A/N: I don't know anything about hospitals and I don't know anything about bombs. I do know about electronics, though, so I made up my own bomb. If there's a better bomb to use in this situation, well, sorry. I don't care. If I totally screwed up everything about a hospital, though, my bad.

I also have to apologize, sincerely, for the long wait. I intended to post this as a short chapter and it was very nearly finished three weeks after the previous one was posted, but something came up. Something that lasted several months. But, as usual, I will assure you that I have known how this series will end since I posted the first chapter. The final scene is already written. I just… also have to write everything that comes before that.

Part 4: Cartography

"What?" Mic asked, bewildered.

"My sister is in that hospital right now. I am going over there. I will deal with whatever I need to when I get back, but I am going," Todoroki insisted.

Even from the back of the room, Momo could see that Todoroki's fists were flushed with heat and cold that he was struggling to contain. This was worse than nerves. This was fear.

"I'm going, too." Midoriya piped up. "They don't have enough pros around, and we're here."

The whole class was restless and Midoriya's words only made it worse. A classroom full of people united in their collective desire to protect others faced with a situation that seemed to scream for their expertise.

"We all remember the last time Todoroki insisted on trying to do something like this by himself. It wasn't exactly ideal. I'm going," Tsuyu said.

"I'm in," said Tokoyami.

"Attacking a hospital?" Bakugou said. "Sounds like some cowardly fuckers want to get themselves killed."

"I have to-" Momo started.

"Quiet!" Mic shouted over the rising din. The intercom on his hip was crackling, and he pressed a button to receive the call. "Come in?"

"All hero teachers currently with heroics classes need to select four licensed students to take to the Blossom Valley General Hospital. More students will be summoned in fifteen minutes if they are still needed. The first transport will leave in five minutes."

The class looked at Mic, waiting for instructions.

"What specifically is needed?" Mic asked the voice on the other side.

"Pro heroes on the scene are rounding up escaping villains. Selected students in years one and two should focus on rescue and evacuation, as well as clearing paths through locked doors and blocked hallways. The bomb has not been found and no demands have been made."

The class sat in silence, the reality of the situation sinking in. They were all familiar with danger, but knowing those already on the scene were preparing for the worst hammered in an extra bit of perspective.

"I have to go," Momo said, breaking the silence. "I know how to defuse a bomb. I need someone to help me find it."

Todoroki gave her a grateful nod before focusing back on Mic, unsure as to how or whether he'd be able to be involved.

"Shouji, Jirou, or Kouda could help with that," Midoriya said, peering at the three of them.

"I can listen for people who are trapped," Jirou said. "I think I should go."

"Ah, no," Mic said. "Your hearing is outstanding, but your attacks have too wide an area of effect. Any vibration attacks you tried to make would risk setting off the bomb, so you'd be helpless if cornered. You should stay here."

"I think it's me," Shouji said. "I can listen, clear a path, and carry people. Sorry, Kouda."

Kouda shook his head in an "it's fine" gesture.

"Okay, that's two," Mic said. "Come stand up here. We need two more."

Todoroki tried to say something, but Mic put up a dismissive hand. Momo and Shouji made their way to stand between them at the front of the room.

"Me," Tokoyami said. "We're in an enclosed space, and it's early morning, so this is ideal for me. I can move people and heavy objects, and if we encounter any of those low-level villains, I can at least keep them occupied until we get help."

"Good," Mic said. "Get up here."

"I think I should be the fourth person," Mina said. "I can melt walls and doors so people can get out faster."

"All right. This is our group," Mic said. "No objections?"

To Momo, most of the class looked liked they wanted to go along, but they didn't say anything.

Mic turned to the five students beside him. "Unfortunately, I can't go with you. My quirk is similar to Miss Jirou's- my area of effect is too uncontrollable for this situation. That means there's an extra seat on the bus. Todoroki - you don't have your license. Can I trust you to find your sister and stay out of trouble? No quirks, no fighting."

"Yes, sir," Todoroki said. He'd looked like he was about to go either way, but he was grateful to be taken along.

"All right. No time for costumes. We have to move. Someone will be by in the next twelve minutes to get the next group so, to the rest of you, be ready."

XXXXX

"Looks like there's three buildings, and the backup generator is in this one," Tetsutetsu said, pointing at his phone, which was swaying with the motion from the road. "I'm guessing they'll want us to start evacuation there?"

Thirteen nodded. "That seems most likely, yes. It's also the one where moving the people inside will be easiest."

The students from classes 1-A and 1-B were sitting in the back of the school bus as it made its way to the hospital. Thirteen had been with the B group when they'd gotten the call.

Todoroki looked at the map, sick to his stomach. The building Tetsutetsu was pointing to had the clinic and administrative offices on the ground floor, the pharmacy, blood bank, and long-term storage on a basement floor below ground, and the maternity ward and nursery on the second floor.

The backup generator was on the side of the clinic building. If it lost its connection to the other two buildings, one of which housed the ER facilities, and the other of which featured long-term care and specialty services, the hospital would lose life support.

"I'm going to start on the second floor," Todoroki said. "My sister's there and those are the people that are going to be hardest to move. We need to find some kind of personnel manifest so we can be sure we've got everyone when we do."

"Here," Momo said, rolling up her sleeve. She pulled out four long sheets of paper, a Sharpie, and a binder clip. "This is the map of the facility. As we're clearing rooms, we'll cross them out. I'm not sure we'll have time to get the names of every employee and patient, but we can at least make sure we check every area of the building."

"You're right," Todoroki said, taking the papers and looking over them. It was the same map Tetsutetsu had just been looking at on this phone.

Todoroki's ice quirk had manifested almost as soon as he'd been born. Not powerfully, but he'd breathed cold air in the middle of summer and sometimes he'd left little wet handprints wherever he went. It hadn't been until he was about three that he'd started to produce tiny sparks when he was distracted. Apparently, his brother had tried to teach him how to snap his fingers to help him control the flames more carefully. He didn't remember that part, or the part where he'd accidentally burned off one of Fuyumi's pigtails because he didn't realize there was anything dangerous about what he'd been doing.

He did remember her voice when she'd yelled at him. "That's not okay!" She'd said. "Other people aren't fireproof."

Thirteen years later, his sister still wasn't fireproof, and neither were most of the hundreds of other people trapped in the hospital with her.

"I've been asked to stay out front," said Bondo. "I'm gluing the villains to the ground so the police can work on evacuation until the threat is over."

"Sounds good," said Honenuki, the skeletal boy from class B. "I'll start in the clinic. Most of those people are bound to be able to move by themselves."

"I'll go with you," said Kendou, and Tetsutetsu nodded.

"Yaoyorozu and I will start looking for the bomb downstairs," said Shouji. "Ashido and Tokoyami should go with Todoroki to the maternity ward upstairs. I think they'll need the most help."

"Walkie talkies," Momo said, passing one out to each of the nine students as she created them one by one. "When a room is clear, tell Bondo and he'll cross it off."

"I think that's everything," Kendou said, looking up at Thirteen. "Do we have any intel on how much time we're supposed to have?"

"None at all." The bus rolled to a stop, and Thirteen stood up. "All right everyone! We're here."

BASEMENT EXPLORATION

"There's no one around," Momo said, after going down a second hallway on the basement floor and finding it empty of people. "Where are the patients? The hospital employees?"

"You're right, we're missing something," said Suda, a gangly second-year boy with x-ray vision who had accompanied Momo and Shouji to the basement. He cupped his hands around his mouth. "HEY! Is anyone down here?"

After listening for a moment, Shouji led them to a scuffling sound in the direction of the pharmacy. It seemed there was someone locked inside a closet.

"We're in here!" came a weak voice. "We can't open the door."

"Hold on!" Suda peered through a bunch of drawers behind the counter until he found a key on a lanyard. He pushed by Momo and Shouji to unlock the door, and two pharmacists stumbled out, clutching each other's arms.

"We think there's a bomb on this floor," Momo said to the taller one. "Do you know where it could be hidden?" They'd checked the generator outside first, but it seemed, as they'd feared, that the bomb was inside.

The man nodded, blinking to clear the panic from his eyes. "No one opens long-term storage unless something needs to be fixed. I think something could go unnoticed in there."

"Take us there," she said.

The man rounded the corner and back out into the hall. Momo remembered the long-term storage from the map she'd given Todoroki and a terrible, knotted feeling began to take over her gut. She hoped it wasn't where she thought it was, but to her dismay, the pharmacist turned exactly where she'd hoped he wouldn't.

Long-term storage was, as it turned out, on the other side of the building from the backup generator. That meant, to Momo, that this wasn't just a small bomb that would interfere with the power lines running through the walls. This was a bomb large enough to rip through the entire wing and destroy the building.

"Wait," she told the pharmacists before they opened the door. "Suda?"

Suda looked up and down the length of the door, trying to find any booby traps on the other side. "We're fine," he said, and unlocked it.

The first storage room was full of older equipment and backups. A quick check showed it empty of anything explosive, but behind it was another room filled with even older, dustier equipment. Right as Momo started to check the second room, Suda caught her arm and pointed to the third and final storage room.

"There's something big in there," he said.

"It's ticking," Shouji confirmed.

Momo put down her stethoscope and followed the two boys to the door. They eased it open slowly, caution and nerves interfering with their urgency for only a moment. When the automated light flickered on, Momo let out a gasp.

Eight fifty-gallon barrels of gasoline were wired to a timer in the back of the room. This setup had enough explosive power to incinerate everyone in the building and keep blowing out through the windows and doors.

"Someone phone back to the school," she said into her walkie-talkie. "On the next group sent over here, make sure Uraraka is on the bus."

Momo walked up to the first barrel, which was wired to all of the others. At the back of the room, behind the barrels, was the timer. She looked at it, gulped, and gave the keys Suda was holding to the two pharmacists they'd found.

"Take these and open the doors to every room on this floor. Make sure there's nowhere anyone can be stuck. You have twenty-three minutes and forty seconds."

XXXXX

"At the top of the stairs, we're going to take a right," Todoroki said, taking the steps two at a time. "2-B, you're going to make a left."

The third year students were going with Aizawa to capture the escaping villains. The first and second years were dispersed through the hospital itself, letting out as many people as quickly as possible so that more help could be obtained. The group of three students running up the stairs with Todoroki, Mina, and Tokoyami were headed to the nursery. Todoroki hoped, at least, that they could find hospital personnel who knew how to move people like expectant mothers and newborn babies.

When they reached the hallway that housed the maternity ward, Todoroki pulled out his phone and opened the text message he'd gotten that morning. Room 260. He hoped it wasn't wrong of him to go straight to rescue his own sister in an emergency, but rationalized that he had to start somewhere. The feeling of doubt evaporated. It wasn't important right now.

"Who's this asshole?" Tokoyami hissed back at him, gesturing with his head at a hooded figure walking down the hall towards them.

The figure walked past as if he didn't notice they were there, or at the very least care. Todoroki reached out and grabbed the man's arm, stopping him.

"Hey! What are you doin'?" Mina spat at the man.

"I'm leavin'. You should too," he said, wrenching himself out of Todoroki's grasp and continuing towards the stairs.

In this moment, in this situation, there were a lot of things Todoroki was grateful for. The fact that Momo knew how to defuse a bomb. The fact that there was a way to get to Fuyumi when she needed him. The fact that this bus was carrying the thirty most capable people to take care of this evacuation. But, along with all of those other things, Todoroki was grateful that someone else was outside taking care of rounding up the villains who had set this in motion. He would never have been able to keep his promise to Present Mic otherwise.

Todoroki hesitated. There was little doubt in his mind that this was one of the selfish miscreants who had done this, but he didn't have time to deal with a fight.

"I got this one," Tokoyami said, grabbing the man in three places with Dark Shadow and lifting him off the ground. "I'll meet you guys back up here in a minute."

Mina gave Tokoyami an impressed thumbs-up at the quick takedown before following Todoroki to one of the patient rooms on the left side of the hallway. It was locked.

"Can you take care of this?" He added, and she nodded.

Todoroki watched Mina drop a ball of acid on the door that burned through the wood around the door handle in seconds, removing enough material that she could just pull the locking mechanism straight out of the door and push it open.

"Hello?" Came a small voice from inside.

Fuyumi was sitting up on the bed, her husband beside her. She was clutching his hand so tightly her knuckles were white, and her hair was plastered to her face with sweat. Behind the bed, two nurses were sitting, frozen in fear.

Todoroki exhaled.

He turned to Mina. "The rest of the nurses in this hall must be locked somewhere. Start opening the other doors so they can help with the evacuation." She nodded and ran off.

Todoroki rushed to the side of the hospital bed. "Is everybody okay?"

Nods from around the room as the two nurses realized he was here to help. Fuyumi reached out and hugged him, her fingernails digging into his shoulder. "I'm glad you're here."

He'd read up a little bit when he'd found out she was pregnant. If a woman felt her life was in danger, labor could stop, at least temporarily. That appeared to be what had happened. As angry as it made him that she'd been pushed this far, it was lucky. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

The nurses grabbed a wheelchair and helped Fuyumi into it. Todoroki exited the room first, looking up and down the hallway and finding two more families had been let out, Mina working on a third.

Tokoyami had returned and ran up to him. "The elevators aren't working because of the backup power. How are we supposed to manage the wheelchairs?"

Todoroki paused and took out the map Momo had given him, searching for another way down. Knowing they probably couldn't rely on any other elevators, they'd have to find a creative solution.

The 2-B students had successfully opened all of the doors in the nursery, and now a growing mass of people were filing down the stairs, carrying small, precious packages. Some of the groups, however, stopped at the top of the stairs, as some children couldn't be removed from their carts and equipment. Hospital staff was carrying portable emergency equipment as well, and while it could technically be carried down the stairs, it was risky.

Looking back at the map, Todoroki pulled out his walkie-talkie. "Honenuki, is hallway H cleared yet? Over."

"Yes it is. What's going on? Uh, over."

Todoroki flagged down Mina when she exited the next room. "Ashido, do you think you can burn a hole in the floor? Straight through, so we can pass the big stuff down?"

She almost looked offended. "Of course."

He held a hand up in apology as he held up the walkie-talkie again. "We're going to burn a giant hole through that ceiling and start passing people down through it. Is that okay? Over."

"Yeah. I'll grab some extra hands. See you soon. Over."

Todoroki looked out at the growing crowd of mothers, fathers, nurses, and family members. For every three groups that could take the stairs, there was one that would have to be maneuvered through a ten-foot drop with slow, careful coordination.

"Yaoyorozu, how much time do we have? Over," he asked into his radio.

"As of now, nineteen minutes and twenty-six seconds," came the crackling reply.

That would have to be enough.

XXXXX

"The second room is clear. We're ready to move the barrels," said the shorter of the two pharmacists. "What do you need from us next?"

It had taken almost five minutes to remove the first oil drum from the array, and there were seven left. If she wanted to get the bomb completely disarmed, she was going to have to cut that time in half for all of the next ones.

The bomb's electronics were obfuscated- random, useless wires were connected in senseless places that made it difficult to see what was important and what wasn't. It wasn't impossible by any means, but everything about this bomb was designed to be difficult to disable. She'd done it once, though, and the rest of them looked to have the wires that turned out to be vital in an identical setup.

She looked at the barrel she'd just completed and sighed. "Bondo, has the next bus from UA left yet?"

"Yeah, about two minutes ago. They're maybe three minutes out."

Momo looked back at the five hospital employees, who had been moving the equipment in the storage closet into the hallway so that they could get the oil barrels out as easily as possible.

"These barrels are each about five hundred pounds. We can't lift them. Go with Shouji upstairs, and when the next bus from UA gets here, bring the girl named Uraraka. She'll help us get these out."

When the group was gone, Momo was alone in the room with her desoldering equipment. She was faster this time, clipping and melting with only slight hesitation. When she finished the second oil drum, she checked her watch again. That one had taken three and a half minutes.

The next one would have to be that much faster.

XXXXX

"Second bus is here," came Bondo's voice. "We've got Pony, Ibara, Yanagi, and Kaibara. Over."

"Who all got here from class A? Over." Todoroki asked. Beside him, Tokoyami was struggling to keep the third wheelchair level as he lowered it and its occupant to the ground floor.

"Uh… guy who shoots tape, electric guy, the girl with brown hair that did that awesome thing with the rocks, and navel laser guy. Where should I send them? Over?"

"Tape guy and Ibara are for us, over," Honenuki told him, peering up at Todoroki through the hole in the floor.

Honenuki had already swept the ground floor and melted all of the doors. The evacuation going on downstairs now was just Kendou and Tetsutetsu leading the effort to help the people he'd freed get out and onto the buses that were taking patients to other nearby hospitals. The power to soften things seemed a bit arbitrary for a superhero, but in the hands of someone dedicated to perfection, it became a quirk worthy of the recommendation student standing before him.

"All right, I'm going downstairs," Tokoyami said. "It'll be a lot easier if Sero and Ibara pass people down to me. This is a terrible angle."

"All right. Ashido, take a quick run through this floor and make sure absolutely everybody is out who isn't here with us."

She ran off. Todoroki would have done it, but he wasn't leaving.

The two students they'd called in came thundering up the stairs and made quick work of tying off the next wheelchair so they could lower it to the floor. Todoroki and some of the fathers and nurses each grabbed a strip of tape to bear some of the weight, and Tokoyami supported from the bottom until it reached the ground. The process was exponentially easier.

When it was Fuyumi's turn, and Mina had returned confirming that the floor was clear, there were only two loads left to be passed through the hole between floors. Todoroki went downstairs to meet his sister when she made it down. She was pale and heaving.

"You guys got this?" he asked Honenuki, who nodded at him.

Todoroki put his hand on Fuyumi's shoulder as her husband wheeled her outside. He helped the paramedics load her into the back of the bus, and she squeezed his hand one last time before they pulled away. Relief washed over him. He wouldn't be with her now, but she was in good hands. He looked down and saw his own hands were shaking, but clenched his fists. Now was the time to focus.

He looked back over the front lawn of the hospital. Bondo was standing next to a pile of about twenty five mooks, including the hooded guy from earlier. The crowd of people who had been in the clinic for non-emergencies had left the area, and the hospital administration was standing in a huddle just off the edge of the property. The last few injured people were being helped onto the lawn individually by the students and the nurses, who were doing as well as they could under the circumstances to keep panic down. Kaminari and Aoyama were walking back from the second building, where Kaminari had been asked to charge bed batteries in case the power was cut. At the edge of the courtyard, four gasoline barrels were placed as far from people as possible, and Shouji was exiting the doors with a fifth.

Honenuki clapped Todoroki on the shoulder. "Second floor is 100% clear. Everybody's out. I'm headed to the third building to open up the labs and stuff. Looks like this is gonna work."

Todoroki nodded back and him. "Thanks, man. Good luck."

Todoroki checked his watch. A little over six minutes were remaining. He had to find the task at which he'd be the most useful. He could probably make the most progress if he just went with Honenuki, but he wanted to stay here, just in case. He didn't want something to happen while or because he was gone.

He headed over to Bondo to check on which areas needed clearing, map in hand.

XXXXX

Momo didn't look at her watch any more. She'd just started the second to last barrel, and time taken away from that, even a glance, was too much.

The room was almost empty. If the bomb went off now, it would damage the structural integrity of the building, but it wouldn't reach the backup generator. It didn't have the power. She was saving only the hospital now.

She reached for her screwdriver to pry open the top of the electrical box. She held it in one hand, and pried with the other. It came off in a soft 'pop', and the metal lid flew off, catching her wrist on the way down.

The scrape oozed blood, more blood than it should have. Her skin was getting thin. She didn't have much matter left to use. She should have eaten more this morning, but it was too late for regrets like that.

There were soft footsteps in the hallway. "The next one isn't ready yet, Shouji," she said, ignoring the flesh wound and beginning her snipping at the wires inside the box.

"Okay. That's not why I'm here," Todoroki said, clutching a box in his hands.

XXXXX

"Do you need these?" Todoroki asked, holding out the box of cookies. "Bondo said Rikidou sent them with Kaminari." The room was dark, but lit by a floodlamp he suspected Momo had made herself. The room reeked of gasoline.

Momo barely even looked at him before reaching for the Oreos and stuffing four of them in her mouth at once. After grabbing another handful, she held her hand in front of her and an absorbent pad flickered out, which she pressed onto her left wrist. She'd unbuttoned her jacket and part of her shirt, and her sleeves were pinned up past her elbows.

"Uraraka said to tell you she'd be down as soon as she could, but she's levitating out the couple of people left who are completely immobile."

Momo nodded, reaching for another hand of Oreos so she could make a set of pliers larger than the one she'd had. "That's fine. If we move these last two barrels out after the time's up, it shouldn't make a difference."

The irony of the situation simmered at the back of Todoroki's mind. That he was the one here when everyone else was gone.

In the last three weeks, nothing had changed between them. Nothing at all. They'd sat together in class, they'd sparred after school. They'd come close to losing a challenge in physical training, but they hadn't. They hadn't stayed up late to talk, but they'd had to study and get sleep, which was to be expected.

What might have been a crush that he'd had on her hadn't gone away, either, as he'd assumed it would.

His mother had asked him what he was going to do about her. It had been one of their few conversations to end in disagreement.

"You need to go," Momo said, having taken the cookies and put them beside her. "Thank you for bringing me these, but please leave. There is a lot of gasoline vapor in here."

"Ah. Of course," he stammered, backing out of the room awkwardly. Gasoline vapor that could cause a huge explosion if a single spark went off inside. Yep.

A few times, it had crossed his mind that the routine nature of their friendship recently was deliberate. The way she was never looking at him too often, how she'd always have to do something somewhere else when they were getting along too well. It could have easily been his imagination. And, of course, if she was any part of that, he was equally responsible.

He supposed awkwardness was to be expected. They were married, after all.

There were almost three minutes on the timer. Todoroki felt a deep wrongness in leaving, but, as she'd said, one wrong move and they'd both be toast. As he started up the stairs, his radio crackled.

"All of the rooms are clear. Everyone is out of the building, over," Uraraka's voice said.

"Except the, uh… boy with red hair and the girl who is working on the bomb, over," said Bondo.

"Right," Momo's voice came over. "Don't let anyone back inside until I say it's okay. No one, over."

Todoroki had reached the top of the stairs and realized he wasn't sure which of the many hallways he had turned on. He pulled out his map and found hallway H, where they'd pulled Fuyumi down, and walked down it until he reached the entrance.

"On the last barrel, over," Momo said as he stepped outside.

And now the part where he waited.

The courtyard in front of the hospital was almost silent. The UA students were standing in their little groups. Another bus was on its way from the school, but it was almost moot at this point. The hospital employees were doing checks, in as orderly a fashion as they could. The police were standing awkwardly, not yet ready to take the perpetrators, who had long since given up resisting and were sitting silently in piles behind Bondo.

The hooded man they'd encountered in the hallway was at the edge of one group. His hood had fallen off, to reveal tattoos that were squirming around his shaven head. He stared at Todoroki defiantly. This was the last one inside, Todoroki realized. The one that had stayed to make sure all the doors were locked. If he wasn't the leader, he was someone the group found responsible.

"How much time is there?" Uraraka whispered to Mina, yanking Todoroki out of his thoughts before he could approach the man.

"A minute and a half," Mina said.

It was less than that, Todoroki's watch said. A minute fifteen. Mina was just trying to be optimistic.

"I wonder if we should go in there," Uraraka said. "I don't like standing here."

"I don't either, but what would we do? There's not even enough time to get to her," Mina replied.

Todoroki knew listening to their conversation probably wasn't good for him. He stared forcefully at the front of the hospital. He inhaled. Exhaled. Inhaled again.

The radio crackled. "That's it, guys. The last one's done. The bomb is completely disabled," Momo said.

Todoroki exhaled completely for the second time that day.

There was whooping and cheering. The girls were laughing, and the hospital workers were hugging each other. One of the police officers clapped Bondo on the shoulder, releasing him from his watchman duty. The UA students high-fived and whooped.

Someone was laughing who shouldn't have been.

The previously hooded man wasn't looking at Todoroki anymore. He was just smiling to himself and the people in his group. His pleased look pushed Todoroki's wind out of him, harder than a physical blow.

"Momo, get out of there."

"Yeah, I'm heading up. Just a sec."

"NO! I think there's a second timer on that last drum. You have to move."

There was a shuffling on the other end of the line as she checked behind the last drum. "Shit!" She yelled.

That silenced the last of the UA students. Momo never cursed.

He looked at his watch. Forty-nine seconds. There was no way she'd make it up the stairs, across the building, and out in that time. It just wasn't possible.

And suddenly, he was three years old again, standing dazed on his front porch as his sister screamed, tears running down her face.

Other people aren't fireproof.

His feet had already started moving. "Honenuki, come back to the first building! Ashido, Aoyama, with me!"

He rushed across the courtyard and flung the front door open. Thirty-five seconds.

"Take the first stairs you see in the hallway your room was in," Todoroki said into his walkie-talkie.

Two drums of gasoline wouldn't burn through the exterior walls or the metal casing of the generator from across the basement, but the fire would fill the hallways and follow whatever paths were open. Most of the wing they evacuated would probably be damaged beyond repair.

"You need to start hyperventilating, do you understand?" He yelled.

He heard her sneakers slamming against the stairs, and then a door open. She was up to the first floor.

"What?" Twenty seconds. He started letting heat out of his left side.

"Run as fast as you can down the hallway marked H but you have to breathe really hard, okay? More than you think you need to. You have to hyperoxygenate your blood." Because soon she wouldn't be able to breathe.

At six seconds, he was almost at H. One more turn.

When his watch hit zero, he turned the corner and saw Momo halfway down the hallway. He dropped to his left knee, his right foot and hand on the ground.

The floors behind Momo ruptured, the walls buckled and caved, and the wave of heat that preceded the fires stole the oxygen from the area. As the flames just became visible, two waves of white rushed down and filled Hallway H, encasing Momo between them in a solid block of ice and redirecting the flames down other hallways and through windows leading outside.

Behind him, Aoyama and Mina dropped to the floor as the shockwave traveled through the hospital wing, peeling the floors and shaking chunks out of the ceiling.

When it stopped, the three of them sprung into action.

"This is more ice than I thought we'd need," Todoroki said. "We need Honenuki in hallway H!" He clicked the walkie-talkie.

"Roger," came the voice of the skeletal boy.

Aoyama started cutting wide slices down one side of the hallway with his laser, and Mina softened the edges with acid so the chunks could be moved away. They were making their way down the hallway at an angle.

Todoroki tried to blast the ice with a wave of heat, but it was just melting too slowly. Momo was frozen maybe twenty feet down the hall, and by the time he was able to reach her using only fire, she'd have frozen to death or suffocated. The only effect his fire had really had was melting the surface smoothly enough that he could see her somewhat.

He almost wished he couldn't see. She had maybe half a lung of air from air pockets left around her head, which she'd flooded with oxygen using her quirk, but was running out quickly. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her torso contorted with attempts at breath. She was bleeding from somewhere, but he couldn't see the cause. He reminded himself that she could be warmed up and given oxygen, that this was better than if she'd been vaporized by the blast.

He moved over to help Aoyama and Mina with the angle strategy, but he wasn't much help. He ended up just dragging away more blocks of ice between cuts. He felt just a little bit better than useless. At around the third round of this, they were about ten feet down the hallway on the left side. Mina stopped, gasped, and ran back out into the hallway, wide-eyed.

"HONENUKI!" She yelled. She fumbled at her walkie-talkie. "Where's Honenuki? We need him and a bunch of nurses or something. Yaomomo is bleeding a lot and we're not fast enough!"

Bleeding? Todoroki thought. That's the least of her problems. Unless-

He shoved past Aoyama and stepped into the ice crevasse where he could see. Todoroki gasped, and the blood rushed to his ears, drowning out the sound of Honenuki's sneakers finally making their way to the scene.

The two-foot piece of rebar had been impossible to see from the front because of the angle, but now that Todoroki had a side view, it was perfectly clear. The wall behind Momo had exploded before the ice had gotten to her, and the piece of metal had impaled her through the stomach from the right, narrowly missing her spine. It was maybe half an inch thick but burst through her torso leaving tears in her skin in three directions. Blood had completely filled the pocket left in front of her, and the salt was melting the ice around her and creeping towards the pocket around her head. The racking coughs Momo had been attempting earlier had turned into irregular spasms with little intention behind them. Even in the middle of a hospital, she had minutes at best.

And that was when Todoroki knew that he loved her.