Energy (D.P./M.H.A.)

. 5 3 .

Bakugou was going to kill Danny. Sam could see the conviction in his eyes, palm already gleaming with sweat. Tiny explosions crackled in his grasp, the sounds making her hairs stand up. She tried to break away from Tucker, to help, to do anything, to help her friend not die. Tucker held on strong, murmuring words of reassurance. She could feel Tucker shaking, near crying as well, but he was more in control than she was.

She needed to run there, rip Bakugou away from Danny, and hold onto him to make sure he was still there. While she knew Tucker was only trying to keep the situation from escalating even further, she hated him at that moment. He was keeping her away. Trying to protect her and himself from Bakugou, knowing Danny had more tricks up his sleeve still. 

If he even could use them.

Bakugou had beaten Danny up quite well. His suit was ripped in multiple places, especially at the back and elbows. One of his gloves was missing while the other was hanging on by mere threads, hands scrambling for purchase on the floor or the body above. White hair flew in every direction and stuck to Danny's forehead as he heaved for breath against Bakugou's hand wrapped around his throat.

Bakugou looked like a mess too, but that was not a concern of Sam's.

He seemed wholly convinced they were on the side of the villains who were attacking the class, and all that pain of betrayal and frustration was being let out onto who he thought was the bad guy. 'Not if I kill the bad guy,'  he'd said, and he'd meant it. Sam was yelling, crying, thrashing in Tucker's arms, and damn him for having trained so much these past weeks.

With blurry vision, she didn't quite catch what happened next. One second the two of them were on the ground, fighting for a life, the next Midoriya had tackled Bakugou off Danny. The Nomu was moving again, thanks to Shigaraki, who was coughing his lungs out on the still gravel a small distance away. There was more neon green lightning, and Midoriya was standing between Danny and Bakugou, yelling. 

The other sounds of battle and screaming were being drowned out by another noise. Her eyes found Danny, sitting on his knees with trembling hands. He was looking at her while his core seemed to flutter, trying to heal the broken body it was in. Lights of green and blue danced in her eyes, and she ripped away from Tucker. Completely ignoring the new fight that had broken out, she dropped next to Danny and held him. 

"Are you okay?" she barely managed, holding him at an arm's length. Stupid question, but it felt better than to address the mess they were in. This was tangible, real, and had happened. He'd been battered, bruised, and broken before, and he was still here. She'd fixed him then, and she could do it again. Tucker had joined her, hands itching to help. They all exchanged glances, questioning what to do next. 

The answer came in the form of Bakugou being thrown into them. Sam went sprawling onto the floor, losing grip on gravity and orientation. Danny had his hands on her shoulders moments after, urging her to get up. Midoriya came barrelling in seconds later. He immediately went for Bakugou, who was completely knocked out. 

God, they could not get a single moment of rest. Sam barely heard Midoriya was yelling at Bakugou to wake up, her vision and ears filled with concern radiating off of Danny for her. Idiot. Like he wasn't the one dying a second ago.

"Really feeling the love here, guys," Tucker said sarcastically, sitting up slowly from his singled-out spot a few feet further away.

Leave it to her two boys to try and crack jokes in life-or-death situations.

Sam shook the vertigo out of her ears and stood with some help from Danny. (Or maybe she was helping him. Maybe they were helping each other. The three of them.) The two of them picked up Tucker, letting Midoriya heave Bakugou over his shoulders before joining them. 

They probably looked insane. Two fourteen-year-olds, one overpowered superhero in training carrying his middle school bully and best friend, who was also a superhero in training. And then there were three nineteen-year-olds, who had traveled across space, time, and dimensions to execute a plan that went wrong within the first five minutes of the final step. Two of them had gotten superpowers weeks before, while the other one had been a half-dead rogue vigilante for five years. 

Across from them, on their own team, was a bio-engineered weapon made out of who-knows-what, a teleporting cloud of purple smoke wearing an iron collar, and a guy with a hand on his face, a scratched neck, and issues. (And maybe still 50 small-time super-powered villains scattered across a facility that was way too expensive to be only used once per year to be funded by the government.)

"Now we walk forward slowly while epic music plays."

Midoriya seemed to be debating whether he should be running away to get his friend first aid, or help his new friends --who were cracking jokes right now-- beat the biggest and baddest creature he'd ever seen. Sam felt bad for him. 'Don't worry, he always does this,' would not be helping the state of mind of the deer-in-headlights looking Midoriya she was seeing.

"Midoriya, can you take Bakugou to the top of the staircase? I think they're establishing a safe zone there," Danny muttered to Midoriya, hoping Shigaraki wouldn't hear. Midoriya wouldn't look Danny in the eye, Sam noticed.  "We'll explain everything later. Promise." Midoriya merely nodded and sprinted away.

"That's gonna be one heck of a monologuing explanation later," Danny sighed.

"I thought you'd gotten so good at those," Tucker said.

"Maybe let's focus on those three bastards in front of us instead of the moral repercussions of our dubious actions."

"Agreed."

Danny took a step forward from their little formation and pointed at Shigaraki. Sam had never been more grateful for his accelerated healing. He was standing up straight again with no signs of any injury to his movement besides the torn fabric of his suit at the back. "Shigaraki. Leave now or we'll make you regret ever showing up here. These kids and this universe are under our protection, and we won't let you harm anyone else as long as we have anything to say about it."

There was no verbal response. Shigaraki merely lifted a finger and Kurogiri warped as the Nomu charged. The giant creature roared again, and black and purple smoke fluttered around following it.

"Ready?" Danny asked them.

Sam bounced on her feet and raised her fists. She looked at Tucker, who nodded, and then at Danny. This was their chance to finish this. Beat the villains, explain themselves to the class, and go back to where they came from. To their own weird dimension with superpowers and evil villains. But at least one where they didn't have to hide in plain sight.

They could go home.

"Ready."