Yeah, remember when Peter said this was a bit of a mess? That might be an incredible understatement, now that he thought about it.
Rumi had, for some reason, decided to just hop all the way over to the plaza since 'That was where all the villains were!'. And while Peter would rather do anything but get into more fights today, the rabbit girl seemed pretty dead set on this whole thing, so he might as well help her out along the way, right?
Well, when they finally got near the area, they noticed a lot of things.
Things like the piles of unconscious villains that Aizawa had someone fended off, things like the guy who had hands over his face and the kist guy who stood next to him, and one last thing that made Peter's blood run cold.
In the center of the plaza, instead of the beautiful marble fountain that once stood, there was a crater a foot deep into the concrete, a hulking creature with a beak, bulging eyes, and an exposed brain along with an obsidian colored body stood inside it.
Peter's spider-sense started to go haywire at the sight of the… thing, it was by no means human; it just couldn't be. Once the two got near the creature, their eyes widened in horror at what was even deeper inside the crater.
That thing had Aizawa, the man who Peter couldn't help but look up to, lying in a pool of his own blood with a broken body. His legs were twisted at angles that made Peter want to throw up, the skin on his forearm looked like it had been corroded away, revealing the muscle tissue underneath, his once shining yellow goggles laid shattered next to him, his grey scarf tinted a dark red.
Whatever could do that to a man, to anyone could not be called human; Peter felt his jaw clench, and his hands ball into fists, he turned to his side to see Rumi doing the same with a more angry expression.
As the two got even closer, they saw the skinny man say something to their teacher before he turned toward the flood zone. Out of nowhere, he lunged toward it just in time for Peter's eyes to focus on the small form peeking out of the water.
It was Tsuyu Asui, sitting like a deer in the headlights as the man's hand drew closer and closer to her face. Peter was running toward her before he even knew what was happening; he shot several bursts of webbing to try to do something, anything, that could help his classmate.
The world seemed to fall silent; he was only able to Rumi's hopping along with his own footsteps as they both raced toward the girl; Peter pushed his bruised legs as far as he could, ignoring how his muscles burned and screamed in overexertion.
He felt his mouth move as if to try and say something to help the situation, he didn't hear whatever it was. He so close, so close to getting there! One second and he'd reach her!
God, he wished he could somehow unhear her screams, somehow erase the sound from his mind.
The man's dry fingertips touched the short girl's face for less than a second, Peter finally reached the two, tackling the man and sending him skidding on the ground until he was sucked into a portal and reappeared beside the mist man while aggressively scratching his neck until the skin started to peel.
He sighed in relief at the momentary breather, he adopted a small smile as he turned back to his classmates. His heart caught in his throat when he saw the determined and confident expression Rumi always wore be replaced with silent horror as her eyes went wide.
Turning to Tsu, he nearly threw up at the sight he saw. Tsu was holding back pained tears as the places on her face around where the man's fingertips touched showed the muscle underneath her skin, as if the flesh had simply crumbled at the touch.
God, he almost couldn't look.
The rabbit and the spider both turned away and looked toward the trio of villains who simply observed them from afar, waiting for their next move. They both turned back and looked at each other with an expression that told more than words.
They needed to get out of here, now .
"Rumi! Take Tsu to the entrance, then come back and help me get Aizawa!" He told her, looking at the girl's ruby eyes through his cracked and shattered lenses. He only got a firm nod, the white-haired girl swiftly yet gently picking up the frog girl bridal style.
She looked back at him with a smile, one that seemed too gentle to be coming from her. "Don't die on me until I come back to help you out, alright?" And with that, she hopped away toward the staircase where the rest of the class gathered.
As he watched her hop away, he could only say one thing that only he would hear. "Promise."
The boy turned his gaze back on the unblinking… thing that had laid its hollow eyes on him, the tree villains simply waiting for him to make a move.
"Nomu." The raspy voice of the disintegration villain filled the air, his scratching following the sound. The creature immediately released its grip on the broken hero, its body ready to spring at any moment
Peter turned his head toward the man; even with the hand covering his face and the distance between them, he could see the grin that his chapped lips formed.
"Sic' em."
With a burst of speed, Peter was sent flying into the nearby trees before he could react to the blaring in his head. Once he began to pick his sore body off of the ground, the creature known as Nomu appeared out of nowhere, as if teleporting, and backhanded him away once more.
As he came crashing once again, he realized some things.
That promise might be harder to keep than he thought and how getting out of here would be even harder than that.
...
Rumi prided herself on her strength, on never backing down from any opponent or any challenge, no matter how hard to overcome it seemed, on her never showing fear in the face of danger.
Hell, not backing down from a challenge was the reason she decided to become a hero after she was told her quirk wasn't suited for heroics.
But seeing Aizawa so… broken; a hero, something that was supposed to be a larger-than-life figure, so utterly defeated, seeing that made the bravado she usually had start to slip away, but she held onto it anyway.
The sound of her feet landing before they left the ground again filled her ears, thankfully drowning out the small whimpers Tsu was giving off as she carried her in her arms.
It might be her seeing that hand fucker make Tsu's flesh rot away at a touch; it might've been the fact that she was in the midst of a bonafide villain attack that she had to fight for her survival in, or it might've been the general sight of what that monster did to her teacher.
Whatever it was, it made Rumi realize something.
She was afraid, she was god damn terrified.
He may have tried to hide it, but Peter was in the same boat as her. She could see the panic and downright terror in his eyes whenever he looked around.
She was fucking afraid for her life, but she wasn't gonna show it.
Not now, not while she could help self lives.
Her strong legs gave one final hop, and she landed at the main entrance to the training facility; she saw how the noise of her boots hitting the ground made several of her classmates turn to face her.
She couldn't help but let her features crunch up as she saw their relieved expression contort into silent horror at the sight of the girl in her hands.
"Oh my god…" The girl with the gravity quirk, who she was pretty sure was named Uraraka or something, covered her mouth and fell to her knees at seeing the injures the girl had, Rumi could clearly see the tears threatening to spill out of her eyes.
Others could console her; she didn't have the time for that.
Now now, at least.
"Oi! Shoji!" She called, doing her best to hide how her voice almost faltered and making the masked teen perked up from his spot next to the laying form of Tokoyami.
She hopped over to him and gently handed the girl to him, sighing as she saw him take the girl into a pair of his multiple arms. She looked down at the bird-headed boy and saw how his breaths came slow and labored; her eyes trailed toward his thigh and saw the bullet wound that was covered up by Peter's webbing.
That, on top of Tsu's injuries along with Peter's made her hands fall to her knees as her lungs took a quick breath.
...
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