed eye.
Rojo did stop for a moment. Why was that, she didn't know, but the world wasn't so kind as to follow suit.
"Don't bother Midoriya..." A voice spoke from behind.
It was Wildvine.
Rojo immediately turned around to punch but it was caught midair.
"You know that pity..." Ben then stabbed through Rojo's armor. "...is the last thing she deserves."
He looked her right in the eyes as his vines crawled inside, covering and disrupting any and all forms of electronics!
"No!" she yelled. "You can't do this!"
Ben didn't reply. Instead he raised his hand the same way she had.
This time… his claws were sharpened.
As smoke dispersed, revealing the wall of plants that he had set up, Ben took in his victory.
"Like I said Rojo, not much of a match."
Ben, without hesitation, brought it down.
She closed her eyes.
But then… nothing.
There was no strike and when she opened her eyes, no Wildvine.
"What happened?" she gasped. Tennyson couldn't have de-transformed, he would have been right here.
She looked around and on her left, found a massive hole in what was Tennyson's plant wall. And following it through a secondary hole, found her target.
Slammed to a wall, with all of the wind knocked out of him, stood Wildvine and towering over him like a black, muscular version of goliath… was the Nomu.
And if anyone could make that pile of muscle move, it would be-!
"At last we meet…" Shigaraki said with Kurogiri following behind him. "The nerd who gave me so many delays..."
Without losing another second, Wildvine's tendrils went berserk, trying to get out of Nomu's grip.
But the only thing that earned him was a painful and slow squeeze from the creature until he stopped that.
"Give it up, will you?" Shigaraki's gaze then quickly fell on the exhausted female bounty hunter on the ground. He hadn't said anything to her, there was just the glance, but Rojo gets the message loud and clear.
"Get up."
"Already on it..." Rojo replies as she exhaustedly pulls herself back up.
First thing she noticed… was the amount of cracks and damage on her armor. "Great..."
She pointed her gauntlet to a wall and tried to fire. Sure enough, there was no blast.
"Focusing lens must be cracked." she thinks. "Those are always the first to go…"
And to think that there were no spares on her. If only she could get some pay from those butt-ugly-
"Focus." Shigaraki says as Nomu continues to pin down her rival. "You told me that you know this NPC."
"That I do..." she replies.
Getting the upper hand once again, she looks Ben in the face. He was clearly fuming with a similar anger, but there was also some shock and surprise.
"Probably looking for his teacher..." Rojo waved it off. This would have been a good time to gloat, but she didn't do it and instead got right down to business.
"It's been a minute since the Negative 10 and I last saw him." She said as Shigaraki's gaze followed her. All the way to the flickering green light coming from Tennyson's chest.
"But, looks to me like his weakness stayed the same."
She pointed at the dial and turned to Shigaraki. "He has a set amount of time like this. Once that's up, he will no longer be a plant and your boy here can crack him in two like a toothpick… if it wants."
To be frank, after that little jump scare from the hero, the wind was knocked out of Rojo's sails. She was exhausted and now, all she wanted to do was go home, get paid and lastly, get a brand new set of armor.
While for Shigaraki, a devilish grin was starting to form on his face.
"Don't bother..." he said to Wildvine, trying to squirm his way free. "This thing, my Nomu, was created for much bigger things than you."
He started to squirm even harder. and grew thorns that almost reached Shigaraki. "Doubt it now?!"
The villain leader… was amused.
"By all means hero, continue to wiggle around." he opened his arms. "...Just like your teacher."
In a crater, not too far off from the Shipwreck zone, laid the thrashed, broken, limp body of Aizawa.
"It's impossible..." he thought to himself. "That could not have been his natural strength..."
He was sure that he erased his quirk and yet, that 'Nomu' still broke his arms, like a pair of stray twigs freshly fallen from the tree.
"No one here can match that..." he thought, teamwork or otherwise. They just didn't have the tools necessary.
He tried to pull himself up, maybe if he could get an angle and erase his quirk… Just maybe-!
However, all the teacher got to see was the low number of villains gathering around his resting place.
"Oh no." Aizawa thought. "Not now..."
They looked on with blank expressions. By the looks of it, after how badly they were getting their ass beat, they hadn't thought that they would manage to get this far.
"What should we do?" one of the lower crooks asked and several of the veterans smirked.
"Isn't it obvious?" a masked four armed mutant asks. "We pay him back for what he did to us..."
He cracks his fingers. "...four fold."
"Thirteen…" Aizawa gritted his teeth and braced for the impacts.. "Tennyson… Whatever you do… Protect your classmates and yourself… from that monster."
Sequentially, Nomu strengthened his hold on Tennyson.
"Gah!" Ben struggled. It was actually starting to get hard to breathe now...
"I left him with my other party members. Thought that they deserved some kind of reward for their contributions. Isn't that nice of me?" he continued to tease Ben.
However, the victim continued to keep his silence.
"Well, I would say he's finished." the smirk becomes visible under the hand. "And the rest of your classmates?"
He glanced over to Midoriya and Asui.
"Not much of a resistance coming from them as well."
"So…What will you do now, hero?"
Wildvine tried to look at him defiantly in the eye. This wasn't over, it couldn't have been!
However, the Omnitrix was still beeping.
Shigaraki turns his back.
"I might have not gotten to the number 1 hero…" he says. "But this should make my message loud and clear."
Nomu strengthened his hold on his neck for a second time.
It's game over... for you."
Was this… it?
The noise of the beeping got faster, Intervals between each flicker got shorter.
Ben closed his one eye. If he was going out, he wasn't going to go out being scared.
He could feel the seconds passing by in his head, so much so that the world around him fell silent. Almost like nothing else mattered.
Until…
"DIE!" a yell came from above right along with steaming hot hair and the boom sound of an explosion.
"Bakugo?" he thought to himself as the ash-blonde swung in from above and pinned the bartender to the ground by the armor on his neck. "You thought you were hot shit, huh? Covering your body in mist like that?!-"
"You?!" Kurogiri grunted. The entire villain group was caught off guard. They were speechless by the fact that this student really just jumped into the midst of them.
Due to extra experience, Rojo recovers first.
"Gotta do everything around here..." She immediately moves in to kick the teen off their escape route. With several explosives of her own, she mumbles: "Oh, I'm not about to let that-"
However, the explosion boy doesn't stop. He raises his right hand in response. "I still have one hand left for you!"
As the distance between them got shorter, two others interfered.
"Fist of the Tail! Eagle Kick!"
"Acid Shot!"
Using his tail to leap forth, Ojiro spins around midair and lands one rising knee to Rojo's face!
All the while, Ashido appears from behind and follows up with two balls of acid!
One to Rojo! One to Shigaraki!
"Get away…" They shout in unison. "...from our friends!"
"Damn them-!" Bakugo says and switches his attack to Shigaraki while holding onto the mist.
"Nomu."
In the blink of an eye, Nomu releases his grip on Tennyson and blocks the attacks.
However, not everyone could get that lucky...
With both attacks having their impact, the exhausted Rojo was immediately down for the count. And considering how badly Tennyson had begun to shred her armor, this last impact from the pair finally did her in.
Even though the job was far from over and the other villains were standing right before them, Ashido took a second to think.
Her fist still shook from that move and she could hardly keep her Bakugo-style expression of utmost seriousness. "That was for Kirishima."
"Hey!" Bakugo called out to both of them. "We're not buddy buddies, you understand?!"
Ojiro however just couldn't listen to him though. He took a knee next to the gasping Tennyson.
"I'm fine." he said. "Just need to catch my breath, that's all."
Ben took this chance to look at his arm, to his entire figure.
Seeing his arm still be green and plant-like, he couldn't believe his eyes. The watch had stopped beeping… and yet, it left him as Wildvine. "Guess we're heading into overtime."
"Hey, you!" The explosion boy was about to snap again, but-!
"Now this took quite the turn..." Shigaraki joined in, sweeping the attention right under their feet. "Not only have they gotten past their own friends, but there is still no scratch on him."
He just had this sly and cocky tone under his voice. Almost like he had kept a smile under the severed hand.
"Kids these days can truly be amazing."
The trio gritted their teeth, he was clearly enjoying himself and in the face of it, Ojiro gets nervous.
"Don't try to underestimate us!" he says.
"Underestimate you?" Shigaraki opens his arms to his sides. "Oh no, I think I'm quite right in where you stand."
While Ojiro and Bakugo's gazes are stuck on the main villain, Ashido takes this second to look around.
"Guys..."
From zones all over the USJ, several individuals were running towards the group with an extra feral flare.
"You are just beginners in this game and yet, you overcame our exit and entrance, Kurogiri, and put us in a pinch..."
As they got closer, the three students saw for themselves… just what became of some of their friends.
Now, combined with Asui and Midoriya from before, stood Kirishima and Shoji from the Ruins zone as well as Koda and Tokoyami.
All… with the same parasite on their face.
"These things..." Ben thinks, still not back to 100%. "They really have made their way around this place."
Shigaraki continued his speech, pointing at the group.
"Unfortunately for you though…"
His blood shot eye glanced through the hand on his face.
"I won't let the League of Villains get a bad name."
"Well you didn't do a good job now, have you?" Ben quipped in the face of growing adversity.
"Get them."
"HaaaAaAaa!" The infected students let out an ear piercing scream and rushed with all they got.
"Racoon eyes!"
Ashido flinched by the sudden call out. "What- Bakugo? Don't do that when-"
"Switch places with me." he commands, not bothering to listen further. "You're not needed on the field."
Bakugo cracks his knuckles. "Just hold this bastard down while I take care of business."
Kurogiri tries to escape at that moment but Bakugo immediately puts him in check with a small explosion.
"Oh come on!" Ashido pouted. "You can't blow up our friends!"
"To hell I can't!.." He snapped. "I will keep them back! Besides..."
He looks at Nomu. "They aren't my targets."
"You're insane..." he hears from behind as he switches with Ashido. It was Tennyson, who had just gotten up. "...if you think I'll let you face that."
Bakugo walks up to him. "Don't try to get in my way, freak."
"Trust me, I'm not trying to." Ben retorts. "It's just that I have a very strict stance against suicide."
The ash blond replies with a scoff. "Of course YOU would think about dying, weakling."
Ben gets pissed.
"Bakugo. I'm going to spell this out very clearly for you so listen well." He points to the Nomu. "That thing was moments away from ripping me in half. With regeneration no less."
He crosses his arms. "What makes you think you can take it on? What do you think you have that I don't?"
Bakugo grits his teeth and growls, showing his discontent.
However they wouldn't have long to argue further.
"Incoming!" Ojiro said, right as Kirishima and Shoji dove face first in the midst of them.
"RaAaaa!"
The tailed warrior jumped out of the way and landed to his feet, instinctively taking a defensive stance. "I will be your opponent!"
He watched as the infected Kirishima slammed his fists together and hardened his body. Meanwhilethe infected Shoji created several more hands to battle.
"This is good," he thinks. "As long as I can occupy the close range fighters, we should be able to hold our ground."
He blocks the upcoming blows, especially with his tail and bides his time.
"Now!"
Taking advantage of a gap, he takes the chance to wrap the tail around the hardened wrists of Kirishima and tosses him to the ground before jumping away from Shoji's attack!
"The only thing we have to worry about now is..."
"DIE!" Bakugo screams as he hits Dark Shadow with an explosion that sends Tokoyami flying.
"Nevermind-Ow!" Ojiro finds himself getting sucker-punched in the face by three of Shoji's fists!
It made his head ring. And Kirishima didn't make it any easier with a punch of his own.
He tried to go in for a counter but Kirishima was always there, tanking the blows!
"Don't let your mind wander, Ojiro!" he hypes himself up. "Focus!"
He changes up his stance and with the next inflicted hit, he grabs Kirishima's hand with his left!
"Remember, this attack is fast as well as powerful..."
He raises two fingers to Kirishima's chest, setting the distance.
"...But everything… is in the execution!"
In lightning fast timing, Ojiro turned his hand back to a fist, and struck at his opponent's chest!
"One inch punch!"
Kirishima couldn't help himself but to be tumbled back, even with his armor on.
"One inch punch..." Ojiro said again under his breath and couldn't help but smile.
"It was my first one." he thought, full of giddiness. "Thank you master."
With a turn up in his mood, He then set his sights to Shoji. "He's also defensive… but also slower."
Ojiro jumped back again to gain some distance. Even though his enemy here didn't have his shield anymore, he still packed a punch.
"Here goes nothing. Tenth form… Tatsumaki Senpukyaku!"
The rest of the team wasn't messing around either. Despite the lack of animals around, the infected Koda was still doing his best and summoning bugs from underground while Asui was continuing to be a problem with her nimble movements.
Unfortunately, their opponent was far from being a pushover...
"In case you guys can still hear me in there..." Wildvine says as he crosses his arms. "Know that I'm sorry about this."
Immediately, he sinks down into the ground, vanishing from sight.
Asui attempts to jump and move along with that, but shortly finds herself unable to move!
"hUh?!" she looks down and hisses.
Tennyson really had sneaked in some vines to hold them down!
"Peek-a-boo!" he rose back up from behind and hit their backs with his elbows. "Should have kept the eyes on me!"
Without losing his chance, Ben unravels his arm and starts to tie them in a cocoon. "This should hold..."
Now that he was done, Ben took this chance to look at the battlefield.
"They aren't doing half-bad..." he thinks. "Hell, left alone, they could have a chance of pulling through."
The shapeshifter's eye drifts over to Shigaraki and then to the Nomu next to him. "But, then again, there is no way that he would play fair."
"Especially when he has his 'get out of jail' free card here."Through the side of his eye, he also checked on Ashido, still holding down Kurogiri.
"We have to press the advantage while we still have a chance-"
"I'm done."
Ben looks next to him and sees Bakugo, standing with his arms crossed.
"You're done?" he questions and then follows Bakugo's irritated changing gaze.
At the end of it, he finds a battlefield covered with blast as well as claw marks, and in the midst of it, he sees Tokoyami slammed into his original plant wall.
"Do your thing now and tie him up." The explosion boy commands.
Ben wasn't happy with this cooled off yet arrogant Bakugo, but he did end up raising a new weed under Tokoyami to tie him up. "That won't hold him for long."
"You're lucky then. Because I won't take long either." the ash-blonde said and immediately started walking up to the other 2 villains without waiting for a reply from Tennyson.
"Didn't you hear anything I-"
"Firepower."
Ben was surprised by this swift response.
"I saw enough of your fight out here." Bakugo confidently followed up with his arms crossed. "And definitely you can't even pack half the punch that I do."
He points to the two villains. "When you go in there, the moment your clock runs out, they will turn your ass into tumbleweed."
Wildvine leaned forward. "You make it sound like you have a better idea."
The self-proclaimed number 1 smirked devilishly. "You said something like having regeneration, right?"
"Right..." Ben confirmed and looked forward to Bakugo's next words very suspiciously.
He pointed to himself with his thumb.
"Become my sandbag..."
From what he should have been able to tell, Tennyson had many questions, but he couldn't care less about elaborating to some second-rate.
"While you tank his hits, I will fight him and cook both of them to oblivion! That's how we will win against those dumb villains!" He said, all fired up, with small explosions coming out of his hands.
Ben had to give it up to him. Considering the situation, it was a decent plan. But he was far from liking it.
"I can attack him just as well with my seeds, you know."
Bakugo's angry flare returned. "Don't even try to pretend that some seeds match me! I will kill you!"
"Yep, that's the Bakugo I remember."
"Now follow me!" The explosion boy flew ahead and as soon as he was far enough, his happier expression faded.
Ben didn't like this, not even one bit. Bakugo was too close to the action, right where he didn't want anyone to be, maybe except the teachers.
This was his problem. If he wasn't here, those new aliens and Rojo would have never interfered!
He sighed. Regardless, it was a done deed and Bakugo was too stubborn of someone to just simply get out of the way.
"At least I can keep a closer eye on him. It's better than having him come in at the last second and ruin everything."
"Wait for your… shield." Ben replied unenthusiastically to cover his tracks.
In saying that though, what was there to ruin?
He had no plan, Wildvine was as effective as wet sandpaper against this big brute and his friends were on the verge of being overrun.
"On the plus side, I'm still transformed..."
But to what end? If he HAD turned back, then he could have tried to buy time and then pick someone more classified for this.
Rath, Chromastone, Water Hazard… All of them would be better than freaking Wildvine!
"No..." he shook his head. "In the 10 minutes that I need to wait for another transformation, me or someone else would have gotten hurt."
"It would be too risky, especially with those new small mind controlling aliens."
He looked down at the Nomu as he was swinging. "To stop a problem, you need to cut off its source… "
Well, Wildvine wasn't going to be able to do that, that's for sure!
"Then again..."
5 years ago
At a forest nearby a highlight of "The Best Summer Ever": Mount Rushmore.
The place, despite the abandoned Plumber base it hid below, was quite peaceful in this time of night.
The crescent moon was shining, the stars had a soothing light to them that had seemingly sent all life into sleep-
"Come on Fourarms!" Diamond Head shouted into the night.
Well, almost all life…
"Heatblast!"
Far away from the Rustbucket and surrounded completely by nothing but wildlife, Diamond Head was trying his best to not go into a temper tantrum.
"Why won't it work?!.. Ahh!" He deformed his hand and shot his crystals at the trees. "I'm pretty sure that I did it right this time too!.."
He sat on a nearby rock.
As the sound of shaking branches and awoken wildlife faded, the hero's attention fell back to the matter literally on his chest: The Omnitrix dial.
"I don't get why it's not working..." he touched the symbol, slapped it, and tried turning it yet again. "Maybe it's different for each alien?"
"What's different for each alien?"
"Gah!" he jumped in his place with the sudden voice. "GWEN!"
His cousin showed her face as she made her way between several trees, with purple and blue pajamas instead of the usual clothes. "Caught ya again!"
Diamond Head however got over it and went back to his business without much care. "Whatever dweeb. Now buzz off..."
However Gwen wasn't about to let go of the issue. "What are you doing this late up?"
"Noneya." Ben replied.
"..."
"..."
Both sides fell silent.
"You know I'm not going to fall for that Ben." Her cousin replied as she made her way closer and closer to him.
And it was exactly like she thought.
"Didn't you mess with that thing enough times already?"
"You kidding?"
The dial on Diamond Head started blinking red and transformed him back to human.
"After the adventure this morning? How can I go to sleep after that?!" Ben replied, taking his head away from the Omnitrix for a second.
Gwen also thought about it. "Yeah, our future, right?"
The two briefly looked back on it, on the sneak peak they got of 20 years into the future literally just this morning…
Seeing Earth being a hub for Aliens as well as humans, every building, vehicle, even the Rustbucket being so decked out with tech, the Plumbers getting a "Galactic Headquarters" .
And to top it all off, they would become the Earth's greatest heroes.
To think that in just 20 years, the world would change so much…
"I still can't believe I do magic like that." Gwen says with her hand on her chin. "And you..."
She stops mid-sentence and directly looks at her cousin.
"...become taller."
Ben smirks and proudly poses with his hands on his hip. "Joke while you can, Gwen. Because we both saw that I ran you out of the hero business!"
He then puts his hand over the dial again and starts twisting and tapping on it again.. "And who knows, with what my future showed me, I might even do that tomorrow."
"Oh really?" she crossed her arms. "What gave your pea brain such a big idea?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Ben kept up his attitude and tried to mess around for a bit longer.
However, all that the red glowing watch could do was let out an almost depressing beep.
"Oh man…" he took his hand off again and shook his wrist. "Guess I won't be able to show it."
Gwen raises an eyebrow and Ben turns to explain.
"So, this was back in the Null Void Chamber..."
"Where Vilgax and Animo showed up, yep." Gwen reaffirmed.
"Right… My future self, Ben 10000, was thrown out through a wall and I went to help him." he says. "He was dangling over the edge and Vilgax was coming right at him."
Ben slowly starts to get into the spirit of the fight.
"I upgraded the hoverboard right under me..."
"Upgraded?" Gwen says. "You went Upgrade to fight the Future Vilgax?"
"Yeah, it was a strategic decision by me."
She however, wasn't that trusting.
"Watch didn't let you change into what you wanted it to, did it?"
"Not my point, Gwen!"
She snickered to herself. "Okay okay, continue."
Taking a deep breath, Ben sets the scene again.
"So, I came from behind him and threw the hoverboard at Vilgax..." he says. "And once my future self got up, he..."
Ben paused for a second, trying to get his sentences together. Which made Gwen lean forward with slight anticipation.
"While I was Upgrade..." Ben starts up again. "He touched the dial on my chest… and somehow turned me into Cannonbolt!"
Gwen's eyes slightly went wide. "He turned you from one alien to another?"
"Yeah! And then he did it again later and turned me into Diamond Head!" Ben says, unable to contain his excitement.
Gwen puts his hand under her chin. "And, let me guess, you were trying to do that on your own out here?"
"I thought if I tried it as an alien, it would work..."
Right as he said that, the dial of the Omnitrix lit up green.
"Oh good..." Ben pressed the button on the side. "Time for another one… This time Cannonbolt style."
"I don't know about it Ben." Gwen interjects out of concern. "While you're messing around, what if you get stuck as an alien?"
Ben shrugs and continues to turn the dial. "Then I could have more chances to try this."
Gwen… was surprised to say the least. His cousin finally seemed determined on something.
Ben showed his forearm with the Omnitrix. "You have to admit that the better I have control over this thing, the better I can help people."
"Now wait just a second, you say that, but who knows what the combination is for that command." She says. "It's going to be just like searching for the Master Control again."
Ben looks down. After resetting the Omnitrix, he HAD obsessed over that command for a bit, hadn't he?
"Now..." Gwen yawned and put her hand over his shoulder. "Like grandpa says, make sure to get a good night's rest for an even better tomorrow."
However, even when she said that, Ben didn't seem satisfied and it was easy to see why. Just the mention of turning from one alien to another was enough to sound revolutionary to the Omnitrix.
And the worst part yet, was that he had a taste of that power not too long ago, against Vilgax and Kevin.
"Alright…" She takes a deep breath, conceding at the sight of her cousin. "Do you want to know my take on this?"
In response, her cousin instinctively looked away, but he started to slowly backpedal.
"I admit." She says. "I also... can't wait to do magic."
She raises up her own wrist this time, and catches Ben off-guard. That bracelet was the Keystone of Bezel!
Ben tilts his head. "Didn't we drain it's power back in Las Vegas? Why did-"
"Yep, I know it's completely zapped." She interrupts. "But after seeing her, with the charms no less, I just thought... something could happen too."
"But now… I think I get something about these things." She held up the keystone again and it was now Ben's turn to listen.
"We should not overthink it."
Gwen crosses her arms again. "While you were out fighting Vilgax, my future self mentioned that I would get a black belt in Judo somewhere down the line."
She opens her arms to her sides.
"Well, now that I think about it, if I'm taking Judo now, so if I play that out to the end..."
"You think you would get it?" Ben asks and Gwen nods in response.
Her argument did make some sense to him. After all they were talking about 20 years into the future, a lot could happen. But, the questions inside his head were still not exactly satisfied.
"What about the magic then?" Ben retorts and points to the keystone. "We already pretty much destroyed the charms, then how does that happen?"
Gwen shrugs in response. "I don't really know-"
"You don't know and yet you're willing to just wait around?" Ben asks.
"Yeah." she says. "If I keep obsessing over magic, how am I supposed to enjoy the rest of the 20 years?
"I'll definitely be on the lookout for a third chance to do magic, but until then…"
She stops for a second on this sentence.
"I'll enjoy the time while I can."
"After all, we still have the keystone from before. Who knows, maybe I'm missing something."
"Well…" Ben says. "I'm literally stuck with my 'magic', what do you think I can wait for?"
Gwen looks down at the watch. "Maybe the Omnitrix..."
The one on Ben 10,000's wrist, did look a bit different compared to this one. Maybe something happened to that instead...
But she didn't tell Ben that. She was trying to make his cousin's obsession go away, not intensify it.
Meanwhile the young shapeshifter didn't know how to answer.
He opened his mouth to thank her, but after the last compliment she recorded and reran for almost a week, maybe it was for the best if he stayed silent on that.
"Maybe..." he eventually answered. "Maybe I am missing something."
But...
"Whatever it is… I hope it happens soon." he says with impatience.
He shook his head midair. "Let's try this combo first… I can't just-"
"Get here already, freak!" Bakugo yelled from the ground and crossed his sweaty arms, launching a massive opening attack!
Shigaraki, in response, just watched from afar, not even bothering to cover his eyes. "Let them have their fun."
"Nomu take care of this…"
The giant squealed in place with his master's orders and speedily jumped to Bakugo's position! It was almost as though he had warped!
"Don't worry! I got you!"
Wildvine let go of the roof he was swinging from and grabbed Bakugo, pulling him back, away from harm's way.
"Now let go of me!"
"Sir yes sir..." He let go but then cheekily reached for his back.
Nomu had landed back down to the ground.
"Hey Bakugo!" Ben said as his partner regained his balance midair. "Everyone should eat their vegetables once in a while, don't you agree?!"
Ben grabbed all the pods that he could find and threw them around. "Take a shot!"
"Hmph!" ash-blonde puts his hands behind and dives into the smoke straight as an arrow.
Nomu starts waving his arms around in quick succession, almost like he's trying to swat a house fly to wipe the smokescreen and then takes a second look. However, nothing comes into vision.
"Looking for me, bird brain?!" he emerges from the smoke with his hands crackling and being brought forth. "Improvised special move: Burning Decimation!"
Right as he got close to the beast, explosions one by one roared out of his hands, looking almost like a stream of fire while pushing him away from the danger at the same time!
Ben landed at the ground. "Huh, maybe I should have given him more credit..."
But in a single leap, the Nomu closed the distance and reeled back his arm. "Or not!"
"Stay the hell away!" Bakugo tried to cover Nomu's vision with more explosions, but his hand was already on the move.
Wildvine then shot it's claw at the beast's body, pulling himself up and taking the hit for his classmate just in the nick of time!
"Ahhhhhhh!" Ben reeled back from pain. He might have regeneration but it still hurts.
Regardless, they landed far away from the Nomu and eyed him up from afar. Meanwhile, Bakugo didn't smirk at Ben's pain, nor did he even ask about it at all.
"What was that back there?" Instead he questioned coldly. "I told you to take hits and nothing else, right?"
"I did hear that." Ben returns, not about to sit quietly. "But we can't keep any training wheels on against this thing."
Bakugo, initially, was looking at Tennyson from the corner of his eye. But once his sentence finished, he also looked for his opponent behind the dust and what he saw, shocked him to his core.
Even after that attack, Nomu was still standing. Hell, there wasn't even a scratch on him!
"Like I thought, even that big opening attack isn't that big of a deal..." Ben took stock of the situation and then turned to his partner. "See what I mean?"
Bakugo narrowed his gaze. It wasn't his full power… but it was close.
Regardless, he continued to be stubborn. "Just stay behind me..."
Ben didn't press it further. He saw Bakugo's reaction to the Nomu, and that was enough.
"Now, are you ready to go again?!"
"Hmph, don't fall behind!" Bakugo dialed the tough guy act to 11 and rushed again.
With his hands separate this time, he then rained down explosions on the Nomu in rapid succession.
The beast did attempt to grab him but as soon as he did, Bakugo spun on his axis and changed positions with Tennyson.
"Looking for someone else?" Thorns emerged and pierced through the beast's hands, sticking them in place! "Bakugo now! Hold nothing back!"
"Don't tell me what to do!" He launched another explosion and propelled himself to land on the beast's back.
With the glow on his hands now dancing over the brain, he smirked. "Leaving the weak spot open? How generous!"
He swiped his hand to drop some sweat, jumped off from the beast's back and lit the bastard up!
Wildvine immediately felt its grip weaken. "Strong on the outside, soft on the inside, huh big guy?"
And, without mercy, Ben moved to press the attack.
He dialed back his thorns, freed himself from the hands and pulled the monster's limp body closer.
"And a special delivery from me!" Wildvine grabbed three fresh new pods from his back and chucked them into his open jaw!
"You're welcome!"
As he swung away, the Nomu's body literally spasmed in place, before falling to the ground.
His head wasn't visible from the smoke, but there was a good chance that the top side… The part with the brain... was burnt.
Ben looked over to Bakugo with the side of his eye. He was clearly out of breath, probably not used to using his quirk with this intensity for this long.
"His body is filled to the brim with adrenalin right now, so it probably didn't click to him yet."
He closed his eye.
"The fact that he killed a villain..."
Bakugo however kept up a stone-like but also nimble stance, instinctively anticipating another attack from the downed brute and ready to act to it in any given moment.
However, seconds were passing, and yet he wasn't getting up.
His glance steered over to the other bastard, the one with the many hands…
Turns out the teasing smile on his face… had also faded.
Bakugo's pitch-perfect concentration broke and he took one more look at the brute.
"He he he…" the ash-blonde laughed out of his stress…
...His stress which was now turning into joy. "Ha ha ha ha!"
As he continued to laugh, Bakugo's battle-ready stance faded, his hands were made into fists and were raised up to the sky.
"HA HA HA HA HA!"
He composed himself. "Take that! The one who is destined to surpass All Might and become the number 1 hero is-!"
Ash-blonde's smile faded. The big brute was no longer on the ground...
His body froze with fear and his brain continued to stumble on words…
As the freakishly strong Nomu... stood right in front of him.
"Bakugo!" Ben screamed and tried to raise his hand to stop it. But was instead swatted away.
"The idea behind that wasn't half-bad." Shigaraki's smile returned. "But I never said strength was all he had..."
Right in front of their eyes, the burnt parts of the Nomu's head grew new fresh muscle fibers.
"This is his super-regeneration."
The monster then put his hand upon Bakugo's tank top and lifted him up to his level, almost like he was mocking him… Right before slamming him to the ground!
Blood escaped out of his mouth and the once arrogant hero fell silent.
Or so he expected…
"I'm not… gonna give in..." Bakugo reeled from pain and sent out some mynute blasts to his face. "Now wither-"
Without giving him a second, Nomu leaned forward and brought down his fist, crushing the self-proclaimed hero's elbow into pieces...
However, Bakugo couldn't scream.
He couldn't do anything.
The moment his nerves registered the pain, he had lost consciousness.
The wind was also promptly taken out of Bakugo's sails just like his teacher.
Seeing his prey conquered, Nomu then lets go of the beaten boy and lifts up his head in case of any more opposition to his master's will.
And he found it alright…
Gotten up from a nearby crack in the ground, half of him covered in a dust cloud, stood Wildvine, shaking profusely with anger.
He leaped up from the ground, launched two vines to the grounds next to the Nomu and pulled himself in a collision course to him.
One hand was opened up in front while the other was held back, close to his chest.
The Nomu looked to his master and saw him nod. This was his permission.
He reeled his fist back for an attack, kicking up dust even from that simple action.
However, if only he knew… how much that worked against him.
The brute first saw a spark of green…
And then a full metal hand hit him right in his face!
"What?" Shigaraki questioned as the cloud of dust left it's place for a comparatively smaller cloud of steam.
With his back on the ground, Nomu tried to see the figure that got the literal jump on him. Because the only thing he knew now was that he was big… and made of metal.
Granting his wish, three orange/yellow slits shined their light to his face as another hand creaked to wipe away the steam.
"So..." A new deeper voice spoke with a light Russian accent. "What do you say bird brain? Round 2?"