Compulsion

Chapter 42: Mount-Lady & Agent Midoriya

TRIGGER WARNING: BODY HORROR

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  "WHAT THE FUCK...?" she thought.

"It's happening again..." she thought. "Don't grow big... don't grow big... don't grow big..." Bile touched the back of her throat as her face contorted in shock, disgust, and horror. "Too many buildings... too many people... crushed..." The boy was stepping towards her; hand outstretched in offering. His shadow-filled mouth hung in a swinging grin. "I got out of the news... the gossip... I hid away...! For months...! And they're still following me... Finding me..." The bile she swallowed plunged into her stomach, turning into a churning abyss. "They'll never stop... People like that... they'll never leave me alone..."

Her gaze shifted past that widened, swinging jaw to the shattered window behind him, and that feeling in her stomach turned bubbling like a whirling cauldron. "Together for... ever..." echoed in her mind. It caused her teeth to grind together; her hands to ball into fists – nails digging into her palms; knuckles blistering against her skin.

"M-Mount-Lady?" Her hand extended, taking his clammy hand into her own. "Y-You s-see it too!" Her fingers dug into his skin before yanking him forward. "M-My Mount-L—" His eyes widened as she released his hand, letting her rearing motion to ready her fist.

His head was harder than she expected – felt as if her knuckles met concrete rather than skin and bone. "Your Mount-Lady...?!" Pressure built where her forearm met her wrist. "PISS OFF!" Through gritted teeth, she persisted and pushed her arm forward, straightening her elbow and twisting her torso.

Her fist snapped his head to the side, causing him to spin and stumble back. "M-Mount-Lady?!" His voice echoed and reverberated from the back of his throat, rising in pitch – turning into a screech. "W-What're you doing!?" As he landed on his back, black ooze sputtered from the depths of his maw as the corners of that abyss turned. His eyes began to sink into its skull while the veins of those orbs began to pulse and darken. Once those blackened seams reached his pupils, his brown irises burned in crimson. "GET AWAY!"

As a spike flew from its throat, her eyes widened as she instinctively stepped back. She held her breath as she, in every millisecond, shifted her head further and further to the side. Her chin lifted and turned, exposing her neck to its point, but clearing her head from its trajectory. Her sliding foot allowed to shift her neck just enough for the spike to soar away, crashing in the distance.

Her glare snapped to it, rushing at the downed boy. "W-Wait! T-This isn't—" She grabbed its outstretched hand and twisted its arm at the wrist. "NO! THIS ISN'T RIGHT!" His body turned in response, trying to alleviate the pain and showing her his back.

His grounded position put him at a disadvantage, allowing her to pin him against the ground. She leveraged his wrist; constricted his arm against his spine. Her other hand slammed against the back of his neck, and kept his jaw aimed towards the ground.

"Shut up!" she growled.

He pushed up with his free arm. "THIS ISN'T HOW—NO! LET ME GO! WHAT'RE YOU DOING!?"

She twisted his wrist again, forcing a cry—a bird-like screech from his mouth. "STAY DOWN!"

Her eyes shot towards the broken window. "MIDORIYA!" She panted, ignoring the screeching from the boy below. "MIDORIYA! ARE YOU OKAY?"

Her breath nearly caught in her throat when she saw the legs of an overturned table rise. It crunched against glass as a groan followed. The green-covered teen came into a view, stumbling towards the jagged window frame. "M-Mount-Lady?" A spike jutted from his abdomen, his chest, and his visor. The lights of that visor flickered with multiple colors, bursting in white before plunging into darkness.