Chapter 15

Katsuki Bakugo grumbled, climbing over the wall that separated whatever zone he was in with the rest of the USJ. Brittle Bones was following closely behind him like a fucking puppy.

"We're here." He pulled Brittle Bones up, and looked around. He saw the misty bastard floating around the entrance, and Thirteen, who just collapsed for some reason. Then his eyes landed on the plaza.

He saw Deku, transformed into that XLR8 bastard, just frozen in front of some big fucker with four arms. One moment, he was just standing there, and the next, there was a flash of light. When it dissipated, he saw the villain standing where Deku was, and a splash of... oh God. That was blood, it had to be.

That was Deku's blood splattered all over the plaza. That was Deku's corpse, reduced to a gooey mess. Deku was dead, he was dead, he was dead, hewasdeadhewasdeadhewasdeadhewasdead!

He ignored the sound of screaming that came from beside him. Everything felt numb as he processed what he was seeing. That idiot got himself into a fucking villain fight, and now he was fucking dead! A week into fucking school, and he was killed!

The only thing that broke him out of his stupor was seeing that shitty haired bastard, Kirishima, running past him, and then suddenly jumping at the fucker who killed Deku, getting there in an instant and punching it in the back of the head. There was a massive wave of force that spread out from where he punched the bitch, but it didn't even budge, and Kirishima fell to the ground.

"Damnit." Katsuki watched as one of the villains started gloating. Obviously the boss. "DAMNIT!" He blinked back tears, and saw the murderer was raising his leg, right above Kirishima's head. Fuck! No, no, no! "YOU BASTAAAAARRRRDS!" He wasn't going to let more people die! He launched himself with explosions, coming out stronger and faster than they ever had before! The villains stopped to look at him. Good, they could try and kill him instead! He wouldn't fucking let them!

"DIIIIIIIIIIIE!" Katsuki let out a massive explosion as soon as he got close to the four armed bitch, rocking across the plaza, sending villains flying everywhere.

But he knew that the big guy wouldn't budge, so as soon as he let out that explosion, he burst out of the way, grabbing Kirishima and getting both of them out of there. They skid to a halt right by the blood splatter that was Deku. "Are you okay?!"

Kirishima didn't respond, just staring at the blood. Then, he chuckled. What the fuck? What was he laughing about? Did the pain go to his head and drive him insane?!

"Stop fucking laughing, you idiot!" Katsuki smacked him in the hair, and watched as the smoke cleared. Villains were scattered across the plaza, and the big guy was just... standing there. Doing nothing.

"Bakugo, look!" Kirishima sounded like he was on the verge of crying, but oddly relieved too. He looked down at the blood splatter, and his eyes widened.

Unless Deku was really fucked up, that wasn't blood. It was black, with green lines like a circuit board. This was one of the forms Deku showed off during the quirk apprehension test. But that didn't change the fact his body was still splattered across the ground. He reached out to touch it with his gloved hand.

And then it spread up his arm, covering his grenade bracer in the black and green liquid. He screamed, and he was pretty sure he heard another voice screaming too.

Everything felt... odd. Izuku was in so much pain. His body was splattered all over the ground, he could feel that. Why could he feel that? Was he dead? Nomu had hit him, so he had to be.

He saw the villain covered in hands standing over him. "I bet All Might will just love to see this! The star pupil, reduced to a mere puddle! Oh, Master will love this!" He reached down towards Izuku. "Let's just remove the Omnitrix from your corpse."

That was when he heard Kirishima screaming, and then the rushing of wind. A few seconds later, there was explosions just like Bakugo's. They were avenging him. Oh God, they were seeing his bloody corpse, weren't they? How was he even thinking? This was so weird!

As he was wrapped up in thoughts of how he was thinking after death, he felt something touch him, and he had a strong urge. A familiar urge. An urge to upgrade.

He screamed as he felt his body move, covering the thing that had touched him. He wasn't dead! He was Upgrade! He was alive! Information flooded his mind, about liquid cartridges and guns and the destructive force of Bakugo's nitroglycerin sweat.

He looked around, seeing Bakugo's horrified, but relieved face, the Nomu, and then what he had upgraded. It was Bakugo's Grenade Bracer, but it was almost unrecognizable now. It was larger, and instead of a grenade design, it looked more like a minigun fused with Bakugo's arm.

"I'm alive!" Izuku screamed, feeling amazing now. How was he Upgrade? Did the Omnitrix save him from death?!

"DEKU, YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU MADE ME FUCKING WORRY, YOU NERD!" Bakugo screamed back, slapping the gauntlet he was on. Underneath Bakugo's anger, Izuku saw that he was relieved. "And what the fuck did you do to my shit!?"

"Ugh... Well, shit." The voice of the hand villain caught his attention. "It looks like you're harder to kill than I thought. NOMU!" Oh, FUCK NO! Without thinking, Izuku began moving Bakugo's arm and aiming.Target reticles popped up all over Nomu in his vision, and he fired.

Focused explosions like breach charges shot out of the barrels of the minigun bracer, all pointed right at Nomu. First, they hit its arms, and each shot pierced through the monster like a pencil through paper. As he moved the shots, Nomu's left arms fell off. Then, the legs, and the other set of arms, leaving it as just a head and a torso. It was disgusting, but at least they were safe from the main threat, and a bunch of villains began running away.

Izuku melted off of the bracer, forming into Upgrade's full body. "Your final boss is finished! And there's more where that came from!" He was bluffing. There were only a few more shots left in Bakugo's bracer, and he wasn't sure his stomach could stand doing that again. The boss villain didn't seem threatened by this at all, just annoyed, especially as black mist coalesced into existence next to him.

"Tomura Shigaraki." Kurogiri fully formed, and he squinted at Izuku. "He did that to the Nomu as a Galvanic Mechamorph?"

A Mechamorph? Was that the name of Upgrade's species? How did they know this?!

"Yeah, took that explodey brat's grenade thing to do it. Is Thirteen dead?" The hand villain, Shigaraki, turned to look at Kurogiri.

"They're incapacitated, but a student with a speed quirk escaped."

While they were talking, Izuku had a thought. How did he transform into Upgrade when he was XLR8? Did the Omnitrix save him from- Wait, he was XLR8 now. "Hm..." If he could transform from Upgrade to XLR8 like that, could he do it with any alien? He thought about Four Arms, and he could see his body go green for a split-second before he turned into Four Arms. He could transform at will! He clenched his fists, and glared at the villains.

"Ugh. Kurogiri, if you weren't our way out of here, I'd turn you to fucking dust. If that kid contacts the school, we're fucked. We can't beat dozens of pros. Nomu! Get up, you dumb animal!" Shigaraki shouted at Nomu's limbless torso. Izuku paused, looking down at it. Get up? How was it going to-

Nomu growled, and the stumps where his limbs used to be began pulsing. Bones began growing from the stumps, followed by a mass of muscle rushing out and covering them moments later. In only a few moments, all of his limbs were back. Oh shit.

Izuku stepped back, eyes wide with shock. "What the hell?! How can it regenerate?! I thought his quirk was superstrength!" He pointed at Nomu as it stood back up. It was taller than him as Four Arms, and even more buff!

"Who said it only had one quirk?! It's a regenerating, shock absorbing All Might Killer! Even with all those transformations, you don't stand a chance!" Shigaraki's gloating gave Izuku time and valuable information. Shock absorption, that meant it probably wouldn't react to getting punched by anything except All Might. If that was all Nomu had, then that meant it was just a big brute.

Izuku turned into XLR8 and looked back at Kirishima and Bakugo. Kirishima's legs and one of his arms was bruised purple, and they were absolutely broken too, but Bakugo was fine. "Kacchan, get Aizawa and Kirishima out of here! I'll hold off Nomu until All Might gets here!"

"C'mon, Midoriya! Even with the powerup, you're not on All Might's level! You have to run too!" Kirishima tried to sit up from his collapsed position, but he couldn't muster the strength. "Please!" Tears streamed down his face.

"No way, Deku! I'm not gonna run like some pansy!" Small explosions popped off in Bakugo's hand. "We're both gonna be kicking their asses, you shitty nerd!"

"Please, I'm the only one fast enough to-"

"NOMU!" Shigaraki's shout caught all of their attention. Izuku's head turned, and he saw Shigaraki pointing right at him. "Kill!"

Nomu charged at him, and time slowed for him once again. But this time was different. Izuku ran, moving past Nomu. He couldn't hurt the Nomu, not unless he immediately killed it, and even then, he didn't know if it would still regenerate from that. As soon as Izuku had gone past the Nomu, it stopped in its tracks.

Izuku ran until he was about a hundred feet away from the Nomu, who was looking around for him, and turned into Snare-Oh. He extended his fingers like long tendrils, wrapping around Nomu. He tried to turn around, but Izuku added more layers of wrapping, and then swung his arms up, pulling the villain up. The cocoon holding the villain went into the air, and Izuku swung his arms around to spin it before slamming him into the ground, letting go at the last possible moment.

But just before Nomu's head met concrete, Izuku saw a portal open up, swallowing him whole. Izuku looked around for where it went, and then he felt something massive slam into him from behind. Luckily, Snare-Oh wasn't really harmed by most things. He turned into Ampfibian and went intangible, letting Nomu pass through him before turning into Arcticguana and breathing a torrent of ice at him, freezing a big chunk of its back.

As Nomu turned around, Izuku transformed into XLR8 and sidestepped another charge from the villain before turning into Spidermonkey and spraying webs at his feet. Nomu tripped over, falling face-first into the concrete, which was a perfect opportunity to spray him with more webbing, trapping it in a cocoon. He took the chance to look around for any villains that would try to interfere, but he saw that most villains had given up. Bakugo had captured Kurogiri, and he also noticed someone jumping out of a nearby boat in the flood zone. Probably Asui.

As soon as he heard the sounds of tearing, he immediately turned back into XLR8 and ran behind a tree to turn into Grey Matter and climb it. As soon as he was out of view, the Nomu ran by as a black blur. Good, the Nomu didn't see him, that meant he was safe for now. He could hide and strategize.

Nomu's quirks were strength, regeneration, shock absorption, and having four arms. It was a simple combination, but disastrously effective. Though, one thing was off about Nomu. The way he acted. He was more like a beast than a man, and seemingly only moved when it was ordered to, as if it was an obedient animal. It made sense, a genetically engineered monster custom-made to kill All Might had to be obedient, or else it would inevitably turn on its creators.

"Let's see... if the brain is exposed, it's either an easily accessible kill switch, or Nomu is able to regenerate its brain without consequence. Considering the mindlessness, the latter seems more plausible..." Izuku began mumbling, tapping his tiny chin. Then, he heard rustling, and a massive black hand reached for him. Shit, this was Nomu!

Izuku turned into Heatblast, and let out a massive burst of fire immediately, launching off like a rocket. As soon as he began falling, he turned into Four Arms and landed down on the ground safely. But as soon as he landed, the Nomu was right in front of him, a mighty fist swinging at him. Moving faster than what he thought possible, Izuku grabbed Nomu's arm as it swung at him, and used the momentum of the strike against him, flipping Nomu over his shoulder and slamming them into the ground. Then he took the opportunity to kick it in the head.

He immediately regretted that, as his foot impacted brain, and it squished past the actual grey matter like it was butter. He pulled away, trying to scrape the stuff off of his foot by rubbing it on the floor. "Ew, ew, ew!"

While he was taking the brain goo off his foot, Nomu let out a pained roar, grabbing its head and getting up. Izuku looked at him, and saw that the hole his foot made was beginning to shrink. Shit, it could regenerate from that. How the hell could he take this thing down? If he burned it, it would probably regenerate. If he froze it into a statue, it would break out, or destroy itself and then regenerate. If he trapped it, the same thing would happen, it would just break out! He had to either stall until All Might got here, or disable it somehow!

Toshinori was tired. Not physically, he felt plenty awake. But he was tired of Nezu's lecturing about heroics and teaching. He understood his mistake a while ago, and he was still worried about Eraserhead and Thirteen. When he'd called their phones a while ago, they hadn't even gone to voice mail. It was odd, the only way that could happen was if they didn't have signal, or both of their phones were somehow shut down. As soon as Nezu had paused to pour some tea, he tried to sneak a text in, but it was pointless. Nezu saw.

"Oh? What are you doing on your phone, Toshinori?" Nezu's eye glinted, and Toshinori looked away guiltily. Nezu's mastery of the teacher voice made him feel like he was breaking rules.

"I'm sorry, I was attempting to contact Eraserhead. I attempted to call him before you showed up to lecture me, but it didn't get through at all. Not even to voice mail. I was just worried about them," he explained, bowing his head.

"Oh. That is worrying. I would advise you check on them." Nezu nodded. "I'll ask Majima if he can check on the USJ cameras, you make your way there immediately." He was waved off, and Toshinori bulked up. He was immediately on his way.

After a minute or two, he exited the building and began running, clearing miles very quickly until he saw someone running down the same path he was on. When he looked closer, he recognized his student, Iida! This was miles away from the USJ!

He rushed over immediately, stopping near the boy, who came to a halt as well. He looked panicked and exhausted. "YOUNG IIDA! WHY ARE YOU OUT HERE?"

"Villains!" Iida shouted at him, panting. "Villains are attacking the USJ! Thirteen is badly injured, and students are scattered all over the USJ! Please, All Might, you've got to help them!" he pleaded, tears running down his face. Toshinori's eyes widened, and his smile turned into a grimace. Villains had dared to attack his students?!

"DO NOT WORRY, YOUNG MAN. EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE." All Might gave him a pat on the shoulder. "BECAUSE I AM HERE."

Nomu rushed at Izuku once again, and he barely sidestepped it as Four Arms, before it came to an immediate halt and threw a punch at his face. Izuku turned into Arcticguana to duck under the blow, and breathed ice at it's chest. He looked up, seeing Nomu about to smash all four fists down on him, and jumped forward, turning into Grey Matter as the fists missed him entirely. He rolled forward as he landed, getting underneath the Nomu.

But unfortunately, he saw that, so Nomu raised a foot up, ready to stomp on him. Just as he did, Izuku turned into Upgrade, harmlessly turned into a puddle. He climbed up Nomu's leg, going up his body until he was on Nomu's back. Then he turned into Arcticguana, breathing even more ice on the villain's back. As soon as it began moving to try and grab him, he jumped off, landing a good distance away.

As Nomu turned around, Izuku saw that he was shivering. As he charged forward like a bull, Izuku turned into XLR8 to dodge, and noticed something. Either his perception was getting faster, or Nomu was getting slower. His eyes widened at the sight. If Nomu is slowing down, then... "Of course! He's made to fight All Might! Not Arcticguana! He's only impervious to punches!" Izuku couldn't help but grin. He had a chance! He could win this!

"NOMU! GET THE EXPLOSIVE BRAT! WE'RE LEAVING!" Shigaraki's scream immediately got his attention. He meant Bakugo. Izuku's head turned, and he saw Shigaraki standing in front of his friends, who still had Kurogiri captured. Asui and Mineta stood there too, and he saw the massive figure of Nomu barreling towards them.

Oh fuck, he was going to kill Bakugo! How was he gonna stop that?! Izuku ran forward, easily outpacing the Nomu. But even if he got to Bakugo first, what was he going to do? Block a blow and die?! Bakugo would still be dead seconds later! He had to stop Nomu before it got to his friends, but how?! As he got in front of the Nomu, watching it charge forward in slow motion, a thought popped up in his head.

It was shock-absorbant, but only for one kind of shock! He turned into Ampfibian, and as he felt time speed up, he instantly turned intangible and let out all the electricity he could. He felt something pass through him, and then the sound of something digging into the dirt. But no impact. No splash of blood. He turned around, and saw Nomu, still as a statue right in front of him.

For a few moments, the only sound was breathing. Then, the beast began to tip over. Slowly at first, but it rapidly tumbled, falling flat on its face. Looking over Nomu's body, he saw Bakugo huddled down, having let go of Kurogiri, and the terrified faces of his classmates.

He won.

"You motherFUCKER! You beat our damn tank before the raid boss even showed up! You piece of shit hero, you're just another brainwashed pawn!" Shigaraki pointed at him with a trembling finger, and the brief glance of angry red eyes between the fingers of the hand on his face.

Izuku grimaced, and turned into Four Arms, clenching his fists. He stepped over Nomu's body, looming over Shigaraki. "You don't deserve to even touch All Might, you piece of shit," he growled,

Then, there was a massive crash, and everyone looked over to see that the doors at the entrance had been launched off their hinges, and there stood a figure. As Izuku's four eyes focused on it, they all widened.

"FEAR NOT." It was All Might. "FOR I AM HERE." And he wasn't smiling. The few villains remaining tried to arrange an attack against him, but he passed by them in an instant, knocking each one out until he got to Izuku's group. "ARE YOU KIDS OKAY?"

Why was he asking a question when Shigaraki and Kurogiri were- Oh. They had disappeared while Izuku wasn't looking. Izuku let out a heavy sigh of relief, and looked around. "Kirishima and Aizawa are hurt, but I think most of us are fine!"

"Oh my god, All Might, I thought we were all gonna die, but we beat up the villains!" Mineta cheered, running up to All Might. "Midoriya was really bad-ass too! He took on that big guy with the four arms all by himself! It was insane, Midoriya transformed a bunch and took him out with some sort of big shock!"

"The boss villain escaped with his damn portal minion after Deku took out the guy they brought to kill you. We can handle Brittle Bones and the teach, you should go and get the others." Bakugo growled, seeming especially pissed.

All Might looked at each of them, and nodded. "ALRIGHT. YOU KIDS DID A FINE JOB TODAY." Before anything else could be said, he sped off, leaving a trail of dust behind him as he went through the zones of the USJ. Izuku watched him for a few seconds, and then smiled.

"We won."

Oh, really? 'We'? As if Deku wasn't the only one who actually fought. All Katsuki did was just capture that Kurogiri bastard and threaten people. He didn't fight like Deku did. He cowered when he heard that big fucker was coming for him! Why was he so scared when that shitty nerd was still able to fight?!

Katsuki took a good look at Deku, wondering, before realizing something. He didn't remember a whole lot about that four armed form, but he sure as hell knew that the guy didn't have green, circuit board-like markings all over two of his arms. But was he going to say anything? Hell no, he wanted to fucking go and get that dumbass Shithair to a hospital or something already and sleep for a month. He hoisted the idiot up, carrying him over the shoulders while Deku went and picked up Aizawa.

As he made his way back to the entrance, he was silent. He was the strongest, he was gonna be the number one, so why did he just let Deku fight that big fucker by himself?! He should've fought, while Deku protected Brittle Bones!

"Uh... Kacchan, are you okay? You're pretty quiet." Ugh, and the nerd was even giving him pity! It was even weirder because of that damn deep voice!

"Shut up, Deku!" Katsuki growled, glaring up at Deku. Okay, that definitely wasn't right. He knew the nerd's transformations all had green eyes, but this was different. It looked like his eyes were glowing! "I don't need your fucking pity. Just get Aizawa out of here." He sped up, trying to outpace Deku.

Then, a blur appeared in front of them for just a few moments before Katsuki felt the weight of Brittle Bones be taken away from him, and the blur moved up the stairs, taking Brittle Bones with him. Immediately, Katsuki was in battle mode, crouched down and hands open. "The hell was that?!"

"JUST ME, YOUNG BAKUGO! SORRY IF I SCARED YOU KIDS. LET'S GET YOU UP WITH THE REST OF YOUR CLASS!" All Might put a hand on his shoulder, and suddenly everything lurched forward until he was at the entrance with all the other extras in his class, even Frog Bitch, Sticky Pervert, and Deku. "YOUNG IIDA AND THE REST OF THE TEACHERS ARE ON THEIR WAY."

"A-All Might!" Deku called out to him. What the hell was he gonna say? Some fanboy shit? He was honestly surprised the nerd hadn't exploded the moment they knew All Might was a teacher. As All Might turned around, Deku went back to his normal body. About time.

"YES, YOUNG MIDORIYA?"

"The villain with four arms, the one we were near when you showed up, the boss said..." Katsuki looked closer, and saw the green markings were still on Deku's skin, and his eyes were still glowing. But then they flashed red for a second. "He... He said..." The markings went bright red before disappearing, and Deku's eyes closed as he collapsed.

"YOUNG MIDORIYA!" All Might caught him, and picked him up. "DID ANY OF YOU SEE HIM GET HURT?"

"No! He didn't get hit even once when he and Aizawa were fighting those villains! The only time he did was when a big guy punched him so hard he turned into a puddle, but he was fine after that, and he took that big guy out too!" The grape midget raised his hand, while Bakugo just looked at Deku, tuning them out.

What happened to him? Those markings, the glowing eyes, that sudden power... What caused that? He didn't notice the green markings until after the fight, so there was no telling when Deku got them. And he knew for a fact that Deku didn't have that power of changing at will, or else he wouldn't have been confused. Ugh, he hated not knowing shit!

Deku, his stupid watch, and his bullshit quirk were all mysteries, and they were mysteries he wanted to solve.