Chapter Text
It couldn't be happening, there's no way it could be happening right now. Bakugou heard a high pitch ringing in his ears. His breathing was ragged and labored, one of his eyes swollen shut and blood trickling from his...at that point he couldn't pinpoint where the blood was coming from; he had wounds covering every inch of his body. He emerged from the demolished building, the civilians who once occupied it evacuated by his partner Deku long ago. He took it upon himself to deal with the villain, a woman able to manipulate Earth and concrete. Her Quirk reminded him of Pixie-Bob's, but this woman almost seemed to be one with the Earth. With a wave of her hand, she was able to destroy a whole ten story office building. If Deku hadn't been able to evacuate everyone before it caved...Bakugou didn't want to think about that.
Bakugou was normally able to dodge villains' attacks, using his explosions as both an offensive and evasive measure. This woman however, was able to create projectiles made of concrete, hurling them at Bakugou from all angles. He couldn't blow up every single one, how did he not blow up every single one? How did he allow her to sneak up behind him and attack? It was almost as if the ground swallowed her and she was able to move underground. She managed to get a good hit in, her fist connecting to his left eye. And before Baukgou could blast her to Hell, he ended up trapped beneath more rubble.
With a mighty roar and a single enormous blast, Bakugou emerged from the rubble, his injuries causing him to wince and stagger. With his one good eye, he scanned the area to find the villain in question; he was ready to blast the bitch to smithereens. He was beyond pissed, he was gonna blow her up and-
"KYAAHAHHAA!! Awww look at the big strong hero Ground Zero all beat up before me."
The woman was standing a few meters away on a pile of broken concrete. She had shoulder length platinum blonde hair with a form fitting brown and gray jumpsuit. Her eyes were sunflower yellow and her facial expression was...deranged. Her eyes had a murderous gleam to them and her smile was sinister. Bakugou smirked at her before he howled in pain; his ribs were broken and he couldn't move his feet. He looked down to realize that the woman had him trapped in place, rock and concrete engulfed everything below his knees. The woman laughing forced him to snap his attention back to her.
"As you can see, my power is geokinesis, I can control everything that Earth and mineral based. Concrete too. It has its uses, used for attacks and my protection you know. And it can keep enemies at bay." She smiled in Bakugou's direction and snickered.
"I hope all remember the name Gemma, the name of the villain who defeated the mighty Ground Zero!"
With a dramatic flourish, Gemma raised her hand above her head, her hair moving outward and her eyes completely turning a shade of tan. There was a loud rumble, and to the hero's horror, a large sharp piece of the building levitated in front of him. His eyes widened as the projectile hovered in front of him.
If that thing hits me, there's no coming back from it. I don't think I have enough strength to form a big enough blast to break it. Shit!
Bakugou stared in anticipation at the floating piece of building hovered in front of him, stuck in place and too weak to defend himself properly. His eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he tried, in vain, to escape. Gemma's psychotic laughter rang out in the air until it suddenly stopped. Bakugou looked on in confusion as the villain suddenly disappeared in a gold blur and as the piece of building dropped in a loud crash and his restraints crumbled. From pure exhaustion, he fell over as he caught a glimpse of the golden blur making quick work of Gemma. His vision started to fade to black and the world start to go silent, well not before he heard Deku's signature voice screaming "GROUND ZERO! ERASER! WE NEED RECOVERY GIRL READY AND ON STANDBY...."
When Bakugou opened his eyes, a bright fluorescent light greeted him and caused his eyes to sting a little. He squinted and sat up, wincing in slight pain and looking down to fully examine himself. He was in a hospital bed, an IV tube injected into his left arm, and bandages up and down his right one. His ribs still hurt him and as he felt his face, he felt gauze on his right cheek.
What the fuck happened?
He tried to remember exactly what happened that day; he remembers fighting some busted C-list villain with rock controlling powers and (much to his embarrassment) was nearly killed by her. He rolled his eyes and sighed an exasperated sigh.
I can't believe I let that bitch bust me up. Am I losing my touch? What the hell am I saying? There's no fucking way that's possible! I'm Ground Zero, one of the top three heroes! It'll take a lot more to kill me. Still though, that was close.
"Glad to see you're awake Kacchan."
Bakugou was pulled from his thoughts as he locked eyes with the person that greeted him. Of course it was the damned nerd and the current #1 hero: Deku. Their relationship was so much more positive than their UA days (even if they graduated only three years ago). However, Katsuki still harbored some sort of jealousy, even after all these years; Deku was All Might's chosen one and the current #1 hero. It's not the same angry hatred he had for him when they were younger, but healthy jealousy that made him want to be better.
"Hey you damned nerd, what the hell happened?"
Midoriya sighed and looked at his other half of the Wonder Duo. He pulled up a chair next to Katsuki's bed so that he could be face to face with him. Midoriya cringed as he saw how battered the blond was, a constant reminder of how he nearly died that day. The way Bakugou laid crumpled and broken like a rag doll and how his breathing was labored and raspy, his eye swollen shut and blood leaking from him. Midoriya wanted to vomit, bile threatening to creep up; he felt disgusted with how he couldn't help Bakugou when he needed it. But the citizens, they needed to be evacuated to safety and Bakugou was more than capable of fending for himself and taking down a villain. Maybe they'd just underestimated her, it happens from time to time.
But none of the villains we've faced lately have been that powerful, even if it's simple geokinesis. Is it possible she had a secondary Quirk? I should've taken some notes on her before the police arrived....
Izuku didn't even realize he was muttering until Katsuki yelled at him.
"Stop all that damn muttering you nerd! Just fill me in on what the fuck happened."
"Oh! Right, sorry about that Kacchan. Let's see, the incident took place near Tokyo Station and it was supposed to be a simple mission. The villain had geokinetic powers that we grossly underestimated. Turns out she had a better grasp on her abilities and more destructive power than we initially gave her credit for. She's responsible for destroying multiple powers with just a wave of her hand. And she's the one who...y'know...knocked you out."
Midoriya winced as he could feel the anger radiating from the bed ridden man. Whether or not Katsuki was mad at him, he didn't know and he didn't dare to ask. Even though they had graduated and quickly made their way to the top three with Shoto and were adults, Midoriya knew that Bakugou still had an awful temper. He saw Bakugou inhale deeply and count to ten (a method that his anger management coach taught him) before he turned to him and asked, "Do you know anything about the gold streak?"
Midoriya blinked twice before rubbing his neck and sighing. He put a serious look on his face before he lowered his tone. His emerald green eyes stared into Bakugou's ruby ones as he began to speak. "Yeah. You were mumbling about a gold streak knocking her out. So I got a little information." Katsuki raised an eyebrow at that.
"I didn't hurt her or intimidate her or anything! Just asked the police to let me listen in on the interrogation. And well...."
"LET ME OUTTA HERE! I'M NOT DONE PLAYING YET!" The villain that nearly killed Bakugou was thrashing around the interrogation room. Chained to the table, which was bolted to the floor, Gemma screamed at the top of her lungs to be released. Her sunflower yellow eyes wild and bloodshot as tears pricked at them, her platinum blonde hair in disarray and her jumpsuit tattered and bloody. Izuku stood with the chief of police looking into the room on the other side of the one way glass.
"Do you think she'll talk?" Midoriya turned to the chief. The man stood with his arms crossed and shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe. If we give her some incentive she might. A shorter sentence, dropped charges, who knows?"
"Worth a shot."
Both men nodded as the chief of police sent in one of his best detectives, a young man by the name of Shizu Ikura, to chat with Gemma to get more information from her. The man pulled a chair up to face the woman, a small and polite smile on his face. She stopped thrashing to sneer at him.
"I won't talk, pretty boy."
Ikura quietly chuckled. 'So she's one of the tough acting types, huh? Easy to break.' He spoke to her, "I figured as much. With all the carnage you caused, you're facing a long time in prison. If I were you I wouldn't want to talk either."
She sat still, her hair a mess and her bangs hanging over part of her face, hiding it. She knew she couldn't hurt anyone anyway, the damn cops slapped quirk dampening cuffs on her and made sure there was nothing mineral based for an extra measure. Dammit she was at their mercy!
Ikura leaned forward and cocked his head to the side. "Look, I can make sure the judge can decrease your sentence. Get you a good lawyer. Maybe get you rehabilitated. All you gotta do is tell me who beat you up."
He was met with silence.
"It's clear that it wasn't a hero that took you down. And I doubt a fellow villain would get involved in a situation like that at a time like that. That only leaves one possibility and I think we both know what that is. If you talk to me, I can make sure that they are put in a cell."
Izuku stared with a hardened gaze. He wasn't sure that the detective could get Gemma to talk, she wouldn't even look his way. Izuku was ready to the chief forget it when he saw a faint white smoke come from the said detective. It engulfed the interrogation room and caused the villain to choke and cough, unable to cover her mouth and nose and effectively inhaling whatever it was in the room.
The smoke cleared as fast as it appeared. Gemma had her head hung low and slow rose it to meet the detective's smiling gaze. Her eyes were a cloudy, pastel yellow and seemed...glazed. Ikura smiled and sweetly asked, "Can you tell me who attacked you?"
Gemma's head lolled to the side as she began to speak. "Yeah. A vigilante kicked me. I've heard of her before. She goes by the name of Stellar Nova. Some say she's too powerful to be a hero, and that she can take on every pro hero and walk away without a scratch. Some say she's out of this world. You can't catch her."
Bakugou clung on to every word that Deku told him. A vigilante saved him? In broad daylight? There's only 4 known vigilantes and he assumed that most other vigilantes wanted to work at night anyway, to be out of the public eye and the limelight.
"No way this chick is that powerful. She can solo every Pro Hero? What a load of bullshit."
"If it's true-"
"That's a big 'if' Deku."
"If it's true Katsuki, that's incredibly dangerous. What if she were to go rogue?"
Katsuki hadn't thought about that actually. What if this mystery woman did turn into a villain, sounds like she'd be just as bad as All-For-One. And yet she saved Katsuki, so he needed to meet her at least. Not to say thanks but to beat it into her skull that he could take care of himself! (That's what he repeatedly told himself, anyway). And Deku used Katsuki's actual given name, meaning he was dead serious about the matter.
He had to know, "So what did you have in mind Deku?"
"Eh?"
"I know you, you shitty nerd, you're thinking up something dumb or reckless...possibly both."
Deku sighed and ran a scarred hand through his messy green hair. "I was thinking of trying to find her on our own."
"So you wanna play detective?"
"Kacchan she saved your life! Don't you think we should at least thank her?"
"Weren't you there when that dumbass villain said it? She apparently can't be caught."
"Sounds like something Deku and Ground Zero can prove wrong." Midoriya gained a lot of confidence over the years, especially after he and Katsuki took over Endeavor's hero agency the year prior. If anyone was gonna catch this woman, it'd be them. Besides, they won't have to tell anyone. Asking a couple of questions wouldn't be illegal...right? He heard a tch sound before Katsuki teased him. "When did you get so ballsy Deku?"
Midoriya joked back, "In our line of work you kinda have to be ballsy sometimes."
Bakugou hummed at that and leaned back in his hospital bed. His head began to spin and he wanted to go to sleep. Midoriya took note of this and got up, grabbing the chair and putting it back in its original place. He walked toward the door and before he could turn the knob he heard Kacchan speak to him: "I'm in nerd. Let these wounds heal first then we can get to tracking this broad down."
Midoriya nodded and smiled his dazzling smile he saved for civilians. He's beyond glad Katsuki is his hero partner, the other half of the Wonder Duo and...as cheesy as it sounds, one of the main constants in his life.
"Get well soon, Kacchan."