The Exchange Hero

Episode 8

Bakugo and I closed in on the area where we could see the warp guy's dark fog. He was with the blue-haired man, who I suspected was the one that broke into the school, and a black giant with an exposed brain. The giant was wrestling with All Might, and seemed to have the hero at a disadvantage. They were in some weird pose, with the giant in two places going through one of those dark portals. As we got closer we could hear them yelling.

"... Restraining you was Nomu's job. And then, when your body is halfway in, to close the gate and tear you apart is my job." Grandpa says the villains always take time to gloat. I saw that, in this case at least, he was right. While the villains were concentrating on All Might's struggles, I spotted Todoroki and Midoriya racing to the fight. The green-haired bone breaker made what I always thought of as a rookie mistake, he screamed "ALL MIGHT!!!" as he charged. That finally caught the bad guys' attention.

Warp guy appeared in between the charging teen and the crippled teacher. "How foolish."

But the villain never saw Bakugo coming. The hothead blasted the fog man's metal collar, forcing him out of Midoriya's path and slamming him into the ground, just before the portal could send our fellow student someplace fatally unpleasant. "You're in the way, Deku!"

Todoroki sent a sheet of ice that encased the giant's right side, through the portal, and up the arm holding All Might. "The Symbol of Peace cannot be killed by the likes of you."

I bounced at the blue-haired guy, flinging two stun balls to bracket him on the right and left. He dodged backwards. I landed in front of him. He reached out, placing his bare hand flat on my chest, and waited with anticipation.

Nothing happened. The chest of my costume disintegrated and his hand was touching my bare skin. But nothing happened. All I felt was a tingle. His eyes behind his hand-mask ... and that whole hand-costume thing was way creepier in person than it sounds ... popped in shock. While he was boggling, I grabbed his arm and tossed him gently at the frozen Nomu, just as All Might levered himself free. The freak was fast and agile. He managed to spin in the air, slapping All Might on the leg as they tumbled past each other, and stuck a three-point landing on the other side of the fight.

"Argh!" All Might roared as his leg collapsed, dropping him to his knee. With a grimace, the hero managed to stand.

"Nomu," the freak called. The giant pulled itself out of the portal and tried to stand. Its ice encrusted right arm and leg crumbled off. But as quickly as they fell, new ones started to grow in their place. I was pelting the creature with hard-thrown steel balls, but they seemed to have no effect, flattening on his body. Crackdoodles.

"Get back everyone!" All Might ordered.

The freak started monologuing, so I started throwing balls at him, bouncing them from different angles, trying to at least distract him. Todoroki and Midoriya were spectating, and Bakugo was gloating at the fog man.

"Nomu," the blue-haired man ordered as he easily dodged or caught my projectiles. Those he caught disintegrated. "Get our gate back."

Double Crackdoodles! Nomu rushed towards Bakugo almost faster than I could see. I had a momentary flashback of another giant fist heading for a young woman. Then I snapped back. All Might was moving to interpose himself, but he was slowed by his wounded leg. I was much closer. I had to act. Moving faster than I thought possible, I just barely managed to get myself in front of Nomu's blow. It launched me over the wall and through the Squall Zone dome.

I went in one side of the reinforced concrete structure and out the other, passing through a number of buildings along the way. I don't think I have ever been hit that hard before. Not even by my older brother, Strong Boy, who didn't hold much back when we had our brotherly donnybrooks.