Beyond Ultra (a MHA story)

Chapter 73

Class 1A was still recovering from the nightmare hunt that was yesterday. Horoki left some grim reminders of his past life to his classmates. "I can't believe we saw that side of Horoki..." Mineta said, cradling himself. "I didn't think he could be that evil. I guess there's a much darker side to him than we thought." Kaminari stated. "Well, he was a villain at one point." Sato said. "But wasn't he only protecting his girlfriend?" Sero asked. "Honestly, I just like the killing." Horoki said, cutting into the conversation, scaring Kaminari and Mineta and evening scaring Sato and Sero, who stumbled back. Horoki laughed and Jiro jammed her jacks into his ears. "Enough with the bullying Horoki." She growled. "Ahh!!! Ok ok ok!!!" Horoki screamed, she took the earphone jacks out and Horoki panted. "God that's the worst." Horoki muttered. "First time?" Kaminari said as he entered the room. Midoriya then bursted into the room, "T.V!" He shouted. "Huh?" The group said with a confused look. Midoriya then turned on the news, and to their horror, they saw Endeavor fighting a flying Nomu. Horoki got up and ran to Todoroki's room and called him over, the rest of Class 1A gathered around the T.V to watch the fight. Todoroki stared at his father, fighting the behemoth, not saying a word. Horoki looked at him and then saw Hawks help him out. "Win this Endeavor. You have your son to come home to." Horoki muttered.

Lincoln was getting ready for his final test. After days of studying and written exams, he was ready for his final test. He looked at a box that Endillion gave him yesterday. "It's not much but I hope it helps you tomorrow. I'm still working on the rest." Endillion said yesterday as she handed the box to him. Lincoln opened the box to see two leather gauntlets. Both had another layer of leather with brass stitched into the knuckles of the gauntlets. On the left of his gauntlet, he noticed there was a weird looking arrow. Lincoln looked into the box and saw a note, "I know you have your set style and all but it never hurts to upgrade. Also there's a grappling hook at the bottom of the left gauntlet, it's still a work in progress so I don't recommend swinging around like Arachnid Boy or whatever that hero's name is." Lincoln smiled a bit and put them on, it was incredibly comfortable and durable. He looked at the time on his phone and realized he was gonna be late, he ran out the door and got onto his bike. Since Horoki never told Lincoln what happened to his motorcycle, Lincoln had to get a third method of transportation since his car was also in the shop. As Lincoln was riding his bike, he noticed the panic and saw the sky flash orange, his eyes focused and saw two figures, one had orange flames while the other was a muscular black figure. A person bumped into Lincoln and looked at him, "what're you doing?! Don't you see that Nomu?!" He shouted. "A Nomu?" Lincoln asked. He knew a bit about the creatures but never really had the opportunity fighting one. He then rode his bike towards the fight, not even thinking about his test. He looked around the chaos and something caught his eye on the roof of a building. He saw a man with a cowboy hat and a scorpion tail, Lincoln immediately stopped his bike and immediately followed them. Turns out Sumbo wasn't alone, he had a friend with him, Dabi. "You know, when your feathered friend asked for a Nomu, I don't think he asked for the strongest Nomu to beat the number one hero." Sumbo said. "Well, you don't show a crappy product if you want to have them buy it right?" Dabi said, looking over to Sumbo. "I guess. Still, we have to lay low. Yet here we are siccing Shigaraki's pets on heroes." Sumbo said with annoyance. "You want to try and bring the snake out of his hiding hole." Dabi said with a grin. The two walked away and went to the downtown area where Lincoln pursued them. Eventually, Lincoln caught up and decided to confront them. "Hey!!" He shouted. The two turned around and saw Lincoln, panting as he put the bike aside. "Nice bike." Dabi said. "Thanks. Got it from a friend." Lincoln said as he walked towards them. They got into the building and Lincoln quickly chased after them, they got into the roof and looked down, seeing the alleyway below. "You got nowhere to go you two!!" Lincoln shouted. "Beat him to send a message, that's the plan right?" Sumbo whispered. "Sure." Dabi said, holding a blue fireball. He then threw it at Lincoln, Lincoln dodged the attack and whipped out his revolvers, but Sumbo used his hook chains to disarm Lincoln, the blades hit the revolvers, knocking them out of Lincoln's hands and into the floor below. "Can't have you making a noise like that. It'll expose where we are, and we can't have the cops on us." Sumbo said, Sumbo then charged at Lincoln, who saw a blade come at his face. Lincoln moved his face to the side but it knicked him, creating a small scratch. Sumbo charged at him and swung his blades at Lincoln's face. Lincoln narrowly dodged it and threw Sumbo to the side and was met with a flame fist from Dabi, smashing into his cheek. Lincoln flew back and landed hard, pressing his tongue into his cheek and tasting the blood. Lincoln spat the blood to the side and Dabi began to charge up some more fireballs, he threw some more at Lincoln. Without thinking, Lincoln punched the fire balls and looked to see the brass on his gauntlets begin to glow, Lincoln remembered that brass was an excellent heat conductor. "Might burn me but I'll at least do some damage as well." Lincoln muttered. Dabi continued to keep his distance and throw his fire balls, Lincoln punched every fireball he could as he approached Dabi, he leapt into the air and was getting ready to ram his fist into Dabi, but was quickly stopped by Sumbo, who smashed the end of his tail against Lincoln's chest. Lincoln heard a few ribs crack and fell back, Lincoln coughed hard and tried to regain his breath. "Broken ribs should be enough..." Sumbo said. Dabi approached Lincoln and stomped on his face, "hey what are you doing?!" Sumbo said as he saw Dabi stomp on him. "What does it look like?" Dabi said. "I think he's pretty broken right now." Sumbo said, Dabi looked over at Sumbo and then at Lincoln, who's face was bruised and cut, blood began to seep from his mouth and he began wheezing. Dabi began to make a blue flame on his hand as he knelt down and hovered it over Lincoln's face, "this will be the last thing you see Lincoln." Dabi said with a grin, his hand got close and Sumbo pushed him out of the way, but little did Sumbo know that Lincoln pressed the button and activated the grappling hook, the arrow jammed into Sumbo's shoulder and he screamed in pain, some of the green blood getting on Lincoln's face. Sumbo jerked his shoulder and ripped the hook off, but quickly received a left hook from Lincoln, his heated brass knuckle pressing against Sumbo's face. Sumbo fell to the ground and spat some teeth out, Lincoln panted over his body and looked back to see a wave of blue flames roaring towards him. The fire exploded the nitroglycerin vials on Lincoln's belts and caused the explosion to make an incredibly loud boom. Lincoln was flung back and fell down the alleyway, his legs hitting a balcony and finally crashed down onto a dumpster. Sumbo and Dabi looked down and saw Lincoln's battered body, "what the hell was that?" Dabi growled, "we could've finished it right there." He muttered. "Lincoln was gonna impale you with that arrow he had, your welcome for saving you." Sumbo snarled at Dabi. That wasn't Sumbo's reason for pushing Dabi away though, it was the fact that he didn't want Dabi to kill Lincoln. He knew that they needed to send a message to the heroes. If he killed Lincoln, then the League would have the entire U.A academy looking for them to avenge their fallen teacher and friend. But was that it? Was there another reason? Sumbo shook these thoughts off, and heard some sirens. "Well, now we gotta bail, I'm sure the cops heard that and will explore this area for the source of the noise. Go ahead, I'm gonna try and clean up before the cops show up." Sumbo said, Dabi ran off to escape the law. As soon as Sumbo felt that Dabi left, he jumped down and looked at Lincoln. "Man he did a number on you." He said to Lincoln. He took him out of the dumpster and noticed a church close by, he walked towards the church with Lincoln over his shoulder and set him down gently and knocked on the door. A nun came and saw the two beaten cowboys, "please help him, he's hurt." Sumbo said. The nun took Lincoln into the church and she turned back to talk to him, but he disappeared. She looked around outside to see if she can get a glimpse of the man but to no avail. She examined his body and saw that his face was bruised with multiple lacerations, his chest was a bit burned and had shards of glass in it. She took his clothes off wrapped him in some cloth and placed her hands on his temple, a white glow emitted from her fingers and Lincoln's eyes shot open, screaming in pain as his eyes glowed a holy white. He passed out and the nun panted. Lincoln's body began to work overtime, his skin began to fix itself and the glass began to fall from his chest, the cuts began to reunite and form new skin as if he was never cut, the bruise was swelling down, his ribs began to repair themselves and connect. The nun looked to see the priest of the church come in and help her up, "what happened? Who's this man?" He asked. "He was injured, I had to heal him." She said. "Grace, you know the limitations of your quirk. You could get hurt." He said. "Aren't we supposed to help people Father?" She said with a small smile. He sighed and hugged her, "you're right, it was selfish of me. We will take care of him till he wakes up. Does he have any ID?" The Father asked. "It was burned in his pocket." The nun said. "Well, we will take care of him. For he is a guest in the house of the Lord." The Father said. The two then covered their guest in blankets, the nun and Father watched over him, wondering if this was a sign from a higher power, or just a coincidence.

Sumbo met with Dabi in an alleyway far away from where the fight took place, "you killed him?" Dabi said. "No. I couldn't, because the cops were on my tail." Sumbo said. "I think it's because you're growing soft Sumbo." Dabi said, narrowing his eyes. Sumbo growled, "don't talk to me with that tone boy." Sumbo said. "I'm just saying, after the whole M-Don incident, you've been pretty hesitant on attacking Lincoln. Not sure if you two became buddy buddy while that was going on, so what's the deal?" Dabi asked. "Shigaraki has a plan. We sprinkle a couple of attacks with the Nomus here and there. We don't go after people specifically, especially if they work for a top school that specializes in making heroes." Sumbo said. "Ok, but didn't you have a vendetta against Lincoln?" Dabi asked. Sumbo groaned in annoyance, "yes I did, but I realize that if I went after him, I could get the rest of you in trouble." Sumbo said. "What about Horoki? Have you tried to contact him?" Dabi asked. "Or...was he playing us all along?" Dabi asked. "Why would Horoki betray us?" Sumbo asked. "Well, lets be honest, a new girlfriend, people that love him, an honest life. Why wouldn't he betray us?" Dabi said. "Well, you don't have to worry...Horoki, if he will betray us, I will protect you guys." Sumbo said as he looked over to the alley to make sure no one went after them. "Don't worry. You won't have to worry about that anymore." Dabi said, grab Sumbo's face with both of his hands and bursted into flames. The blue flames glowed, which caught the attention of the locals in the area, they called the police and they arrived at the scene and took the body that was badly burned.

After the fight between Endeavor and the Nomu. The students were comforting Todoroki, he was on the floor, panting and Horoki got a phone call, he answered and it was Hawks. "Horoki, I need you to come to the hospital. Now." He said with urgency. Horoki hung up and went to the hospital. He saw Hawks there and Horoki looked at him. "Are you ok? How was Endeavor?" Horoki asked. "He's ok. He took a beating but he's still pushing. He's recovering right now." Hawks said as he pointed to the room he was in. "Is that why you called?" Horoki asked. "No...actually, I called cause I saw a friend of yours." Hawks said, Horoki followed him and they opened a door to see Sumbo, who was hooked up to life support. His face was badly burned and his chest had third degree burns. "Holy...what happened Sumbo..?" He whispered. Sumbo coughed and looked over to Horoki. "They know...you're a spy..." Sumbo said softly. Horoki felt as though his gut get punched. He looked at the scorpion and whispered, "hey, you're gonna be ok...just try and relax." Horoki said. "You know why...I wanted Clyde's son dead...?" Sumbo asked. "Why?" Horoki asked, hearing Sumbo's breath get raspy. "The gang was my family...and Clyde just left...to have his kid." Sumbo said, coughing. "Clyde rescued me from my abusive father...I owed him my life, he helped me run away from it and start a new life. When he left, I just got furious...I should've seen it coming." Sumbo muttered. "He always said that he would've died for the gang...but after a certain time, he realized that him and Bonnie can't raise a kid with a gang of thieves." He added. "You felt like you lost a brother of sorts..." Horoki said. "Yeah...I saw Clyde's kid as a sort of betrayal...that he left us all." Sumbo said. "But when me and his kid were fighting tooth to nail when fighting those monsters at M-Don's pit. It was as if I was fighting alongside Clyde back in the old days..." Sumbo said with a small smile. "It made me realize that Clyde's kid was just like his old man...Clyde wad good person though he ran with a bunch of misfits. Sure he may have stolen and fought the law, but he did it to keep the gang, his family, safe. He didn't like to admit that he was a good man. If his kid is anything like him, then I can't hurt him, cause I would just be hurting Clyde. He's gonna do good things, like you Horoki..." Sumbo said, his breathing began to get heavy and he looked up. "So the whole treasure shtick. Was it real?" Horoki asked. "Nah...it was just an excuse to try and hurt him...the treasure I was talking about was the bond I shared with the gang." Sumbo said, sniffling. "Wait...why are you telling me this Sumbo?" Horoki said. "I'll be honest kid. You are probably the only person I've trusted in recent memory...besides, you're the only one who saw the good in me." Sumbo said, shifting as he looked at the hospital lights. "You think...I might've been a good hero Horoki...?" Sumbo asked, tears beginning to fill his eyes, "yeah...one of the best." Horoki whispered. Sumbo sniffed softly and smiled, "that...makes me happy...you tell, Lincoln Colt...that I'm sorry..." Sumbo said, he then took his final breath, and the monitor gave a monotonous ring.