Chapter 42 - Favor

"No," a quiet whimper escaped Bakugou's lips. He rose from his crouch and began to walk to you, forgetting where he was, the heat of battle washed from his thoughts.

"No. No. No. No! No! NO!"

The sharp sting of a claw ripped into his back. He spun. The helplessness was replaced with fury and passion, rage and murder. He released explosion after explosion, pulse after pulse, stalking closer to the exit, his scarlet eyes a beacon in the blaze. When the smoke cleared enough, he saw the white-haired villain was unconscious on the floor. The blue-haired man tried to scramble for the stairs, fear in his eyes but Bakugou was past heroics. He lifted the man by his shirt, not caring if he got clawed in the process and slammed him against the wall. As the man slid down stunned, Bakugou unleashed a fury of punches to his head, torso and stomach.

Bakugou pulled back and collapsed on his knees staring at the battered men. His breath was ragged, and his chest heaved violently. Then he turned to face you.

"[y/n]?" He couldn't remember standing but somehow made it in front of you. He ran his fingers over the smooth stone. Your hood, your shoulders, down your arms. He placed his own hands into your upturned grasp. Your eyes were frozen in a determined glare and he nearly laughed. "My perfect badass."

Tears began streaming from his eyes. "I'm gonna fix this. I'm going to save you." He stood there, staring at your immobile form for several minutes, wishing he could free you with just thoughts and prayers.

Silence. An icy chill ran down his spine.

No one's coming.

"I'll be back." On instinct he kissed your stony cheek, managing to tare himself away. The two men in the basement wouldn't be moving anytime soon. Bakugou tore up the stairs and out of the building. He scanned around for the police cars surrounding the science center and his heart dropped.

Stone. Stone. Everyone was stone.

He ran back into the building, this time to the first floor. A large dark explosion cratered the far wall and he headed toward it cautiously. A black-haired villain lay unconscious on the floor next to a fume hood teaming with bottles of acids and solvents. Burns and boils dotted the man's exposed skin.

Bakugou turned around, searching for the second assailant and the professional heroes.

"GODDAMMIT!" he screamed into nothingness as he rounded a corner and saw Endeavor and Pompei frozen in place, Endeavor's boot on the back of the last villain, a deep scar running down his face, a bag of pills sprayed across the floor.

***

"DO YOU HAVE A LANDLINE?!" Bakugou rushed across the street and into the nearest restaurant.

"A what?" a timid middle-aged woman shuddered. He must have looked insane, covered in ash, sweat, and probably a good amount of blood.

"A FUCKING PHONE!" The woman passed him the phone behind the hostess stand and ran to the kitchens. Bakugou dialed the emergency services.

"Tokyo Emergency Services, what's your emergency please?" a bouncy female voice echoed through the speaker. Bakugou took a deep breath. Screaming wouldn't get him anywhere.

"My name is Bakugou Katsuki, hero name Ground Zero. I'm a UA student and an intern at the Endeavor Agency. I'm at the Keio University Science Building. Everyone..." he felt his breath catch. "Everyone's been turned to stone."

"Who is everyone? And did you say stone sir?" Her chipper voice made him more anxious.

"Endeavor, his sidekick Pompei, intern Cinder, were all in the building. They're all stone and so are all the police officers outside. Villains are still in the building. They're unconscious but they need to be arrested."

"I will alert the authorities and other members of the Endeavor Hero Agency. Can you stay on the line?"

"No. I don't know if the villains will wake up. I have to protect the people who turned to stone." His breathing started growing erratic again, the panic of 'what-ifs'.

"Sir, I recognize you're a hero student, but you shouldn't go back into that building again until we know what caused the..." Bakugou slammed down the receiver and stalked back to the building, heading directly for the basement.

***

Bakugou wanted to follow you to the hospital but the officers who came to the scene insisted he return with them to the police station. The villains were arrested and taken away in a dark van.

Bakugou had watched, empty, as several strong men pushed your lifeless form into the back of an ambulance, being careful not to chip any of the stone. Sidekicks from the Endeavor agency had come to the scene, both out of duty and fear for their boss. A crew of sidekicks, including Burnin', slowly brought out Endeavor and Pompei's bodies from the science building, loading them into ambulances as well.

But now he sat in an interrogation room at the police station. He nearly killed someone when the officers placed shackles on his hands to contain his quirk.

This is such a fucking waste of time!

It was a stupid precaution, but he reluctantly understood. They didn't know that he hadn't turned on his team.

"WILL SOMEONE FUCKING TALK TO ME?!" Bakugou shouted at the one-way mirror on the wall, then again to the camera peaking from the corner of the room.

Twenty minutes went by. Then an hour. Bakugou fidgeted. If they were trying to make him sweat, they were wasting their time. He had nothing to hide. He just wanted to get back to you.

Finally, a tall man with dark hair, wearing a neat suit walked into the room holding a folder. Tsukauchi.

"FUCKING FINALLY," Bakugou huffed. "Listen, I need to get back to Cinder. She-" he was cut off as Tsukauchi slapped the folder down on the table before him and sat on its edge.

"Why are you the only one that didn't turn to stone?" Tsukauchi didn't have the same jovial, understanding tone as the last time Bakugou had seen him. His eyes were wary.

"I DON'T FUCKING KNOW! A chemical explosion went off in the building. Cinder spotted the villains flee for the exit, so she stopped them. We engaged and the next thing I knew she was standing behind me and she was..." his words faded away.

"We didn't even see Endeavor and Pompei after we split up to go to the basement. After she... turned, I took down the two assholes in the basement, then made my way upstairs to check on the other suspects. They were out cold but Endeavor and Pompei were stone. Then I ran across the fucking street and called you guys." Tsukauchi jotted a few things down on his pad.

Bakugou was getting angrier. Tsukauchi had said nothing, just stared at him, eyes narrowed, almost skeptical.

"WHY THE FUCK WOULD I DO THIS TO MY OWN GODDAMN GIRLFRIEND!?" Bakugou blurted out. This at least seemed to rattle Tsukauchi.

"Your girlfriend?"

"Yes. Cinder and I..."

"How long?"

"Does that fucking matter?!" Tsukauchi raised an eyebrow. "A few months." Bakugou looked down at his shackles, wishing he could wring his hands together. He resorted to bouncing his knee instead to release some of his anxiety.

"She was obsessed with figuring out what was going on with that first stone guy, Saito whatever. She was convinced it had something to do with that Hacker prick Hermes told us about, the one who fucked with the electronic chips. She thought that Saito's walkie talk-" Bakugou paused. Tsukauchi watched as the blond boy's eyes bounced around the table, as if doing a puzzle in his mind.

"It was the fucking com," Bakugou mumbled to himself.

"The what?"

"THE FUCKING COM!" A sudden exhilaration filled Bakugou, and he tried to jump out of his seat but felt the restraint of chains. "My com wasn't working, low battery or some shit. I took it out and was relying on Cinder's to get updates. I was the only one not wearing one – Cinder, Endeavor, Pompei, all the officers outside, they were all communicating on the same channel!"

Tsukauchi seemed to ponder his statement for a long while. The Hermes case had gone cold since Kyoto, but he'd had a sneaking suspicion that it would resurface. Bakugou himself had reported that one of the goons at the Gorgon mentioned the possibility of a new distributor. What if this was their plan?

"Where did you get your headsets?" he finally asked.

"They gave them to us at the agency." Tsukauchi frowned, his brows creasing.

"Do you still have yours?"

"They put everything in my pockets into some bag when I got here," Bakugou hissed. Tsukauchi stood and walked to the door, cracking it and calling out to someone out of Bakugou's line of sight. He closed it and came to sit at the table again.

A few minutes later a knock sounded on the door. A slim, pink-haired officer handed Tsukauchi a small baggie containing a headset. Tsukauchi thanked her before opening the plastic with some hesitation. He snapped on a pair of latex gloves before grabbing the earpiece, wary of its potential.

Bakugou tilted his head as Tsukauchi rolled the headset between his fingers, looking at it from every angle.

"Katto, please take this to the IT department, see if there's anything unusual about it." The officer took the plastic bag, once again containing the headset, and left the room. Tsukauchi stood and pulled out a pair of keys from his pocket. He leaned over to Bakugou and began unlocking the shackles.

"I'm sorry we had to take these precautions, but you must understand where we're coming from." The cuffs released and Bakugou shrugged them off, rubbing his now free wrists.

"Now that you know it's the coms, what are you gonna do about it?" Bakugou's eyes were demanding. He needed to know that something would be done about this, that your state wouldn't be the end of an investigate chalked up to 'unknown circumstances'.

"Our tech department will look into it. If we can ban certain channels or change certain hardware, we will. We're taking this on faith more than facts for the time being." Bakugou stood from his chair as Tsukauchi shoved the keys back into his pocket.

"Can I go?" Bakugou huffed, itching to find you. Tsukauchi merely nodded and walked to the door, holding it open for Bakugou to pass.

***

The hospital wasn't as hectic as Bakugou had anticipated. Surely with nine new stone victims, one of which was the number one hero, there would be a bit more urgency. He stalked toward the information desk.

"I'm looking for [l/n] [f/n]. She was one of the stone victims today," Bakugou put as much command into his voice as he could. He stood straight, gauntlets freshly strapped to his wrists. The woman behind the desk nearly yelped when she looked up at him.

"I'm... I'm sorry but the doctors are examining them right now." Her nerves were obvious as Bakugou stared her down. He ground his teeth.

"This just in, the number one hero Endeavor-" Bakugou spun to face a television attached to the bubblegum pink wall. A navy-haired woman was standing in front of the university science building, a microphone at her lips- "has fallen victim to the same fate as officer Saito Ryou earlier this month. On a drug raid only a few hours ago, here at Keio University, Endeavor, along with his sidekick Pompei, a UA intern, and six officers were all mysteriously turned to stone." Bakugou's heart tightened at the words 'UA intern'.

"All involved have been transported to the hospital and are being seen to. Unfortunately, Saito-san has yet to be returned to his flesh and blood form so we can only hope and pray for the new victims of this threat. This is Kito Ami, Channel 4 news." Bakugou felt his nails dig into his palms, even through the thick leather of his gloves.

"The intern?" the woman behind the desk asked gently. Bakugou turned his gaze on her, much softer this time. The tension in his shoulders beginning to sag, he no longer looked quite so intimidating. He nodded. "If you give me your number, I can have one of the nurses call you if anything changes. Do you know if she has any family we should contact?"

Me.

"Her mother, [l/n] Ana has been staying at the Okawa rehabilitation facility in Saitama. I... I don't have her number." The woman passed over a stack of post-its and a pen.

"Just yours then. We can find her." Her smile was kind and reassuring, a good trait for a hospital worker. Bakugou scribbled his digits onto the neon pink paper.

***

A week went by. No news. No breakthroughs. No visits. Nothing.

The Endeavor agency had dismissed him. They were in too much of a freefall to handle interns at the moment.

Bakugou had nearly broken down as he forced himself to clean out your locker. He grabbed extra masks, folders full of notes and observations, and a single photograph of the two of you from the beach.

Mina had insisted on vacation pictures and ran around taking candid shots. She had managed to capture a rare moment of Bakugou sweeping your hair from your face, smiling gently as you beamed up at him, the sunset's oranges and purples reflecting off the sea. He turned the picture over.

'Me and my Katsuki. The sea is great, but I'd always rather be looking at you! 8 Aug' A small heart dotted the exclamation point. Bakugou held the photograph to his chest and gulped, fighting the emotions than bubbled to the surface. He remembered the moment perfectly. You had been so beautiful, so carefree, so... not stone. He placed the photograph into one of the many folders and grabbed your empty costume case before heading back to campus.

With his newfound free time, he dove into anything he could think of to help you. He broke the knob on your door after two days and rummaged through all your notes. He'd seen you scribbling furiously on bits of napkins, corners of notebook pages, any scrap of paper. You had so many ideas and theories.

But goddammit [y/n], why did you have to write everything in English?!

Bakugou spent days translating your incoherent ramblings, devouring the messages hidden inside, greedily searching for any clue of how to save you.

The squad knew to stay out of his way. His fuse was short. At the mere mention of your name he was likely to send out an explosion or at the very least a punch. His mind became consumed with your suspicions.

But still nothing.

***

Another week.

Todoroki asked about you and even Endeavor. Bakugou couldn't give him any answers passed what had been revealed in the news. He merely warned not to trust the Hero Association coms.

Another week.

Kirishima found himself ordering food from your favorite takeout places, trying to enjoy himself at karaoke, re-watching television shows and movies you'd watched together, trying to relive the memories of you being there. He didn't bother trying to fight the frustrated tears that fell. With no news or contact he felt helpless.

So, he did the only thing he could think of. He put himself in the line of fire and sparred with Bakugou each night, allowing the boy to take out as much aggression as he could. If Kirishima missed you this painfully, he could only imagine how Bakugou felt.

Another week.

Bakugou went through the motions. Wake, class, eat, train, study, sleep, repeat. He could barely focus when he did homework or studied, his thoughts always shifting to you. Some days he missed meals.

The theories dried up. The depression wrapped around him like a blanket he couldn't shrug off.

***

The hospital finally allowed visitors after a month. Bakugou pulled on a denim jacket, the days cooler in October, and made his way to the hospital.

The hallways seemed too quiet as he approached your room. Only the harsh fluorescent lights hummed throughout the building. He glanced up as he approached room 627. The lights inside were off, no need to waste electricity on stone figures. He turned the knob and entered, flicking the lights on.

His heart caught in his throat when he saw you. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting to feel but seeing you standing in the exact same position as a month ago, still dark grey, unmoving stone, he could barely breathe.

The way you'd run, the way you'd pinned him down, the way you'd whip your tendrils in a fight – it felt so wrong not to see you in motion. But more than your hero work, your inability to take his hand, to kiss him, to smile, tore into him like a knife.

After a long moment he took a hesitant step forward. Then another, and another, finally resting before you. He touched the cool stone of your fingertips, still raised to the sky. He released a deep sigh.

"I don't know how to save you [y/n]," he finally croaked out. "It's been a month and we're no closer to finding a cure. But I'm not going to give up. I promise." Tears stung his cheeks. Unencumbered, he let them fall.

He reached up and touched your hood, wishing so badly that he could pull it back to look into your [e/c] eyes. The eyes that served up naughty glances and provocative effect. The eyes that could glow red and turn you into the fiercest badass he'd ever met. The eyes that had been vulnerable with him when you'd told him your secrets. The eyes that he had looked forward to seeing open sleepily each morning with the sunrise.

"Because I don't want to do this without you. You say all the shit I need to hear. You make me better. You make me more patient. You make me kinder. I laugh harder with you. I feel more myself with you. I trust you with me, the real me. When something goes wrong, or right, or I hear something funny, or I see something batshit crazy, you're the first person I want to talk to it about." He turned from you and wiped his eyes, as if you'd judge him.

"I'm calling in my favor." He faced your stony facade again. "Come back to me. Come back to me so I can get over my petty shit and tell you all that. Come back to me so I can tell you I love you."