Energy (D.P./M.H.A.)

. 1 5 .

"What did you want to talk about?"

Midoriya stood in the gallery of the apartment complex, leaning with his arms on the railing as he looked out over the city. Danny was next to him in a similar position, though he seemed to be more tense than he normally was.

"Nothing in particular, actually..."

Midoriya shot him a look.

"Don't go all sassy on me, I get it!" Danny defended himself with faux intimidation. His gaze shifted back to the town, where the late Monday-sun was setting. "Maybe I did want to talk about something in particular..."

"It was kind of obvious when you rang the doorbell saying you wanted to talk," Midoriya said. "Outside, where my mom could not hear us, without Sam and Tucker... I thought you three did everything together."

"It's kind of personal and I figured you don't want people to know..."

Midoriya immediately panicked. Had he figured him out? All Might? One For All? He never should've told Bakugou out loud in the open like that. What would All Might think!? Would he have to give up One For All? Could he even do that? Was—"

"It's about...Bakugou."

Midoriya lost some of the tense feeling in his shoulders and his anxiety die down, but it was immediately replaced with something he couldn't quite describe... Guilt? Shame? Embarrassment?

While Midoriya was contemplating life besides him, Danny sighed. "About today? With the sparring?" At seeing Midoriya nod, he continued. "I was thinking about how the two of you get along and an answer to the "why" part of the question. Is it true you call him Kacchan since you were kids?"

"How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess," Danny lied. "You two seem familiar, but not in a friendly kind of relationship. Want to elaborate?"

Midoriya looked at his hands as they clenched around the metal bars of the railing. "I kind of don't, but I'm guessing you're not letting go of this any time soon, are you?"

"Nope."

"It's...complicated. I know they say that all the time, but this..." He sighed as he unclenched his fists and let his hands rest on the railing. "We've known each other since we were...about three, maybe four. Friends, I think. He'd get in trouble with that confident smile and I'd follow him every single time he had a new plan. That confidence...as a four year old, you look up to that."

"He changed."

"N-No! I don't think he changed. He's still the same human being," Midoriya jumped in. "He didn't change drastically, anyway. We still played together, but..." He sighed and hung lower over the railing. "I followed, he didn't want me to, but I kept doing it. For reasons."

"So he gets to boss you around."

"He's not bossing me around," Midoriya frowned. "He's—"

"Bossing you around!" Danny exclaimed. Midoriya blushed in embarrassment and looked away, but Danny wasn't backing down. "You let yourself get told off, beaten up, tossed around like you're below him. Like you're some expandable doll that he gets to play with, and as soon as your stitches break you get thrown out. But you stitch yourself together and waddle right back into his playing room! You might not be noticing it, but you're a toy in his eyes. Midoriya, you're not! You said it yourself. 'He's still the same human being.'" Danny's voice turned into a whisper.

"Aren't you as well?"

Though Midoriya had not been completely agreeing with Danny then, he understood what he'd meant. Danny wasn't chastising him running after Bakugou at all, but putting up with the shit he did to him.

Bakugou huffed with a smirk as Midoriya's stare hardened. "Really, Nerd? That all you got?"

"Oh he's got plenty more."

Bakugou cursed as a mist started spreading over the floor, rolling over the ground until it was up to their knees. "What the hell is this stuff?"

"Leave this place or I'll shoot her," Midoriya threatened, tightening the grip on the handle and abandoning the subject for now. His finger got dangerously close to pulling the trigger as he softly jabbed it into Uraraka's back.

Bakugou started at the mist as realisation hit him. This was Fenton's doing as well, wasn't it? "Oi! Nerd number two! I assume you took out the others?" he yelled into the trees.

"Why Bakugou, such smart deductions," Danny chuckled. The echo in his voice made Bakugou frown through his glare. "Yeah they're out. Took a little longer than expected, but still."

"Leave or I'll shoot," Midoriya reminded him.

Bakugou looked at Tokoyami, the forest, the mist and Midoriya before coming to a decision. He raised his gun back up and looked Midoriya straight in his eyes. "Don't bother."

Uraraka's vest changed to red.

"...Uraraka's been hit..!" All Might announced. "You may leave the premises." He sounded surprised, but not in a positive way. He watched the monitors closely as Uraraka left through a tunnel that appeared in the mist, mumbling...things under her breath.

"It's two against two, now," Bakugou said. "Let's finish this."

Dark Shadow was only barely fast enough to block the shot Danny fired from behind Tokoyami, having turned to only protect Tokoyami from Midoriya, and swiveled around him to absorb the infra-red. Tokoyami rolled to the side, coming to a halt behind Bakugou, standing back to back with him. Dark Shadow formed a circle around the two, creating a shield. "I can't see him, and he's too fast," he muttered angrily as he looked around the edge of the clearing, where mist was forming a barricade. He could've sworn he saw something move on his left.

"You worry about Fenton," Bakugou huffed. He grinned as he saw Midoriya pale, being completely vulnerable without his 'shield'. "I'll take care of this one."

Midoriya yelped as he was pulled back into the fog by his hood. He could hear Bakugou and Tokoyami being confused behind the curtain of mist and grinned at Danny, who smiled sheepishly at him as apology. He mouthed a 'thanks' and stood back up. At this point, they were completely free-styling it. Their plan had never included Uraraka getting taken out, but now that they were here, it offered multiple options.

"You damn nerds!"

"We gotta move," Danny said silently as he pulled Midoriya along. "Dark Shadow's gonna be a problem. We're never gonna hit anyone if he keeps on moving like that."

"So we take out Tokoyami so Dark Shadow can't protect them anymore," Midoriya muttered as they came to a halt behind a thicker tree. "But how can we take out Tokoyami so Dark Shadow can't protect them anymore? It's a loop."

Danny nodded as he looked through the mist. He could see the two move, but only slightly. He turned back to Midoriya, saying, "He absorbs the light, right?"

"I think that's what he does."

"So it's like a battery," Danny concluded. "Tokoyami might be the source, but Dark Shadow has his own energy limit. And if we overload that..."

"We render him unable to use his Quirk!" he smiled happily at having figured out a plan, but frowned as he continued. "There's one problem, though. If we want to 'overload' Dark Shadow, we're going to need a lot of energy, and the guns don't exactly shoot huge amounts. We don't have enough energy."

Danny smirked slyly and held up his hand. Midoriya's eyes widened as it lit up with green flame-looking energy.

"We do."