Polishing Pillars to Shine

Ch 17: There isn't time

Moonlight shone down upon the treetops. Glittering silken strands of white webbing lay strewn across the green leafy branches. Standing a top them was a future villain the past trio had yet to officially meet. The woman who had threatened the boys of the past had ash gray spider legs jutting out of her sides, pincers sticking out of her temples, and six beady unblinking eyes spanning the length of her forehead. She leered down at them, crimson lipstick stretching just above two sets of fangs that dripped with some some sort of green venom.

The boys stood frozen. Minds calculating, silently frantic. They weren't that far from the dorms. A quick sprint would get them there- a burst of full cowl, a blast of fire and a good explosion would hurtle them to the safety of the dorms interior. No sweat. They could lock the doors on her if they were lucky, or Todoroki could freeze them shut while Izuku called for help and Bakugo locked the dorm down.

But no. That wouldn't work so smoothly. Something was wrong. They all knew it. This villain had gotten onto UA grounds without triggering a single security measure. There should already be a blaring alarm ringing throughout campus. But there wasn't. So, was this woman just super sneaky? Or had the defense systems in place somehow been disabled? If that was the case, did that mean they would be putting their friends in danger if they went inside? It was the middle of the night. Even late night owls like Kaminari and Mina would be fast asleep by now.

This was bad.

They had to-

The woman leapt from the tree fangs bared. Webbing shot out of her mouth from a hole in her tongue. Her fangs pivoted and acid coated the silken thread as it spewed from her mouth. She aimed her attack at Izuku, who was lost in his own racing mind as he searched his thoughts for possibilities of escape.

"Midoriya! Look out!" Todoroki yelled dropping his tea, ice shooting from his foot to try and block the spider woman, but she used the pincers at her temples to slice straight through the frigid ice wall like it was nothing.

The greenette processed the dual quirk user's words a moment too late. He summoned one for all, but by that point the acid soaked silk she was puking up was about an inch away.

He didn't have time to dodge.

Izuku bent his knees, bracing for the pain that was to come. He anticipated the feeling of his flesh burning off. He put up his arms, trying to protect his face, wincing his eyes shut in preparation to face the initial burning sting.

But it never came.

Instead he smelled smoke, and a hint of caramel as he breathed in sharply. The rush of wind near his face was accompanied by a loud boom and... a scream.

He knew that voice. He never wanted to hear it in such furious agony.

Izuku's eyes snapped open just in time to see Bakugo in mid air just before him. The woman's acid coated silk clutched in his hand, raveled around his wrist. The explosive boy whirled above the tree line twisting in the air, taking the woman for a joyride into the sky as she made an awful screeching sound. Once he was high enough Bakugo flung the spider woman away from them as hard as he could using an explosion to incinerate the silken end he had caught and blast her even further away.

It was too dark to see where she ended up and he wasn't tailing after her to find out.

Katsuki landed crouched on the ground, gritting his teeth as he gripped his reddened right wrist. Blood dripped from his skin, a raw blistering line etched over his palm where he'd gripped the attack.

"Kacchan!" Izuku rushed over to him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" He closed his fist to hide the wound, wincing at the pain the action caused. "Fuck. That explosion I threw at her isn't gonna keep her down long."Katsuki insisted as he rose to his feet.  "We've gotta go. Now."