MosesArk Reborn2000
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Chapter 29: Ice and Fire
🕑 Added 2024-07-10 15:10:03 +0000 UTC(Previously)
“Todoroki? But how?” Uraraka couldn't help but ask; meanwhile, Pyre and Mummy frowned at another U.A. student interrupting their night.
Freezing the bandages that restrained her from smashing them, Todoroki explained. "The old man decided to come here to hunt for Stain. But I had my own suspicions about why Iida had decided to come here and went to look for him." His glare heated up when he looked at the two, both in a much better condition than Uraraka was, whose state reminded him of how she looked during their fight.
"Then I found their handiwork and followed them and the noise here." Todoroki knew burns; he saw one every time he looked in the mirror. But those poor heroes, they looked much worse than he did. Beaten till they couldn't even stand, with the reason for that standing before him. Looking as inhumanly as he thought it seemed, his clothes wished to leave him, fluttering despite there being no wind, just the updraft from the fires here and there.
On the other hand, Pyre showed a smile lit up by the emerald flames that danced around him, flames that seemed to take offense to Todoroki's very presence, to the different fire he brought, to the ice he conjured. He had been more than a little miffed with how the fool denied his fire the chance to shine during the festival. He hadn't even been the one to defeat him at the USI; that honor had gone to Slice.
But it would seem tonight, he'll have his shot against him. "Those heroes put up a good fight but fell to the flames like everything else." He crouched, his body temperature rising along with his anticipation for the coming fight. Todoroki matched his readiness as he could recognize the look in Pyre's eyes; it was the same as Bakugo's when he had already decided to battle.
"Mummy, you can handle Uraraka. Todoroki's mine." Koharu leaned forward with him, the two not waiting for a response as Pyre jumped into the air and let loose a wave of fire toward the two.
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Todoroki reacted quickly to the attack, launching a spike of ice towards Pyre and his fireball. The spike met the flames midway, and while his ice melted, there was still plenty more where that came from. Pyre didn't seem surprised by this. Rather, he landed on the melted tip of the ice and, in a moment, locked eyes with Todoroki, letting the boy see the joy in his gaze, the smile that graced his face, and how his emerald orbs glowed by charcoal.
In the next moment, Pyre launched himself at Todoroki, catching him with a kick to the gut that bent him like a folding chair, knocking the breath from his chest and sending him flying away from Uraraka, who cried out towards him but found herself stopped by Mummy. "You heard the kid; you have problems with me." He told her as he wrapped his bandages around the remains of a car, a traffic light, and a mailbox. All 3 coming alive as his puppets.
With the other two, Todoroki coughed up bile and spit from that hit, getting up as he felt his stomach wincing slightly as he knew that he'd have a bruise to worry about later. As he got up, he heard the strangest noise, as chimes from bells could be heard over the crackling of the fires around them and the distant fighting. They were melodic and soothing. Looking up, he saw that Pyre had equipped two fans, both of which opened with little bells attached.
Pyre didn't walk so much but glided towards him, his clothing making it impossible to see his feet as he stopped, allowing some distance between them as Todoroki was about to try and counter. "As we haven't formally been introduced, allow me to start. Evening, I am Pyre, and should you decide it, I shall be your opponent."
"I get a choice? You didn't seem to care about that earlier." Todoroki stood to his full height, and flames started to dance along his left side once more; he also noted how Pyre's eyes glowed brighter at the sight of his fire.
With a smile still on his face, Pyre leaned his head to the side, addressing him like they were friends. "You misunderstand. We're not all that interested in this fight, even if we would enjoy it," he giggled at that, the snake that he had heard about from Koda wrapped around her master's neck. That said, if you do decide that you'd rather fight than flee, I'm more than prepared to handle you."
"Don't speak as if you're assured this win; I'm not Tokoyami or Koda." Todoroki narrowed his eyes. He wouldn't say he was close to anyone in class, as he had only started opening up with them, but he knew all about what this monster had done. That, along with how he nearly took out his first friend, Uraraka, and he was determined to take him down.
"Those two? Oh yes, that was a rather…bad match-up." As Pyre looked to the side in memory of that day, Todoroki launched a surprise attack. Stomping his foot, a surge of ice shot towards Pyre and Koharu, trying to encase them in it. The street was silent, with him just about to buy that he had won, but then the ice started to shake, then crack before its center part burst.
Pyre's eyes glowed from the cloud of steam as his smile flashed flames, the same as his snake. “But what makes you think you’ll fare any better?” Pyre asked, now angry that he tried to take him out like that and with damned ice to boot. Again, he launched himself towards Todoroki, but this time, he was ready for it, creating a wall of ice that Pyre didn't slam headfirst into; instead, he jumped over it, only to meet by a blast of fire from Todoroki.
That didn't slow him, either. From the orange flames, a blast of green flames barrelled towards Todoroki, which he evaded by skating away, propelling himself on his ice. Keeping an eye on Pyre, he saw him land where he had just been standing, his clothes a little burnt, but to his confusion, he had burned. 'What? That's weird; he's a fire user; he should have resistance.' He thought to himself, but Pyre didn't give him time as he blasted another fireball at him, followed by another, and then another.
They were much smaller than the others, the size of maybe a basketball, but Todoroki couldn't take chances as he either created barriers or dodged them. When any of those fireballs struck his half-meter-thick ice, they melted nearly all the way through.
Pyre ceased his assault, his jaw hanging by a thread from how much he had burnt away muscles, but he was undeterred as he rushed Pyre, using the partially melted ice, along with the side work guard rails, as jumping pads. Todoroki gritted his teeth as his opponent was proving to be far more agile and quick than he expected. Seeing that he was closing the distance, he created another ice barrier and a platform to attack from the high ground.
This proved meaningless as Pyre leapt over the barrier before it was even finished forming. That melody followed him as his fans continued to giggle and dance, the heat fusing into them and altering each note played. Pyre didn't punch him so much as he swatted him, the chime ringing in his ear as the metal fan impacted his face.
Todoroki reflexively tried to use his ice, but Pyre spun around it and kicked him into his ice barrier with enough force that his body cracked it as he went headfirst into it. To finish the attack, he was blasted right in the back by a fireball that blew him straight through the ice barrier and back to the other side. All the while, he kept hearing that melodic chime, the giggles of bells ringing in near-perfect unity.
Rolling along the ground, he swallowed his pain as he let loose a streak of ice spikes towards where Pyre was, which he counted by rising, closing one of his fans, and pointing it towards the incoming ice, heating it as the ice slammed into him. Still, he didn't move, as the ice was racing up the metal, rapidly cooling it, and both he and the snake blasted it away.
Todoroki watched in awe, anger, and fear as Pyre opened his fan back up, the motion of which was accompanied by more of those melodic chimes. Pyre frowned at him. “You’re starting to anger me, Todoroki. Why all this ice? What good is something like that when compared to fire?” Todoroki glared at him for his passive insult against his mother.
“You talk too much.” He fired another wave of ice towards Pyre, but the villain hardly reacted as he casually flapped his fan towards it; following the gesture, all the emerald flames to his right slammed into the side of the ice, shattering it long before it could reach him.
Again, he moved, closing the gap between them and kicking Todoroki in the face, knocking his face to the side before a heel kick from the same foot knocked him face-first into the road, a tooth having flown somewhere in that double kick. Having grown tired of disciplining U.A. students, Pyre was harsher than usual as he took a page out of Chimera's book and stomped on Todoroki's head, the thick bottoms of his sandals grinding to the boy.
"And you aren't taking this fight seriously? It's like none of you U.A. students take this seriously," Pyre told him, glaring down at him. Todoroki moved his head enough to glare back at him, before a blast of flames shot out from his body, knocking Pyre off him. Todoroki followed with a massive upsurge of ice, one that covered the entire street, building to building, as it crashed into Pyre.
Getting up, Todoroki felt his nose and flinched, as it was definitely broken after that. He also bit his tongue and could taste copper in his mouth. Still, this fight wasn't done, as he started adding to the ice, filling in gaps that he saw forming. However, he realized it was a losing battle, as the ice melted faster than he could reform it. To make matters worse, flames on the left side of the street shifted before they flew towards him.
He just had enough time to erect an ice barrier to protect himself. Still, that lost time cost him as the ice dome he was feeding failed as the cracks he had just barely been able to fill up exploded outwards, sending shards of ice all over the place, striking walls, breaking windows, and leaving the place looking like an icy meteor had fallen from the skies.
And at the center of it stood Pyre, having entirely shifted into his other form, one Shoto had only heard about from the news and his classmates. It was terrifying to look at just like they described it, as it replaced a madman with a demon.
Pyre could see his fear, but he had long since stopped caring about how people saw him when he stepped out of his flesh and embraced stone and fire. “Oh yes, that's the spirit! Fight me like a proper hero, Todoroki!" He kept laughing as he approached, slithering along as his legs shifted into a tail.
“Isn’t this fun? Isn’t this a happy time? Little Ingenium had a first-hand taste of my flames; they'll burn away his weakness, his pain, and he'll be reborn greater than ever. This entire city is burning and will rise again better than ever!” Shoto saw red when he heard that.
"Enough!" He roared as he blasted Pyre with a massive firewall, followed by a huge jet of flames. Pyre swung his fan at the first one, parting it with his emerald flames; twirling around, he breathed out another fireball, much larger than the others he used at Shoto's second attack; the two cancel each other out, the chimes of his fans joined by the screech of ice as Shoto sent a swarm of spikes at him which did manage to catch him off guard, pushing him back s they threatened to envelop him again.
Shoto didn't wait for that. As he blasted more flames, the intense heat barrelled into the area, which had just seen the temperate drop dramatically thanks to his ice attack. This created an intense shockwave that threw both back, but Shoto propped himself up with ice behind himself while Pyre flipped in the air, his tail catching a tree.
Laughing, Pyre looked towards Shoto, whose disgusting ice and beautiful flames clung to him like needy children. Uncaring how he burnt the tree, he slithered back to the ground with his eye on his opponent. He didn’t want a fight tonight, but the joys of battle far outweighed that earlier want as he let out a roar of pleasure.
“This is so much fun! Wouldn’t you agree?!” The flames around them might have been extinguished, but that could be remedied with little effort. Swinging his fans, the harmonious chimes rang out along with his voice. “Bathing in flames, showering the world in fire? What could be better than this?”
Pyre followed up his question with a blast of emerald flames, one Todoroki met with his orange ones, gritting his teeth; he increased the power of his flames as they two batted against one another. "You call your actions ‘fun’?! You’re just an insane pyromaniac that brings pain, a monster," Shoto yelled at him as he recalled another figure, someone that would burn everything, just like he burned his family to get to the top.
This monster, this pyromaniac, was far too similar to his old man. His dad built a family but never cared for it, for them, and when the price of that came, he couldn't be bothered to change course. His mother was left scarred by that, and so were he and his siblings- siblings he barely knew. As Pyre ceased his attack and allowed Shoto's flames to engulf him, he welcomed them like an old friend, his flames doing little against his body made from stone.
He had just started trying to accept one monster in his life. What that meant for him. he would be damned if he allowed another to run around unchecked, not after what he did to Iida! He slammed his right hand into the ground, and the ground around him froze as ice crawled along the ground, even the buildings, as he sought to bury this monster.
Pyre's joy fused with rage at that insult, his temperature rising even higher. Koharu met the assault of ice by blasting it with an intense jet of emerald flames; as she did so, Pyre yelled back.
“How am I the bad guy here? I didn’t start this attack; I didn't pick this fight, and I definitely didn't run off to fight Stain! My flames are helping him; that's what I want to do!" Rushing into the ice, Koharu kept the way clear as he shattered through to the other side; Todoroki managed to catch him by erupting ice beneath him, encasing his tail and lower body, and raising that pillar high. Still, Pyre melted its restraints on him as he looked down at his for.
"But if you can't see that, I'm through talking; if you want to burn, then face the inferno!" Pyre yelled as he fired another jet of flames along with Koharu at Todoroki.
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"Sounds like those two are having fun," Mummy noted as another blast of flames sounded down the street; beyond the shattered ice, the street lit up with emerald blasts and orange gales of fire. "Shame you're not up to the task." He directed his puppets to attack Uraraka, who had been on the defensive the entire time, unable to break away from him to assist Todoroki.
She didn't comment on his assessment of her performance, even if it burned that he was right, as her previous actions were coming back to bite her in the butt. Her right arm is nearly useless, and she has already broken 2 fingers on her left hand to destroy some of Mummy's stronger puppets. All that was made worse by the fact her legs were screaming in pain; the bones were not broken, but she had definitely pushed them past their limits.
“How odd, you had plenty to say earlier, or would it be better to say you had more to yell about.” Mummy continued to taunt her, with Uraraka remaining on the back foot, trying to think of a way out of this, only to trip.
She recovered quickly, but not quirk enough as Mummy moved without delay, his wraps going for her left gauntlet and right boot. She tried to fight against it, but within seconds, she was completely wrapped up. "My quirk allows me to control whatever my bandages are wrapped in; it might not work on living things, your clothes? Your gear? That's fair game." He explained, bringing Uraraka close to look her over, but with her face covered, he couldn't quite tell what she was thinking, but he could hazard a guess."
A body crashed through the ice wall, bouncing a couple times on the road before skidding to a stop close to him. Looking at them, he could tell it was that Todoroki boy, looking pretty roughed up as steam and smoke flowed off him from whatever attack he had been hit with.
The student in question was coughing and breathing heavily, with the scar-free left side of his face bruised up, while he spotted a developing black eye on his right side. “Dammit…!” He wheezed out, using his ice to soothe the worst of his injuries till he realized where he was and looked towards Mummy and the figure he had wrapped up. “Uravity!” He sent a blast of ice towards him, but the villain evaded it, along with his captive.
"Nice try, but I'm not letting you free her yet. Besides," The remains of the ice wall shattered thanks to an emerald fireball, with Pyre entirely transformed slithering forward, his eyes locked on Todoroki. “You have your own opponent to worry about.”
"And so do you." Mummy flinched as he turned, only to get booted in the face by a high-speed body, sending it flying back and roughly landing on his side. The figure hadn't remained idle, as they used his face as a jump pad to bounce around and sever the bandages around Uraraka, freeing her as she fell to the ground. Taking a deep breath, she looked to see her mentor for her internships.
"G-gran Torino?!" She gasped, seeing the aged veteran standing with his back to her, his eyes focused on Mummy as the man got up with a grunt; no doubt his nose busted from that kick.
"Moron, I told you to remain on the bus." Gran Torino scolded her, as he had hoped she wouldn't be like All Might and do as she was told. Figures, Nana was the same, so he should have just accepted that those who receive One for All are a special breed of stupid.
"S-sorry, but something came up; wait, why are you here? Didn't you say you were heading to where the fighting was?" Uraraka got up as well, and the man immediately noticed that she was roughed up pretty severely, favoring one arm over the other. He also picked up the sorry state the other was in, even if the second villain had ceased his approach and instead was watching him with those vacant, burning eyes.
"Endeavour set me here; the others should be here soon." He replied, making sure it was loud enough for the two villains to hear, getting Mummy to narrow his eyes in irritation, as he didn't like their odds against that man. Meanwhile, he couldn't tell what the second one was thinking. "Even if he hadn't, it seems like there's plenty of fight here, far more than the 2 of you can handle."
"We can still fight, old man," Todoroki grunted, keeping his ice on Pyre, who seemed bored of him, an insult in and of itself.
"Show some respect, zygote. I'm been knocking down villains longer than your father's been alive." Gran Torino bit back with little anger as he calculated their odds instead. "As for you, you're done." Pyre looked eager to keep the fight up, as he could tell this new person might have been old, but he wasn't weak; maybe if he set him ablaze, he'd be reborn younger. But he couldn't act on that impulse as Koharu licked his stone cheek, drawing his attention.
She spoke to him, their opponents being none the wiser to whatever she said, but he relented. Taking a breath to cool down, he turned to his ally and friend. “Mummy, it might be best if we leave.” He called out, with the man also looking at Gran Torino over. He wanted payback for that surprise attack, but they had already spent much time dealing with these two brats.
“Maybe.” He conceded, jumping back to where Pyre was and leaving the heroes on the other side of the street.
“You think I’ll just let you?” Gran Torino shifted his stance, doing calculations he had long since mastered to judge who to target and how. He knew the boy made from fire would be hard to attack, as even a glancing blow from those flames could be devastating. Still, he was the most dangerous of them, especially at range.
"I think you don't have much of a choice. The girl's already injured, and so is the boy. It might be 3 on 2, but can you keep up with both of us?" Mummy retorted, with Uraraka and Todoroki glaring at him. As injured as they might have been, they could still fight. But Gran Torino just smirked at his observation, confusing the man until they heard more voices.
“There they are!” Rounding the corner, another 8 pros ran to reinforce them, moving to cover their flanks and readying for battle without a moment’s pause.
“Didn’t you hear me? I said I was sent in advance.” Gran Torino stated.
“More of them?” Koharu asked, with both Mummy and Pyre nodding to it. as these two pros didn't seem too strong, but that might not be the most significant issue as they could efficiently just serve as distractions for the real pains in their ass. Could he capture them? Yes, but that old man was fast enough to snap and tear his bandages and would no doubt repeat them before he could use his human puppets.
"Wait, I recognize them. It's Mummy and Pyre of the 5 Thunders!" One of the heroes, a man in a suit with a full helmet, pointed out.
“Of all the times for them to show up…” The lone adult woman among them glared at them, sweating as she realized what they already knew, that the 2 were in a different class compared to them.
However, whatever her reservations about this, she stood her ground. "Get the wounded out of here; we'll handle them until help arrives."
“Pyre, if Endeavour’s on his way, could you take him?” Mummy whispered to his teammate, who took a moment to think about it.
However, as much as he wished to see those flames in person and battle with the man seen as the pinnacle of flame users, he would be ill-advised and selfish. “It’s…not worth the risk. We retreat.” He started as the two moved to leave, taking steps back.
“You’re not going anyway!” Gran Torino was already moving, launching himself towards them. Todoroki helped by firing ice at them, trying to limit their movements.
“Mummy!” Pyre yelled as he took a breath, feeding the flames within his body.
Mummy moved, throwing his hands forward. He let loose dozens of bandages, interweaving them, creating a web of them to deter Gran Torino, who had to stop before he crashed into them. “Spider-Web!” Mummy called out, as his defensive move slowed Gran Torino but not Todoroki's ice, which smashed into the wraps, either tearing or melting them. He didn't care about that, as he bought Pyre time.
“Duel Boa Flame!” Pyre and Koharu let out the most flames that had been there that entire night. The two swirls of emerald flames spiraled towards the cloth and the ice, swallowing both up, but where the cloth remained, largely flame-resistant, the ice shattered as the intense heat chewed into it, creating an explosion that forced the heroes to cover their eyes. Gran Torino landed on a building, safe from the blast and the flames, but the same couldn't be said for the rest.
Todoroki wasn't fast enough to erect anything, and as he prepared himself to be hit, Uraraka stepped back and threw a punch with her left hand. Explosive force blasted off from it, creating a giant column of compressed air that, when it met the flames, blew them away.
But the two villains were gone on the other end of the street.
"Dammit…!" She ground out, falling to her knees as she felt both arms fall limp to her side; the adrenaline and rage started to wane, and, in its place, tremendous pain replaced it. One of the other rushed to her side. "Don't move too much, but we must ensure your arms will not jostle about."
"Iida…Native." She ignored her injuries, instead focusing on the reason she was even there, gesturing with her head to the alley to the side that, against the odds, had remained untouched by the battle. Todoroki was already up. Using the ice on his injured right side, he waved off help and instead went to see the others.
“They’ll need your care more than me.” Todoroki pointed towards the alley, the other heroes rushing ahead of him and nearly gagging at what they found, as with the battle over, the smell of burnt flesh, rubber, and plastic became overpowering, all emanating from the alley where they found a charred body and Native, the pro also badly burnt and slumped against the wall in a pool of his own blood.
One of the heroes hesitantly approached Iida, crouching at his side. He placed his ear close to his mouth, and by some miracle, he could hear him taking a breath. “He’s still breathing, but he’ll need a doctor quickly.” He confirmed this by checking for a pulse, finding one weak but steady.
As 2 saw to Iida, the others moved on to Native, finding that he was also still alive but pale and cold, the blood loss getting to him. One of the heroes asked as Gran Torino, Uraraka, and Todoroki approached; the two students pale at the sight that had become of Iida, but where Uraraka was crestfallen, Todoroki was emotionless, at least he tried to be what Gran Torino could tell from how he was shaking he was close to exploding, whether from rage or grief he didn't know.
“God, that kid did this?” One of the heroes asked, to which Todoroki corrected them.
"He's no kid; that was a demon." He growled out. It took all his restraint to freeze and burn the place, as he had seen that villain's handiwork on the way here, but this? This was much worse than that; he seemed to have been fighting to take them out there, but with Iida, it was like he wanted to burn him down to the bone.
As they tended to his stab wounds, Native stirred a little, but his eyes remained fogged. “Stain…he was here….” He muttered, the rest getting more alert, but the man tending to Native focused on what he had.
“Just focus on staying awake, Native. We’ll worry about Stain and everything else later.” He replied as they managed to get the two injured people out of the alley and onto the ruined street, not just where Shigaraki and Kurogiri could see them. Still, the news chopper flying nearby had captured close to the entire fight.
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Trying a new thing where the author note that's normally at the top is moved down here, at least when I post on Patreon.
For some reason, I thought that a possible AU for a villain, Izuku, would lean more into the Star Wars stuff that Hori has, as we know what his mother's quirk is. TL;DR is that she passes away, but because Izuku was already a student of the doctor, she agrees to have him harvest her quirk and pass it to her son. At some point, he'll have a quirk awakening, drastically increasing the size of what he can pull towards him and the speed, which, along with other minor quirks he'll probably be given, perhaps one that allows him to repel objects, is basically force pull and push.
MHA's character has already shown that regardless of quirk, things like agility, strength, reflexes, and durability- all things Sith and Jedi have- are achievable through training. Still, if he's working under the doctor, that means he could go through a lesser version of the upgrade Tomura went through, but instead of being under for 4 months, he’s down for just the 1. Even if he’s maybe one 10th as strong as Shigaraki was when he woke up, that still means that even fighting quirkless, he'll be at the level where he can fight on equal footing with pros in the top then.
With his penchant for studying opponents to predict their actions and a heated oscillating blade, you have yourself a Sith researcher.
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It's not as long as I thought it would be, but some stuff that made it through the planning phase had to be cut because it wouldn't fit what I want to do with these characters and stories. One such idea was Uraraka firing OFA at 50% again when she was captured by Mummy, escaping like Bakugo does in the movie. However, considering she's already messed up one arm, firing another would have left her even more vulnerable.
Another was Endeavour showing up, but for many reasons, that was scrapped. While it would have been a great fight, they didn't come here to fight. Izuku, just for a moment, got lost in the excitement, so Koharu had to remind him of that. The next chapter would be the follow-up for this, as one significant change is that Stain was never captured here, and his manifesto would never leak to the public because of it.
