Despair (Part 3)

Jason ducked as the massive villain swung his right arm. The force of the attack shattered the rock wall behind the young hero. Jason stood upright and punched the villain as hard as he could. Not even a budge. Jason released a flurry of targeted punches against the villain's torso. The villain was unphased as he raised both his fists into the air, both arms exploding as his muscles expanded to make himself stronger. Jason dove between his legs as his arms crashed down into the mountain. This was the opportunity. Jason spun around and slammed his foot into the back of the villain's knee. That caused him to drop, which meant Jason could jump and land another kick into the side of his head. The villain fell, but only for a second. He stood back up and turned to the fledgling hero, still smiling with that sadistic smile. "I love it when the prey puts up a fight." Jason took a step back, swearing to himself. "...You know… maybe we should just take a step back, introduce ourselves, and settle this peacefully…" The villain laughed. "Alright. My name is Muscular. I'm going to kill you know." Muscular charged once more.

Kirishima was no longer paying attention to his remedial classes. None of the six failure students were. Not even the teachers. They were all looking out the window as the smoke from the forest fire covered their view of the sky. Mina turned to the teachers. "What do we do?" Aizawa turned to her. "I'll go contact the Park Rangers. The Pussycats can handle the students that are out there." Vlad King turned towards the door, as if he heard something. Aizawa continued talking. "But we need to remain calm under pressure. That will-" Vlad King jumped out of the way as blue flames completely disintegrated the door and where the teacher had once stood. Everyone ducked down until the flames stopped. A man in a black trench coat stepped through the incinerated doorway. Kirishima looked up and froze. The man's skin was almost completely burned away, possibly from his own quirk. He indeed had skin covering the top half of his face and his hands, but it appeared to be stapled on. The man looked over the room. "I see you heroes are doing what you do best: hiding and waiting for someone else to show up and save you all." He raised his hand, which became consumed by fire. "Too bad you won't be around long enough for that help to arrive." Vlad King slammed his fist into the young man, which threw him into the wall. The man fell to the ground. Vlad King picked up the broken man. "You started that fire, didn't you?! Why are you doing this?!" The man weakly looked at him. "I started the fire as a diversion. In fact, I'm still fueling the fire. You'll catch on eventually. As for why… well…" Both of his hands became consumed by flames. "It's because we want to watch all of you heroes burn for your sins." His flames disappeared before he could kill the teacher. Aizawa had used his quirk to stop the flames. The man smiled. "Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. You'll see me again soon." The man turned to dust. Everyone was shocked. Vlad King looked over at his fellow teacher. "Did he have two quirks?!" Aizawa shook his head. "Even if he did, he wouldn't be able to use them when I was locked onto him like that. No, the fire was his quirk. This vanishing act was someone else's quirk at work." Mina turned to her instructor. "Mr. Aizawa, he said 'We want to watch you heroes burn'. What does he mean by 'we'?" Both teachers faced each other, realizing the now obvious fact. Vlad king swore. "There's more out there!" Aizawa nodded. "They're after the students." Kirishima turned and tried making a break for the door. Aizawa caught him by the arm. "Where do you think you're going?!" "My friends are out there! I have to help them!" Aizawa turned the redhead to face him. "If you run out there to fight, the law will think you helped start all of this mess! You need to stay here! If you want to help, you can help by staying here to protect your fellow students already here!" Kirishima broke free of Aizawa's grip. "...Yes sir." He went back to the window as Aizawa ran outside. The young hero looked outside, Mina next to him. Kirishima whispered to himself. "Be careful out there, guys."

Jason was now completely on the defensive, only narrowly avoiding Musclular's attacks. The crazed man was laughing as he continued swinging at the young hero. "That's it! Keep running! It'll make smashing you all the more satisfying!" Jason got hit, but managed to roll with the impact, lessening his pain and keeping himself on his feet. Muscular halted his attack. "I can see why the boss wants you dead. I'm glad you're not the one we need to take alive." Jason tensed up. "...What do you mean?" The villain kept no secrets. "I don't know. Some girl with a burn on her eye. White and red hair. We're supposed to be taking her alive or some shit like that." Jason thought to himself, trying to figure out why these villains would want to kidnap Shoto. Muscular shrugged. "I really don't care though. I'm just glad I get to smash you kids." Muscular's muscles began to tear once again as he made himself even stronger. Jason swore. He couldn't beat this guy. Not to mention Kota was still nearby. One wrong move could mean the child's death. Jason swallowed his pride and spoke quietly.

Chris and Iida were running through the forest at top speed, trying to make their way back to the group. The fire was spreading all around them, the blue flames almost engulfing them on more than one occasion. However, even over the roar of the fire, Chris could hear his friend calling for help. "Chris, it's Jason. I hope you can hear me. I'm on top of the mountain with this villain. He's too strong for me. I need you up here now." Chris stopped, turned, and started running to the mountain. Iida stopped. "Where are you going?!" Chris shouted over his shoulder. "Go on without me! I'm going to go help Jason!" Iida was still confused, but kept on running back to the main group. Chris was now sprinting with 7% of One for All, trying to get to the mountain. Jason never asked for help. If he was asking for help, then the situation was deteriorating at a rapid pace. Chris leaped through the air, trying to see the battle. He couldn't see much during the first few leaps, but by the fifth jump he could see a giant of a man swinging his arms around, as if trying to swat a fly. Jason was indeed holding his own. Then Chris saw the main problem: Kota was nearby. Jason was more worried about the kid getting hurt. Chris landed on the mountain and charged the villain, One for All coursing through his arm. "Detroit…" Jason dove to the side as a very confused Muscular turned around to face the screaming. Chris's fist slammed into Muscular's face. "...Smash!" Muscular was sent flying off of the mountain. Jason stood back up. "I see you got my message." Chris nodded. "What the hell is going on?" "A group of villains are trying to capture Shoto." "Wait, there's more than one?!" Muscular was suddenly in the air and landed back on the mountain with a thunderous crash, laughing like the crazed maniac he was. "Chris, right? You were also on the list of guys we should kill." Chris dropped down to a combat stance. "Is this guy for real?! He took that punch like it was nothing?!" Jason nodded. "He's insanely strong. Not to mention he's out for blood." Chris took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright. I got this." Jason smirked and turned around. "Then I leave this to you. Kota, we're leaving." He picked up the child and gave one last nod to his friend. "Kick his ass." Jason started running. Kota looked up at him. "Why are you leaving him?! You should be helping him!" Jason was still smiling, knowing full well that Chris could hear him. "Relax, kid. He's the strongest one of us all." Chris took a deep breath and smiled as he confronted Muscular. "Alright big tall and ugly. Let's dance."

Momo was sprinting through the forest. She had been using her quirk to create gas masks for all of the students she had come across. Turns out it had been a villain's quirk. Class 1B, led by Itsuka, managed to subdue him. However, Momo had bigger problems to deal with now. It wasn't the fact she had gotten separated from Hagakure. No, it wasn't the fire consuming the forest around her. Her biggest concern was the Nomu chasing her down. It was much like the one that had attacked them at the USJ, but this one had no bird-like beak and had multiple chainsaws protruding out of it. Momo dove behind a tree and hid. She wasn't as strong as Chris, she wasn't as powerful as Shoto, and she wasn't as skilled as Jason. All she could do was try and keep this thing away from the rest of the group. She counted her lucky stars since the Nomu wasn't moving very quickly. It was moving slow enough where she could easily outrun it. She peeked out and saw that the Nomu had stopped walking her way. As if it had heard something, the Nomu turned around and began walking in the opposite direction. It was walking towards two men strolling through the forest together. One had severe burns all over his body and stapled on skin. The other was dressed in a black bodysuit and mask with a white accent over it. The Nomu was following them now. The guy in black spoke. "Mission failure boss! We did a great job!" The burned man spoke. "Yes we did, Twice. Now come on. Once Moonfish captures the girl, we can get out of here. I don't want to be left behind because we weren't at the extraction zone on time." "Yes sir. Fuck you, Dabi!" The man in black seemed to have two split personalities: one that spoke the truth and one that spoke the opposite of what he meant to say. Momo suddenly realized that these villains were after one of the students and were about to get away. She held out her arm, creating a tracking device. Her quirk let her create anything as long as it was a certain size and she understood it's molecular structure. She took the tracking device and snuck up on the Nomu. She only had one chance at this. She quickly stuck it to the back of the Nomu and ran away. The villains didn't seem to notice. The Nomu finally caught up to them and the three of them began walking away. Momo breathed a sigh of relief. When the pro heroes arrive, they'll hopefully be able to track the villains to their hideout. Now all Momo had to do was lay low until help arrived.

"One for All, Full Cowling: 8%!" Chris released a barrage of powerful blows. Muscular simply put his guard up and laughed as the punches harmlessly hit him. "You call those punches?! At least the other guy knew how to hit where it hurts!" Muscular grabbed Chris, raised him into the air, and slammed him back down. Chris ignored the pain as he broke away from Muscular, then had to immediately jump away in order to avoid a fatal blow. Chris landed a little bit away, catching his breath. Muscular stood up straight, smiling menacingly at the hero in training. Chris couldn't win this fight with brute force alone. He couldn't outlast him in a war of attrition either. Even if he wanted to run, Muscular was faster. Chris swore, realizing that there weren't many options available. He had to end this with a single attack. One strike to end it all. One for All began coursing through his arm. "One for All… 15%..." Muscular charged forward. "Come here!" Chris jumped to the left, landing on the mountain wall, then jumped at Muscular from the side. The villain was no longer smiling. Chris landed a powerful punch directly to the villain's head. "...Detroit Smash!" Muscular threw his weight into the punch at the last second, trying to take it full force. It only worked against him. Muscular fell to his knees before falling face first onto the ground. Chris landed, trying his best to catch his breath. He smiled, holding his arm. It was the first time he had ever used 15% of his power. His arm felt like it was burning up, but at least it was intact. And he had won. Chris slowly began to limp away. He had to find the others. The fighting was far from over.

A gigantic hand wrapped around Chris's head, and then slammed him face first into the ground, destroying the rock beneath him. Muscular smiled as he grabbed the fledgling hero's leg and spun him around, slamming him into the mountain again. Chris felt all of the air leave his lungs as the wind was knocked out of him. Muscular brought his fist down on Chris's chest. The student heard and felt his ribs crack. Muscular laughed, standing over the broken student. "That was the best you could do?! Impressive! Really impressive! I'm really glad I got to fight you!" Muscular raised his foot up, his leg muscles exploding, tearing through his pants. Chris managed to move just in time. The resulting slam created a shockwave, tossing Chris off to the side. Chris struggled to stand up. Muscular's muscles were exploding as newer, bigger ones formed. "You made me happy, kid! Now I want to actually kill you!" Muscular was now almost twice as big as he was earlier. "We were just playing before! But now I get to go all out!" Muscular charged forward. "Come on! Let's fight seriously!"

Jason ran into Aizawa in the forest. "Mr. Aizawa!" The teacher stopped. "Jason?! Why are you all the way out here?!" Jason handed Kota off to him. "Long story. Short version: we're under attack by villains." The teacher nodded. "One attacked us at the cabin. Ragdoll is missing too." Jason swore, but continued his unofficial report. "I ran into one up on the mountain trying to save Kota. Chris is dealing with him right now, but he said they're here for Shoto." "And where is she?" "No idea. I'm going to go find her though." "No you're not. You're taking Kota back to the Cabin." Jason turned and ran. "Not happening!" Aizawa sighed. "Jason!" The student stopped and turned to his teacher. "Be careful, Jason." Jason nodded and kept running.

Chris was thrown around like a stuffed animal, unable to keep up with Muscular's speed and strength. The villain laughed as he easily slammed Chris against the face of the mountain. "Come on! Fight me seriously!" Chris was thrown back onto the path. Muscular sighed as he approached Chris, his muscles ripping through the old ones. "I thought you would be tougher. Oh well. I suppose I have to get back to work now." Chris struggled to his feet. Nobody was coming to help him. Nobody could help him anyways. He was the only one who had a chance at defeating Muscular. One for All coursed through his arm. Muscular smiled again. "That's it! One last stand against me! This is how it should be!" Chris raised his arm up. "...One for All… 100%..." Muscular powered himself up to the max. "Show me what you can do!" Muscular threw a powerful punch. Chris reacted in kind. "...Detroit Smash!" Their punches collided. Even with 100% of One for All, Chris never had a chance. The ground he was standing on shattered as Muscular put more power into the punch. "Is that all the strength you can muster?! Come on!" Chris's legs gave out as Muscular kept up the pressure. One for All slowly left his body. "...Sorry mom… Sorry Momo… I failed… I failed you both…" Muscular laughed as he continued pressing forward. "What a weak display of power! As soon as I'm done with you, I'll kill the next guy I find. And the next one! I'll keep killing until I find that coward Jason. Then I'll finish what I started!"

Muscular suddenly felt Chris start pushing back. One for All surged through him. Chris's eyes were bright green, matching the green electricity sparking around his body. "...No…" Muscular tried to keep Chris down, but to no avail. "...Jason is braver than anyone… A better man than I will ever hope to be…" Chris was now on a knee. "...I won't let you…" Muscular was panicking now. "Where is this strength coming from?!" Chris rose up. "...He is closer to me than anyone else… More than just my best friend… He's my brother…" Chris took a step forward, all of his power focused into his one arm, now easily pushing back Muscular. "...I won't… Let you…" Chris screamed as he looked up at the terrified villain. "...Hurt my brother…!" One for All powered through him, growing like a raging fire within him. "One for All… 1,000,000%... Detroit Smash!" With a single punch, Chris smashed through Muscular's arms and slammed into his face. Muscular crashed into the mountain, creating a brand new tunnel in the cliff face. Chris fell to a knee, gasping for air. He had done it.