Stormy Petrels

37

       They exited the forest and he quickly pointed them over to where he could see Tiger and Mandalay standing at the ready by the house, handing over the hero student he had knocked out as he did so before sprinting back into the forest.

       In his rush to head back into the forest he didn't notice the three villains slip out of the forest a little ways away. A short trip part way back after scowling Yaoyorozu and her companions back to the base and walking them part of the way, he rushed back into the thick of the smoke. For all that it was useless against him, it still made a nuisance of itself as he cut his way through the blinding fog.

     Three times he knocked down the charge of an assailant he didn't see until they were almost right on top of him and once one of said assailants managed to escape before he could check who it was, knock them out, and handcuff them.  Even he would admit that had he been in this situation a few years before, he would have been done for. (On the other hand he could also admit to himself he wouldn't be in this situation back then either- he would have been more likely to be on the other side of this even).

       That was when he saw them in the fog. A second later and their gas mask had been removed and they slumped down tightly trapped in handcuffs.  Dabi grinned as the smoke began to clear and he continued his search for the remaining students.

      Pixie Bob glanced over the head of the earth monster that she crouched out of sight on, watching as the new hero, talk dark and sulky, dove back into the forest without a backwards glance, she hurried to instruct the golems to make way for them as Manual waved them in. Just as the ranks began to close them knives flew out from the edge of the forest, five villains stepping out from the tree cover. The most notable of which wore a familiar styled red scarf, nearby another less ratty green one was wrapped around another neck.

      They struck fast.

     The one in the lead with the dirtied red scarf shot forward, a large sword made from a conglomeration of different weapons being pulled from an equally battered cloak, their reptilian appearance suddenly on full display. The strikes came hard and fast, two strikes had the two closest converging earth beasts crumbling back to the ground. The green scarfed villain held out his hands as if they were finger guns.

      "Bang, bang. Bang, bang."

    Shots came out from his index fingers, exploding on contact as they hit the next set of approaching beasts, taking down the monsters as the one with the sword swirled to chop down another.  Pixie Bob leapt down from the back of her's to begin to create more of them- she knew her team could fight with the best of them, but it wasn't their specialty and it would be altogether safer if Manual, Rag Doll, and Tiger could remain focused on the students. She would buy time until Mandalay and Red came back and hope that Eraserhead and Vlad King would stay safe and unaffected where they were.

That was when a third villain struck, they had reddish hair and a bright orange shirt on, his hand reaching out to the one in a green scarf. Pixie Bob blinked as they glowed bright blue, but didn't have time to ponder it as she suddenly found herself shooting towards the villains, a call of surprise told her Rag Doll was heading with her.

They crashed into the equally unsuspecting green scarfed villain, something heavy crashing into Rag Doll's head before either had a chance to recover. Pixie Bob rolled out of the way a part second too late to escape completely unscathed and blood slipped down the side of her head as she regained her feet.

Tiger shouted, charging towards the group just ahead of the earthen creatures, but his progress was deterred by the green scarfed villain who had also regained his feet and now focused on keeping the rescue effort back as the red scarfed drove their way through the creatures and towards the base.

Pixie Bob knew she had to act fast to get out of there with the solidly unconscious Rag Doll and quickly charged  towards where the villain who had a cloth covered weapon resting on her head.

      "Repel." Just as she had shot forwards in a fake attack to close the rest of the ground and grab Rag Doll, she was flying backwards, crashing into a tree before she even had time to register what exactly had happened.

       Pixie Bob scowled fiercely at the other.

     
        Izuku ran faster than he ever had before, his mind flying blank with his need to reach Kota before any harm could come to the boy.  It was because of this singleminded mind set that he barely even noticed One for All lending power to his movements as he launched his way across the forest go faster and faster as he drew on every reserve of strength that he had available to use and then some.

      The noises of Mandalay dashing after him faded into background noises and then finally to nothing as the distance between them grew. Still he pushed on. Dashing up the mountain using the rocks and logs that were in the way of the winding path to boost him even further along. He felt like he could practically leap over the whole mountain, but common sense had him settling on just slightly larger and larger leaps until he was springing from one of the 'switchbacks' up to the one above him as he sprinted his way to the lookout point near the top.

He nearly slowed down when he saw the looming figure by the cliff, but then he pushed himself forward. He remembered Muscular, Malvolia had made a whole deal of it after the two water spout heroes had died. The duo had been one of the few consistent hero teams whose actions revolves around their teamwork, so it had hit pretty close to home for all of them. When Dabi had put forth that a person like Muscular wasn't going to stay in for long, training had doubled and their time in the field suffered for it.

None of his hits would be able to damage the behemoth villain, and going for the eyes had been what had inevitably gotten the water duo killed. It was just too small of a target to practically be aiming for with the lack of hesitation needed to match his speed. Once you got up into his face you were done for.

Muscular did lack flexibility for all of his speed, but as they were facing the direction Izuku was coming from, even if they weren't currently looking, that tidbit of information couldn't help him now either.

He sped up.

He was fast, they were faster, and with the added burden of Kota plus being already out of breath from his dead sprint up the mountain and through the forest, the chances of him out running Muscular was just as null as any of the other plans that slid through and around his brain.

So he did quite possibly the stupidest thing he had ever done in all of his career fighting villains.

He charged.

Muscular was the type that was overconfident enough about his quick and fight hungry enough- in general and from his extended time in solitary- to 'level' the playing field for their opponent (read: show what they're up against and relish the hopelessness that comes from it).

Meaning he'd allow that desperate first hit in so that he could float about his superior power afterwards.

Izuku used the last moment he had as he raced towards them to give a final push, leaping in front of Kota.

Muscular braced for the strike.

Izuku shifted to better use that new position and shoved.

They both went toppling down over the edge of the cliff.

     Distantly he heard Kota scream.