Hero Class Civil Warfare by RogueDruid (Icarius51)

Chapter 12: Grudging Sacrifice

Day 1: 19 hours, 22 minutes (7:22 pm, local time)

"Deku, you piece of shit!"

The yell echoed down the grey stone corridor, the fluorescent lighting and exposed panels above them belying that they were in a service corridor.

"Hi, Kacchan! You know, I was hoping Con Man's orders would work to keep you busy for a while longer." Izuku turned, eyes cold as he looked at Bakugou down the corridor. He reached up and adjusted his hat slightly. Behind him, the villains dragged the coffin through the doors, several of them shooting worried glances at their leader.

With the tensing of his fists, the sound of crackling fireworks filled the room. Bakugou tensed and readied for the fight.

"I'm going to end this fucking exercise. Right here. Right now," Bakugou growled, hand flashing out and sending a burst of light and sound echoing through the corridor. A flashbang, designed to daze and confuse. Bakugou was testing the waters.

With a shrug and a spin, the suit jacket intercepted the explosion; muffling it but leaving the cloth jacket smoldering and in tatters.

At the end of the corridor, Izuku tilted his head, eyes traveling from the cloth to Bakugou, before he gently tossed it and let it land at the base of the cement wall to the side. Izuku began to fold the sleeves of his white button-up shirt up, cuffing them above his elbows to reveal the scarred skin and tight muscle. His forearms were already crackling with faint lines of green and red as One for All pulsed through him.

"Really? You think that you can take me? Right here, right now?" Izuku mocked, before reaching out a hand to the wall and slamming his fist through a glass-covered red metal trigger. He yanked down, all but ripping it from the wall, the motion etched with a glimmer of green energy. "Let's see it, then!" The ring of a fire alarm triggered and with a hiss the sprinklers lining the hall burst to life.

With a growl, Bakugou realized what the play was.

Mixing his sweat with the water would weaken his explosions. The near-rain in the corridor would chill them both, lessening the sweat he could output regardless. That meant he only had two heavy blasts: the stored sweat in the gauntlets. He either had to lead with that or save them for a surprise down the fight.

He chose to lead.

He rushed forwards, getting closer. In response, Izuku rushed back. His face and arms crackled with a faint aura of tightly regulated power, water streaming off his stupid hat as they neared each other.

The two met with roars of effort and a flash of power.

Iida all but staggered down the last of the stairs, looking around. The fire alarm was going off, for some reason, and he could barely hear over it. A battered Ojiro and a focused Tsunotori were trailing as he looked around, reaching up to tap his comm. "HQ, come in, this is Iida. HQ, come in."

"This is HQ. Iida, are you okay? I'm getting crazy signals from the security system of the building. I got those feeds you wanted. Is something on fire?" The slightly nervous ramblings of Kodai came over the comms.

"I don't know, but listen; get the others on watch moving and wake up someone to watch the monitors. They need to get here, now. Kingpin is here," Iida spoke tersely, already running around and trying to listen for the faint sounds of explosions (below him?). "We need back up. NOW!"

"On our way," Kodai confirmed, the sounds of her moving from the console coming through before she cut the connection.

"Ojiro, look for the lower floor team. I doubt Kirishima and Tetsutetsu went down easy. Tsunotori help me find a way down."