One for All (Part 17)

The group was silent as they watched Denki fall to the ground. Nobody moved. They just stared at Denki. The entire world fell silent. Then All for One chuckled. Kyoko turned towards him, rage taking control of her actions. Her jacks shot down into her boot speakers. "Speaker Destruction!" She pushed both of her speakers to the absolute maximum volume they could go, sending the soundwaves right at All for One. The villain was ready this time and fired a smaller shockwave towards Kyoko. The two attacks canceled each other out. Momo ran towards Denki, creating medical supplies as she went. "Iida! We need to get him out of here!" As Iida began to turn towards her, All for One fired another small shockwave. Kyoko sent another large scale attack his way. The attacks once again canceled each other out. Iida ran to Denki and Momo. He lifted up the blonde slightly while Momo wrapped freshly made bandages around Denki's gaping wound. Iida looked at her. "Will this save him?!" Momo looked at Iida in desperation. "We may as well be putting a band aid over a slit neck! He needs to get to a hospital if he has any chance of surviving this!" Iida picked the unconscious Denki up ever so carefully. "...come on, Denki… hang in there…" Iida stooped down and powered up his engines. "This will use up everything I have left! I won't be able to come back and help!" Momo nodded as she created yet another sword out of her arm. "We'll buy as much time as we can!" Iida gave her a final nod before looking forward. "Recipro Turbo: Final Sprint!" On top of now being able to use his Recipro Burst for ten minutes, he could put all of that power into a single sprint. The catch was that it used up all of his Recipro Turbo, so he wouldn't be able to run back and help his friend. The moment he started running, he vanished. The ground where he had been shattered a full second after he disappeared.

All for One looked off in the direction Iida had run. "I would normally doubt that boy's ability to survive, but All Might and I survived our injuries. Speaking of which…" All for One looked up at the helicopters flying above. He locked onto the one All Might was in. All Might tensed up as he shouted into his headset. "Pilot! He's targeting us!" All for One raised his hand up towards All Might. Before he could charge a shockwave, his arm became covered in acid. He ignored the pain and just made sure his regeneration could outpace the rate his skin was melting. He turned his head towards Mina, who was already creating a massive wall of acid. All for One raised his other hand towards her, preparing a shockwave. "Buzz off." Kirishima punched his arm, throwing the shockwave off course. The blast harmlessly destroyed several trees. All for One clenched his fist and smacked Kirishima away. He then raised his hand and caught a punch from Itsuka's massive fist. "You think you can defeat me when All Might couldn't? This is laughable." He lifted Itsuka up into the air and slammed her down into the ground. Itsuka let out a painful scream.

Jason and Shoto ran forward. All for One saw this coming and fired off several black energy tendrils from his fingertips. Shoto stooped down low and swung her right arm, creating a massive ice wall that blocked the attack. Shoto had also angled the ice wall in such a way so Jason could run up the top. She also began to charge up a fire attack: one of the hottest she could muster at that moment. Jason jumped off the ice wall. He let gravity pull him down towards All for One, getting ready to deliver a powerful downward kick. The villain looked up at Jason, ready to use his tendril attack. Then Shoto unleashed her attack. A beam of fire melted right through her own ice wall and struck All for One in the chest. His regeneration was barely able to keep up. Jason smirked as his kick connected with All for One's head. The attack did nothing more than add to All for One's rage. "Ah! Bloody pests!" All for One reached up to grab Jason, but Momo brought her sword down on the villain's arm. She was surprised when it didn't cut his arm right off. How could this man, regardless of strength, be more durable than a High End Nomu? She did manage to distract All for One long enough for Jason to avoid the grab and roll away. Itsuka and Kyoko ran forward. Mina was right behind them. All for One realized he was being surrounded. He had no choice but to charge up a powerful shockwave. This time, the group was too slow to react. "Begone!" All for One aimed his attack right at the ground, causing the shockwave to disperse and go in every direction. Itsuka, Kyoko, Mina, and Momo were all lifted up off the ground and slammed into the nearby trees. None of them got back up. Kirishima's hardened body meant he didn't receive too much damage when he got hit by the shockwave, but he banged his head against another tree, hard enough for the tree to go crashing down behind him. Jason jumped up towards his right, so the shockwave kept him on the path. Jason rolled to a stop. He tried to get back up, but then fell limp.

Shoto was the only one to stay upright, since she created a wall of ice behind her. She slid back down to her feet, taking deep breaths. She looked around. All of her friends were down. Not even her boyfriend was moving. Chris was trying to get back up, but wasn't able to thanks to his injuries. Shoto looked back at All for One, who had turned his attention to her. "And the daughter of Endeavor is the last one standing. How quaint." Shoto took a deep breath. She had no choice now. She had to do it.

Shoto once again sent a massive ice attack at All for One. The villain raised his arm. "If you could kindly stop resisting, I would appreciate it." His shockwave destroyed the ice attack, but then he was overtaken by more ice. Shoto was using both her hand and foot to send a constant stream of ice at All for One. The right half of her body was beginning to freeze, but she kept on going. She knew that All for One would easily shatter all of her attacks. She was counting on it. The shattered ice would make the air colder, which was what she wanted. All for One had stopped his normally sarcastic and condescending banter at this point as he sent continuous shockwaves at Shoto, just canceling her attacks. "This is embarrassing. Haven't you heard the definition of insanity?" He charged up a larger shockwave and completely destroyed everything in front of him. Shoto's ice had stopped now.

All for One suddenly felt a tiny bit of fear as he saw Shoto's left arm suddenly become consumed in fire. She smirked. "I knew my ice wouldn't stop you. Fire alone wouldn;t work either. Luckily, I've gotten used to using both. That ice was just the set up for my newest attack." She raised her left hand up, which suddenly became a bright orange. "Flashfreeze Heatwave." Shoto raised her heat's temperature up to the hottest she could make it, just short of it turning blue. The sudden increase in temperature met with the near below freezing temperature of the air thanks to her ice. The result was the rapid expansion of the air, creating a massive explosion that detonated directly in front of All for One. In a flash of white, All for One and Shoto were both thrown backwards. Shoto also landed in some trees, falling to the ground. She didn't get back up.

Chris forced his eyes open. He was still exactly where Jason and Iida had left him, leaning against a tree. None of his friends were moving. He could see Kirishima twitching, but was nowhere close to getting up. Then Chris heard a cough. It wasn't from one of his friends. Chris's eyes widened as he looked through the smoke and saw All for One holding his broken arm, but limping towards him. Chris's eyes lost what little fire he had left. He couldn't get back up, since his arms and legs were shattered. This pain was different. It's as if One for All refused to activate, so now he had to bear the pain all by himself. It was like he was quirkless again. Nobody could help him this time. All for One looked down at his left arm. It had broken when he tried to brace himself from the Flashfreeze Heatwave. He tried to regenerate it, but nothing happened. Chris noticed. "...his regeneration… it reached its limit…" All for One scowled underneath his breathing tubes. He continued limping towards Chris. Then he stopped. If he had eyes, he would be glaring. Chris was confused. Before he could figure out why, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Chris's eyes widened. "...no… get out of here…" Chris began to tear up. "...don't do this…"

Jason completely ignored him as he now stood between Chris and All for One, covered in blood and nearly exhausted, but fire burning within him. He glared at All for One with a confident smirk. "I can't stand down, Chris. I'm Endgame, remember? When all else fails, I won't."