Chapter 16

Katsuki staggered to his feet and grabbed Izuku's arms, his eyes wild. "Get to the Central Mall, the plaza with the fountain behind the building. That's the rendezvous. I've got to get dressed. Find hearing protection if you can." He turned to run, but Izuku stopped him.

"Kacchan, wait. The power's out, so no one without comm quirks is getting any communications. We need to coordinate."

"Right, I'll-"

"I'm faster," Izuku cut over him. "I'll go touch base with every sector's headquarters. What should I tell them?"

To his credit, Katsuki didn't pause to question him, instead launching into an explanation. "Extremely strong villain, codename Striker, is attacking the city. Her objective is to turn the city into a safe zone for a villain society, and she's been weakening our defensive abilities and disaster response for months. People should evacuate to past the city limits, and all heroes should avoid contact with her or her associates and focus on rescue and relocation." There was something deeply compelling about the way Katsuki snapped into Ground Zero mode.

"Anything else?"

Katsuki paused, his eyes locked on Izuku's. "Be careful, Deks. I wasn't joking about hearing protection." Katsuki wouldn't - his hero costume had included high-tech hearing protection since before graduation.

Izuku nodded shortly, and spent one more second looking at him. Then he surged forwards to kiss him, wrapping his arms around Katsuki's neck. Katsuki kissed him back, clutching at his back. One sweet moment before he pulled back, red eyes searching Izuku's.

"I meant it," he said. "Be careful."

"You too," Izuku whispered. He wanted to say something else, something more, but saying I love you sounded too much like goodbye . So he just said, "I'll be quick," and took off running.

He hated that he thought like this, but he had a chance here. New of their relationship had just gone public, and this was a great chance to draw the press's attention away from it. If he could successfully take down Striker, and that would be the headline. Not something idiotic about him being Katsuki's new squeeze. It had been so long since Izuku had had a real chance to prove himself, and he was itching for the chance.

He'd join up with the Striker taskforce and do a damn good job, so much so that no one could question his morals, priorities, or abilities as a hero.

Izuku was fast. With Full Cowling and adrenaline pumping through his veins, he made the rounds in record time. He also stopped any hero he saw in order to pass on Katsuki's message, despite hating every second that slowed him down. He'd even ended up having to rob a convenience store of a pair of earplugs, but he resolved to pay them back later.

Finally, Izuku could head to the rendevous point. He landed in the Central Mall Plaza so hard he left a crater, green lightning flickering out. His legs hummed with the aftershock of using Full Cowling for so long, but it wasn't anything he couldn't deal with, hadn't dealt with innumerable times before. He looked around, finally spotting a familiar head of blond hair. It was Kaminari, or rather Chargebolt, poking aggressively at what must be a comm unit. Izuku let out a small sigh of relief; he wasn't sure what he'd do it no one had been here. Panic a little. Worry about Katsuki? Go randomly hunting for Striker all over the city?

"Chargebolt!" Izuku shouted, jogging over. Kaminari was already staring at him, looking from his face then back to the crater Izuku had left behind, then back up again.

"Nice landing?" Kaminari's grin was a little doubtful. Izuku gave him a double thumbs up.

"Kacchan told me to come here," Izuku explain, and examined over the comm unit. It looked fine, albeit didn't seem to be working. With all the electrical damage running around, he wasn't really surprised. "I alerted every sector's headquarters of the situation."

"Right, Ground Zero would have explained…" Kaminari seemed to be playing mental catch up. "I'm here to direct any stragglers. Twice's clones aren't as powerful as the Striker herself, but they still need to be taken out."

"Sorry, Twice? Like League of Villains Twice?" Izuku was shrieking a little bit. That man was supposed to be in a secure mental health institution! Reports had said he'd been showing improvement, and a desire to reintegrate into society, of all things. Still, that would mean that Striker couldn't just create lightning over an entire city; she'd needed help. And somehow got Twice to help her?

"Striker's quirk is Ion Shift," Kaminari went on, apparently focused on more important information. "She teleports short distances, and wherever she appears, lightning strikes."

"What distance? How strong is the strike?" Just the name of that quirk birthed a million questions in Izuku's mind, but he needed to stay focused on combat stats.

"Furthest recorded distance is about 400 meters, but the strike strength varies. Stronger strikes take more build-up, and I can usually tell how bad it's going to be. I think she can teleport most places with minimal charge, but truly big strikes take a lot more time to start up. Damage today was minimal because her clones could only charge up so much, I think. They must have lower capacity than she does."

"So everyone's out after clones?" That would explain the empty meeting point. Izuku's mind was whirling with the complications of fighting someone who could not only electrocute on impact, but also teleport. Wasn't that overpowered? Izuku happily ignored the hypocrisy of the One for All user calling someone else overpowered.

"That's right. I'm the only one who can sense her charges building, but it's freaking unreliable from so far. I sent Ground Zero and Shouto after the strongest ones, so hopefully one of them will find her and take her out."

"Do you need me anywhere? Otherwise, I'm going out to help with rescue efforts," Izuku said, his tone a little too sharp. He could feel the pull of it now; the destruction had been catastrophic; he'd seen it first hand while alerting every hero he could find. His people needed help, and he was just standing around in an empty mall. He shifted from foot to foot, agitated beyond believe. There'd been no warning, no chance to evacuate. Sure, now people were being directed out of the city; the mall itself was already deserted. But the initial strike had destroyed so many buildings, and the weakened infrastructure had only made it worse. Izuku needed to help the people who still lived.

Kaminari was clearly deliberating, but they were interrupted by a brief flash of light and a deafening clap of thunder, rolling so loud it hurt despite Izuku's stolen earplugs. Blinking away the afterimages, he realized he'd fallen to his knees, clutching his head futilely. Kaminari was down too, draped over the comm equipment and holding his ears. And there, on top of a fountain, stood a woman that could only be Striker.

She was tall and thin, her silvery bodysuit showing off bones too large for her skin. Ignition-blue hair crackled upwards above her head, and her teeth were shark-sharp.

"Chargebolt," she purred, blue eyes trained on Kaminari's limp form. "Got any juice for me?"

"Screw," Kaminari huffed out, struggling to his feet. "You. Gonna take you out, once and for all."

"Striker," Izuku spoke up. "You're outnumbered. Surrender now, and avoid more damage."

To his surprise, both Kaminari and Striker laughed.

"She's batshit, Deku. She won't give in."

Striker grinned, lips stretching wide. "Who are you, little boy?"

In response, Izuku kicked up One For All, and clocked her in the face. The crunch of his fist on her face was satisfying, as was the way she flew backward, smashing into a sedan. Then Izuku's muscles locked up, the electricity in his limbs sharp and jittery. He looked up at her in shock. She was glaring right back, her cheek red and puffy. Blood dripped from her nose. Her mouth opened in a bloody snarl.

"Who the hell are you, huh? Green Sonic the Hedgehog? Goddamn Hero Association been hiding you away somewhere? Why don't you run along somewhere else, and let me get some alone time with my favorite battery pack?"

Izuku's hands finally stopped shaking. He clenched his fists, relishing having his body back under his control. So no direct hits, then. Ranged strikes it was, then. Not necessarily Izuku's forte, but he was more than comfortable with it. Without preamble, he flicked a torrent of wind her way, gripping his own forearm for support. Thunder cracked, and she was behind him, having avoided his strike completely. Izuku jerked away, turning to see a lightning-clad hand reaching for him.

"Sonic's quick, ain't he?" she laughed. "But I'm quicker." She flashed forwards another few feet, and Izuku jerked back just in time.

"Why are you doing this?" Izuku snapped. "These people don't deserve to be hurt! You have no reason to hurt them!"

"Oh, sure," she waved a hand, static sparks popping at each movement. "And I deserved to be hurt, didn't I? The story's always the same, Sonic. A prospective hero goes bad, corrupting influences, et cetera. Who cares?"

"I care," Izuku ground out, because it was true. She blinked at him, then teleported a good ten meters further away. The flash of light was softer than her initial entrance, so Kaminari had to be right about the distance. It remained to be seen if she could control the strength without distance, but…

"Damn, you mean that don't you?" She shouted. "You actually care? Pathetic."

"He always does," Kaminari grumbled. He'd regained his feet, falling into a fighting stance.

"Well then, here's the real truth. Nothing corrupted me. Or you could say that everything corrupted me. Explain to me why I should be a hero these days? Society is crumbling, Sonic. Heroes are commodities, reality shows to bottle feed a population that doesn't realize we are dissolving into horrifying chaos. You call us villains, but we are the only ones really living. The laws are all too late, Sonic the Hedgehog. You understand that the ruling class just makes everything up to oppress us, right? That people don't matter if they don't turn a profit? We are animals! We are born animals, and only get further away from humanity every generation!"

"She's nuts," Izuku breathed.

"I'm taking this city, and I'm going to show the world that your laws, your rules are just muzzles on what humanity is meant to be. We were born to live in chaos, and I'm going to return us to our proper state."

"Yeah, that's the speech," Kaminari sighed. Izuku couldn't help the smile pulling at his lips. Apparently this wasn't her first time monologing?

"You'll thank me later," Striker screamed at them, then vanished. Then reappeared between them, hands diverting glittering arcs of energy towards each of them. Izuku barely dodged, relying on instinct only to jerk backward just in time. His skin was starting to hurt from the heat. Kaminari took the lightning to the chest, the energy passing through his body to uselessly putter out on the ground.

"You know that doesn't work on me," Kaminari said, cracking his knuckles.

"You gotta take her out," Izuku breathed. "You're the only one who can touch her."

"I know," he growled. But that was the problem, wasn't it? Because by the time he reached her, she'd long since flashed away. Kaminari didn't have Izuku's speed and maneuverability, no matter how much his combat had improved since UA. Even worse, each shift generated a blinding amount of light, and Izuku suddenly appreciated the usefulness of Kaminari's tinted glasses.

"I'll distract her, and then we'll wear her down together," Izuku told him grimly, throwing another gust of wind her way. They were in for a long fight.

Kaminari gave him a grim nod. It had come down to them, and they wouldn't fail their city.

Ground Zero was on his ninth clone, and shit was getting old. The pattern was familiar now, yet still exhausting. He'd slam a mid-range explosion towards Striker, and then she'd mouth off with something stupid like, "I'm having a bomb time!" while shifting near-instantaneously away from his attack.

Then he'd chase her from that location too. He'd notice the pattern early on: she rarely shifted back to the same place. Maybe Deku could figure out why, but Katsuki was just concerned with the what. Because by the fifth or so shift, he'd be able to guess where she turned up. It was instinctive, a feeling born both out of years of combat and also weeks of tracking this bitch. He'd always been an instinctual fighter, and it made him damn near godly now.

This time, he targeted the corner with the stop sign. Timing was essential, and so as he threw an explosion at Striker, he simultaneously blasted himself towards the sign, catching her in her stupid, smiling face with a full-force explosion, heat blossoming around his palm. Perfection.

The clone melted into mud.

"Fuck!" he shouted. The real Striker was faster, wilier, and wouldn't fall to the same strategy nine times in a row, so of course this was another clone. Still, the disappointment was still bitter. Katsuki viciously spat on the mud, then decided it was time to check in with Kaminari. As much as he didn't want Todoroki to steal the spotlight, he hoped that Todoroki had already taken out the real Striker. The alternatives were worse.

He gritted his teeth and blasted off. He'd been fighting for nearly forty-five minutes straight, not to mention jetting over the whole goddamn city. He was a one-hit-wonder kind of hero; he liked to keep his fights hard and fast. He could have endurance when he wanted to, damn it, but even he had limits. Forty-five minutes of continuous quirk usage was pushing it. His forearms burned, and fiery pain lanced through his bones as he soared into the skyline. It didn't matter. Ground Zero had places to be, even if it felt like he was plunging his arms into boiling water to get there.

And no matter how painful it was in the moment, flying was always a trip. He hit the zenith of his arc, hanging for one weightless moment, taking in the city. Destruction was rampant, little blips of emergency vehicle lights fluttering between buildings. Smoke rose from countless areas, and the air stank of ozone.

Katsuki let himself fall, using explosions only to aim himself at the Central Mall. In a matter of seconds, he was close enough to see the tell-tale flashes of light. He instinctively knew it was the real Striker, and redoubled his speed. His vision blurred, wind tearing at his face, until he broke his momentum with an explosion and rolled to a stop on the concrete. Shit, he was going to feel that tomorrow.

And then there was Striker's grating-ass, high-pitched, piece-of-shit voice. "Aw, he found us!"

"Bitch," he stood with a snarl, taking in the scene. Kaminari was there, and… a wall imploded from a gust of wind. At the other end of the gust stood Deku, looking pissed, hand outstretched. Fucking hot as hell. Katsuki's heart lifted in a stupid, light way. He raised a hand and waved, feeling like an idiot. Wasn't he supposed to be pissed at Striker? Yet all he felt was pride at seeing Deku take her on, the intensity of his focus, the way he'd immediately adapted to fight her despite never having heard of her before that morning. Fucking awesome.

"Sup, nerd," he grinned, unable to help himself. Deku blinked, his concentration momentarily broken as he stared at Katsuki.

"All clones?" Deku asked, getting right down to business; clearly Kaminari had updated him on the situation.

"That's the real one," Katsuki said, pointing at Striker. He didn't like the calculating look in her eyes. "We still haven't found Twice."

"Where's the pretty red-and-white one?" she asked. "I'd like to take you all out at once, you know."

"Cocky piece of shit," Katsuki snapped, tossing an explosion her way. He was at a slight disadvantage here, not knowing where she'd already shifted to… but Deku would know. He blasted himself across the pavement towards Deku, the tips of his boots sparking on the ground. Deku caught his arm, swinging him around to kill his momentum, somehow knowing exactly what Katsuki wanted of him. Amazing. His boyfriend was amazing. Katsuki landed with a thump at his side, and ignored the twin stares from Striker and Kaminari. They were just jealous of their synergy. Katuski graced Deku with his best cocky grin.

"Kacchan," Deku said, his cold expression warming slightly. Katsuki would have to talk to him about using hero names on the battlefield… but maybe not. There was something badass about being called 'Kacchan' before exploding a building, wasn't there? And if there wasn't, he would make it badass. Shit, he was a professional. He wasn't here to daydream about exploding things in front of Deku.

"She avoids shifting to the same place more than once," he muttered to Deku, not wanting Stiker to know they knew. They'd need any advantage they could get. Deku's eyes lit up, verdant green with understanding.

"Fountain. Blue sedan. Every corner already, and the comm unit. 2, 7 and 9 o'clock on the roof. The red fire hydrant, and most places around the fountain's base." It took Katsuki a moment to realize Deku was rattling off every place she'd shifted to. He'd never wanted to kiss anyone more than in that moment. Who knew battle tactics was such a turn on?

"Fucking fantastic, Deks," he said, instead. "We're gonna have to wear her down. You want to strike or predict?"

"Strike," Deku said, probably guessing Katsuki had more experience at prediction. And he wasted no time, dropping into a combat stance and flicking more high-pressured air towards her. Katsuki blasted towards a likely patch of concrete, only to be off by about a meter.

"Oh, I don't like that," Striker said, flexing. "Why don't you slow down?" She dropped to the ground-no, teleported in place to a crouching position, and let out a net of electricity, crackling over the ground. Katsuki was in the air instantaneously, but he needn't have bothered. Kaminari had copied her stance, and the power fizzled out. The stink of burning things was starting to fill the roundabout.

They didn't slow down. Rather, Izuku sped up, his strikes sometimes so quick that Katsuki had trouble dodging them on his way to Striker. Kaminari's Quick had little effect on Striker, except to mitigate the electrical charges she left over everything, and thank god for that.

They kept at it for so long that when Katsuki actually landed a hit, it fucking shocked him, figuratively and literally. He caught her with an explosive fist to her bony chest, slamming her down onto the concrete. He could see the fire of his explosions reflected in her glassy eyes. He was so shocked he'd actually hit her that he paused for one, critical moment.

"Gotcha," she croaked, blood dribbling from her lip. Then pain stabbed through Katsuki, like a thousand needles in his arms. He stumbled away from her, screaming. He scrambled away from her, nearly out of his mind. His body twitched mindlessly, making it impossible to regain his footing. He didn't have to, though, because Deku was there. He threw an uppercut so hard the electric bitch flew straight up in the air.

Deku turned to him, fear in his eyes. Katsuki thought distantly about how strangely uniform his freckles were. "Kacchan," Deku said, his voice sounding choked. Then his face was thrown into sharp relief, as that horrible flash of light hit again. Katsuki rolled over on the ground to see Striker teleport herself out of the air and onto the ground. She fumbled the landing, falling to her knees.

"You okay?" Deku insisted. What a perfect goddamn rescue hero, always making sure everyone was fine. Katsuki just wanted to beat that power-tripping asshole into the pavement, but he needed to wait out the shock's aftereffects first. He ignored Deku's concerned look in favor of staring at his hands. They were shaking, but responded when he tried to move them. Relief rushed through him, easing the tightness in his chest. Despite the way his bracers were cracked and partially melted, his hands seemed to be fine; apparently, his gear had taken the brunt of the attack. With a grimace, he stripped the bracers off, silently thanking them for their service. Katsuki was nothing without his hands, he knew that very well. Quirkless Katsuki was just a useless asshole. Even Deku wouldn't want him then.

"Fucking fabulous," Katsuki grunted, and pulled himself to his feet. He was going to knock this asshole right the fuck out. He staggered towards Striker, death in his eyes.

"That's right," Striker croaked, one hand clutching her jaw. "Come closer."

Katsuki froze. "Not here for your games," he growled, and raised a hand. He really didn't want to start fighting without bracers, and if he did, he needed to finish it fast.

"Ground Zero!" Kaminari's panicked shout stopped him dead. The words ripped from his throat, harsher than he'd ever hear him sound. "Get out of there! She's set up something big! I don't know how-"

"No spoilers!" Striker shouted back, getting to her feet. Both her arms stretched up to the sky, and Katsuki could practically see the tension in the air above them. Katsuki met Deku's eyes.

"Out!" Kaminari screamed. They turned and ran.

Striker struck. It wasn't like her little electricky teleports. No, whatever she'd done brought down a hellish plume of lighting, large enough it branched over the entire plaza. Large enough that it hit Deku in the back, branching around his limp body as it fell to the floor. And suddenly Deku was all Katsuki could see, not the roar of thunder that shook his bones, not the cracking of asphalt, not the shrieking laughter of Striker. Just Deku, prone on the ground.

It felt like he had died. It didn't feel like a survivable kind of thing, except that Katsuki was still breathing which was wrong when he could see Deku's limp body draped over the curb. Denial. That's what he needed. Izuku was fine. FINE. Because if he wasn't, Katsuki was going to lose his shit and he couldn't win like that. And he need to win.

He was going to win. He'd managed to turn around, but froze. Nothing outside of their immediate radius had been destroyed. At the center of it all stood Kaminari Denki, smoking slightly. The fucker had absorbed the blast enough to stop her from straight up incinerating Katsuki and Deku. Then, before Katsuki's eyes, he collapsed. Katsuki's heart climbed into his throat as he stared at Kaminari's body, crumpled on the ground. The man was a damn good hero. Still, that just left Katsuki to deal with Striker.

Speaking of the devil, Striker had fallen to her knees. Apparently she didn't have many blasts like that left. Fine. Katsuki didn't have that much firepower left either, but he was damn well going to give her everything he ad. He stormed towards her, palms crackling in anticipation.

"You're finished, sparkles," Katsuki snarled.

"You're cuter when you don't talk," she coughed, spitting blood on to the ground. She backed away slowly, and something about that was deeply disconcerting. Katsuki was sure he'd never actually seen her walk before. She did it strangely, in an almost reptilian fashion, as if using her quirk so much had eroded her ability to backtrack like a normal fucking person. Katsuki shook the thought away, ignoring the ringing in his ears the movement generated.

"And you're dead, regardless of how much you run your mouth," Katsuki snapped, stalking forward. He didn't want to waste his strength on a gap-closing explosion, so he kicked into a sprint. Just as he was about to slap her with an explosive palm, she shifted away, maybe ten feet back. Katsuki blinked the light from his eyes. So it was going to be like that, then. She couldn't seem to go far, though, because whatever she'd done to Denki had taken too much out of her. He caught up fairly easily, grabbing the back of her neck and forcing her to the ground.

"One move and I explode your fucking vertebrae, got it?" He needed to subdue her, not kill her. That's what heroes did, and he was a damn hero.

"Mmm, rude. You're going to let me go, nice and easy." She didn't sound nearly afraid enough.

"The fuck you think-"

"Or I'll zap your cute lil hedgehog so his heart really stops beating."

Katsuki stopped dead. "Fucker, I really will kill you. Don't think you can goddamn move an inch-"

Striker turned her head to looked up at him, apparently unaffected by the grind of pavement on her pale face. Her voice was hoarse as she said, "Let me leave, and he keeps running around all cute and stuff."

"We don't negotiate with terrorists," Katsuki ground out. Izuku wouldn't want him to give in, and even if he did let her go, there was no guarantee she wouldn't zap Izuku anyway. Grinding his teeth, he reached for Quirk-nullifying handcuffs.

He'd spend countless hours later wondering why he hadn't just knocked her out, but the answer was simple. Quirk-nullifying cuffs were procedure, and had been drilled into him over countless hours of training, utilized in countless fights against villains. But as he reached for the cuffs, she twitched, one shiny eye visible against the pitted concrete.

"Wrong answer," she spat, and vanished. Katsuki watched her reappear over Izuku with a flash of light and a foot on his back. His limp body jerked at the bolt, then collapsed. Katsuki saw red.

He didn't even feel the pain crackling up his arms as his palms lit up. He was on her in an instant, but she vanished just in time. She reappeared halfway down the entryway to the plaza, stumbling out of her shift, little sparks of electricity arcing from her legs to the pavement. Katsuki was after her like a comet. Inevitable, burning, apocalyptic. His world had ended, and he was going to end her's too.

He'd caught up to her a couple of blocks away, and threw himself into the fight. She was too exhausted to shift far enough to escape, but not too tired to dodge his every fucking blow. It was hell, and he was tiring quickly. The pins-and-needles feeling in his muscles hadn't left entirely, and the sinkhole of worry for Izuku was dragging at his focus. Why had that idiot needed to get hit by lightning?

It all came to a head when Striker landed a hit on him. Instead of running, she'd flashed behind him, tagging him in the back. The shock was small compared to the others he'd endured, but he still stumbled.

"Bitch, you're making this hard," Striker snapped. "It doesn't gotta be like this."

Katsuki dragged himself to his feet, and point-blank dropped an explosion at her chest. She was gone before the smoke cleared. He wasn't going to win like this, he realized.

"You'll never catch me!" She shouted. The words echoed in Katsuki's empty chest. She was right. He couldn't catch her, not with her infuriating ability to teleport away.

But maybe he didn't have to catch her. He attacked one more time, just to judge the distance she was able to run. It looked like half a block was her limit. Good thing the Striker taskforce had evacuated this area after meeting in the plaza, because Katsuki was about to go nuclear.

Arms trembling, he blasted off, gaining height at a breakneck pace. He could see Striker far below him, attempting to run like the cockroach she was. Well, she could wave her little insect life goodbye. He let himself fall, effortlessly throwing himself into a spiral. From this height, the Howitzer Impact would obliterate everything in a good two-block radius. Far enough away from the mall to avoid the fallen heroes, but still safely within the evacuated zone.

He'd done this too many times to get dizzy, but he'd only used explosions this large once or twice before. The strain was blurring his vision, stealing his breath as his rotation pulled oxygen from his long. The ground flew up to meet him. How was he going to land? Didn't matter. He could see Striker's terrified expression as she tried to blink away, only making it about half a block from Katsuki's point of impact. Not far enough.

"You won't catch me!" She was shouting, but fear tinged her words. Katsuki was screaming something, god knew what, and then he released his explosion seconds before hitting the ground. The world turned yellow-white, and the recoil violently threw Katsuki back into the air. He flipped over and over, completely unable to control his spin. His arms weren't working, but the pain was a distant afterthought as explosions ripped apart the very street she'd stood on. The ground disintegrated in the blast, carving a crater deep enough that Katsuki found himself in free-fall when he should have been hitting the pavement. He managed to keep consciousness long enough to see Striker's body melt in flames. Then his world went black.