MHA : Shoto Todoroki - Modern-day Terrorist

Lightning crackled, a thousand birds chirped, blue light flashed across All for One's terrified face.

A mop of red and white stepped in between him and Enji, hiding him from All for One's view.

There was a deafening boom. Shattered glass flew everywhere.

Enji barely managed to catch two flashes – blue and red – that flew in the sky, colliding against each other, separating and meeting again, the sound of mountains clashing echoing with the might of a thunderclap.

Someone was standing before him.

"Shoto ?"

The boy – as tense as a bow - glanced at his father over his shoulder.

"I'm just a clone, Dad", his eyes crinkled. "Security, if you'd prefer"

Enji frowned, trying to wrap his head around the hows and whys.

"How… ?"

He could not even formulate properly his question ; he didn't even understand where they'd come from or why they chose to appear now.

Was it some spell or magic alarm that Shoto put on Enji that'd make these clones spawn when he was in danger ?

"Ah..." The boy rubbed his cheek sheepishly. "I'm not sure I'm supposed to tell you that. Boss wouldn't be happy if I did"

There was a thunderous boom, more powerful than the previous ones, then the blue flash was shot down from the sky.

It rebounded on lava hills, left deep trails in the ground as it came to a startling stop right next to the first clone.

It was another Shoto.

There were two Shoto before Enji, none of whom were his son.

Close 2 assessed Enji's condition – his eyes were red, spinning, contrary to the other.

"He's hurt", he groaned. "Heal him"

His eyes snapped to a reddish hill far away, eyes locked on something Enji couldn't possibly spot.

Clone 2 disappeared as fast as he'd come.

He zigzagged between titanic lava pillars that looked like extended arms, frozen fingers reaching for the sky, so fast he did not leave an afterimage.

All for One was half-crouched, wheezing, red eyes locked far ahead on Shoto and his father.

The hair on the back of his neck shot up.

He spun around, black protrusions shooting up from his chest as a crackling Chidori went through them like butter.

The high-pitched lightning screams turned murderous as Shoto pushed forward.

He hit All for One's collarbone, and skin and bone instantly turned to mush, blood wetting both their faces.

The blue light reflected in his eyes, highlighting his sadistic glee.

Shoto dragged his hand downwards, carving a path of crushed flesh and destroyed bones to his heart.

All for One reached for his arm but as soon as his right hand came in contact with the glowing, crackling orb, it was obliterated.

The pain did not even register : only sheer panic.

His protection field kicked in once more, yet too late to preserve him.

Shoto was flung backward, crackling orb in his palm following.

The boy, understanding what was happening, shut his fist close.

Previously stable, the orb lost focus and exploded in a sonic blue wave. Unstable bolts whacked wildly around, as if lions let loose, hitting everything around it.

Lava pooling on the ground was roused by the sheer energy, bubbling and rising slightly, agitated.

All for One grit his teeth as the first bouts of blue electricity hit his burned, torn, broken body.

Black lightning hovered over his skin, acting as a shield against the unstable energy, yet not fully able to keep it at bay.

"Listen !", he hissed through gritted teeth. "I do not wish to-"

Lava burst like a tsunami from under Shoto's shoes.

All for One cursed and flew back, senses tingling.

He felt as much as he saw lava rise from the ground, reaching to him like greedy hands to snatch.

All for One Shot upwards, the lava tentacles growing higher, Shoto hot on his heels, Hell Flame in full force.

The lava tentacles turned to lava arrows ; they shot at breakneck speed.

Air gathered at the door of All for One's mouth, a small, compact ball that grew denser with each passing moment.

It swished as it flew out of All for One's lips, cutting the very air, and letting hurricane-worthy winds in its wake.

The lava arrows lost consistency, blown away, lava sputtering sadly hitting the ground.

Clone 2 had already shunshined atop the palm of the closest lava hands to All for One.

Sharp ice knives appeared in his palms and he bounced forward when All for One was at giant wrist level.

They clashed repeatedly, lightning and hurricane colliding, black clouds full of ashes rolling dangerously over their heads.

Clone 2 didn't call over a lightning storm because he had to conserve energy and he was already wasting enough as it was.

All for One couldn't afford to let this fight go on longer, couldn't afford to fight in his condition, yet Todoroki had sought a fight that he wasn't allowed to back down from.

All for One's stolen eyes may have not worked on Shoto, but he was still able – how, he couldn't explain – to tell when it was the boy he was fighting and when it was one of his doppelgangers.

He'd noticed precisely when they'd spawn out of Enji's neck as if hidden in a dimensional pocket under his skin for this very moment.

Whether he won or lost, All for One was doomed.

He knew that if he killed Enji, his son would hunt him down to hell.

He knew that if he fled, Enji would ask his son to hunt him down to hell.

Either way, he was doomed, and he didn't even understand why.

He hadn't been so distressed in decades.

The only option he had was to gain an advantage for their next encounter and hightail as fast as he could before the true Shoto got here.

And, he thought grimly as he took the deformed beach, there was only one thing he could get his hands on that could make this fight worth it.

Farther away, Clone 1 worked on Enji, green glow encasing his hands as they carefully brushed against his broken wrist.

Enji, at first very still, relaxed when he realized there was no more pain.

"He's buying us time", Clone 2 explained, now working his way to the broken arm. "We have to leave right now. I'll seal the place, and then the other can-"

"No"

Enji's answer had been categorical.

Shoto - because even if it wasn't him, something in Enji stirred when he saw this painfully familiar face – frowned.

"This is not a negotiation"

"I am your father" Sort of. "And if I say we stay here and we fight, we'll stay here and we'll fight"

The clone carefully assessed the situation, noticing how tense Enji was.

Shoto – the original – had put a seal locking two clones in Enji despite knowing that it wasn't stable and could lead to premature cancer.

To avoid this issue, he'd greatly lowered the chakra ratio of both clones sealed : the one fighting would have 15% of his chakra, and the other one – the one made for getting their father as far away as possible from danger – a measly 10%.

Their instructions had been very clear from the start.

Enji healed, clone 2 raised his hands, placating.

"As you wish"

He encased himself in a notice-me-not genjutsu, drawing blood from his thumb with a quick snap of his teeth.

Enji's eyes glided over him, dazed, looking at the sky where dark clouds shone blue and then red.

He could not spot any more trails of bright light.

He hoped – despite knowing that it was not his son – that Shoto would be alright and... Did that mean that when one of them disappeared, his son would know instantly what Enji was getting to ?

His eyes snapped to where he knew Clone 1 was, but as soon as he spotted him his eyes grew glazed. He looked away, any thoughts concerning him forgotten.

Clone 2, crouching, drew bloody symbols on hardened sand-turned-rock.

Using his own Hell Flame to get up there would've been foolish ; with one look All for One would've cut off his energy supply and he'd have fallen stories, forcing Shoto to save him and advantaging All for One.

Thus, Enji did the only thing he could : he picked up his gun.

Lava bubbled around him, humming as if it were a living creature, pooling and twirling gently around his ankles.

Even among Todoroki, he'd always had a peculiar knack for lava bending.

The lava creatures were Enji's innovation ; whereas Teka saw big – like the gigantic lava arms sprouting from the ground – Enji saw smaller, more efficient, and less energy-consuming.

It was still very taxing on his body, but his high-tech suit had been made specially to sustain extreme heat and cool him down. Vapor was oozing off him like a mushroom shooting off toxic spores.

Clone 1, unbeknownst to Enji, had shunshined away, leaving him momentarily alone.

Enji, veins throbbing on his neck, braced himself and raised his hands.

The beach stirred, the charred ground rumbling.

Leagues above the previous ones, a crack spread from his feet and horizontally across the beach, opening a window on the underworld for hundreds of meters in a moment.

He'd end All-

A barrier made of blue light encased the fighting zone in a cubicle.

Inside, All for One flew to a wall as soon as he noticed it rising.

It closed before he could get out. He screamed angrily and punched it, the shock turning momentarily transparent the spot he'd hit.

He rolled on the wall to avoid Clone 2 impaling him on an ice sword, air cannon blasted from his mouth simultaneously to push him away.

Outside, Enji's eyes barely widened before Clone 1 caught him unaware and snatched him away.

The world blurred, black and red then nothing.

His stomach lurched forward as he was unceremoniously thrown to the ground.

Hands and knees on the ground, he dry heaved over smooth sand, black spots dancing in front of his eyes. Shoto had moved him around a few times, but it had never been for so long – or so fast.

There was a poof, and white smoke billowed around Enji.

When he looked up he noticed he was alone and kilometers away from where he'd been fighting All for One.

He clenched his fists, fire flickering on his cheekbones.

He'd spent months carefully planning this fight : who was his son to exclude him from what was rightfully his ?

The beach made a U curve : the charred band was at the tip, glowing ember in the early morning.

Enji's skin was transparent, his organs incandescent.

A meter-wide crevasse opened between his feet. Sand farthest from him turned to glass, closest to obsidian.

Lava rolled and thundered in the rift.

He spread his senses, focusing on the volcanic eruption he'd been close to making at the other end of the beach. He saw a path, right beneath the sea floor, a bridge that would bring him where he needed to be.

Enji jumped in the crack, willingly destroying his cooling suit.

He'd been prepared to sacrifice so much more to kill All for One.

At the other end of the beach, clone 2 was doing its best to keep All for One from breaking the barrier while charging it.

As soon as he'd felt his fellow clone flash away with their father, he'd stopped all pretense of fighting and started powering up the barrier.

All for One had felt the shift and realized that whatever was coming, he wouldn't survive it.

He hit the corner of the blue prison – what should be its weakest point – with everything he had until he realized he wouldn't get out that way.

Then he'd started chasing the doppelganger around, interrupting him whenever he put his hand on the blue wall and closed his eyes, some kind of weird energy shifting from his body to the prison.

He was growing paler and weaker whereas the barrier grew stronger.

All for One knew that once the doppelganger vanished, he'd been done for.

He chased him around with the manic obsessiveness of a cornered dog with nothing to lose.

He didn't spare any energy, didn't stop to consider his injuries : he attacked, attacked, attacked.

He'd managed to corner the clone between a gigantic, still lava arm, and a wall. The clone's fingers brushed the wall before thousands of circles with weird symbols appeared on its surface.

All for One's desperate last air cannon was unnervingly larger and more powerful than any of the previous ones.

The clone didn't move, taunting, his whole body losing colors and consistency, like a washed-out painting.

He-

The clone's widened eyes snapped to the left.

The seals disappeared right as All for One was blown away by a lava-clad Enji.

"Thank you for your concern", he drawled, not looking away from All for One's prostrated form. "But I never asked for your help"

The clone protested weakly.

"Dad-"

"Don't worry, Shoto"

Lightning crackled all over Enji's skin, his hair floating above his face.

He looked above his shoulder, sending his son a confident smile.

"This time I'll be enough"

The last clone popped.