UNMASKED (mha)

59

Aiko manipulated the air around them. A sphere of safe wind swarmed around them, parting the fire.
"You are okay?!"
Aiko yelled over the rushing wind and gasping flames.

"I'm fine for now! Let's just kill this guy already." Tris yelled back covering her face with her forearm.

Dabi appeared, walking towards the dome of air but he was quickly thrown away. Rain started to fall, dousing the fires all over the woods.
"Come here little bitch."
Dabi grunted, the rain hit his arms and then evaporated. The heat wafting off of his body wasn't quinched by the rain. Some of his fire stayed strong.

He aimed another blast at Aiko, who dodged and repeated the manipulation technique. Steering away the flames that threatened her.

The temperature was dropping, Aiko kept glancing at Tris. Who realized Aiko was trying to tip the conditions in her favor. Making it cold and wet.

Ice formed over Tris's finger tips as she prepared to use her quirk.
Aiko formed a tornado around them. Fire needed air right? Air, fuel and heat. He dad had taught her that once when they went camping as a family, he taught both her and Tora several survival skills on those trips.

The wind spun around the man like a vortex, sucking the air out of the middle and into the forming tornado. Aiko could see the blue fire being pulled from the man's skin and into the swirling storm. Making the tornado look like a bright blue Strom of fire and air. Beautiful and dangerous.

But the fire kept coming, the villain didn't seem to be too bothered by the vortex yet. Aiko couldn't do anything in this position. Unless she was willing to strike him with lightning, which honestly didn't seem so horrible at this point.

The trees around them started to catch fire, the rain was only able to put out so much of it. "Hey!" Tris yelled through the storm, Aiko didn't seem to hear. She was staring forward at the inferno, the man in the center cackled in psychotic delight.

Tris grabbed Aiko's wrist. Her han was pink and blistered from the fight. Aiko looked at the girl, she was raw all over, her pale skin tinted pink and red with bubbling sores.
"Do what you did at the sports festival!"
Tris yelled over the wind. Her blue hair was tossed across her face, wet from the wind. Her white tanktop was soaked through and what was left of today's mascara stained the skin under her eyes.

Aiko looked at her in question and Tris stomped her foot, a spear of ice formed and broke off, flying into the wind.

'Oh, our fight at the sports festival.'
Aiko remembered, when she had pelted Tris with her own ice formations.

But now they were working together, Tris created tall jagged spears and Aiko spun them towards the man at record speeds. She hit him over his head with a piece the side of her leg, then kne slightly smaller collided with his chest. Knocking him over.

He didn't get back up.

The storm died down and slowly came to a stop. The blue fire was extinguished quickly after that. Aiko gasped for air, adrenaline spread through her veins. Her face was slightly burnt, not worse than a sun burn though. Tris was way worse off.

The blue haired teen ended up collapsing. She laid on her back with a sigh. Aiko watched for a moment and then looked back at the unconscious man.
"Are you alright?"
Aiko asked Tris who had a hand over her eyes.

Tris laughed.
"Perfectly dandy."
Then she laughed some more, in fact she didn't stop laughing. It wasn't manic or joyful. She just sounded relieved.

Aiko awkwardly smiled before sitting down beside the girl. Tris stared up at the stars.
"Never thought this would happen." Tris mumbled after happily sighing. "Thanks for the Save Acorn."

Aiko glanced over, slightly surprised that Tris would ever actually THANK her for anything. "Don't mention it." She said simply, picking at pieces of dried burnt grass.

They sat there peacefully, dispite the hell of an attack going on in the woods around them. Dispite the fact that the villains were looking for Aiko in particular. Dispite the warning to go find cover.

They sat there out in the open, looking to the stars.

"Hey..."
Tris said softly after a few minutes.
"I'm sorry for what I said. At the festival. I don't think before talking sometimes."

Aiko looked down at her for a second in surprise. Before she ended up just laying down on her back. "It's... It's fine."

"I didn't mean it. Tor... Tora isn't pathetic. She's not anything close to pathetic."
Tris said again. Looking up at the stars.

The stars.

Tris was sure that's where Tora sat. Shining the way she had always dreamed of.

"I know."
Aiko whispered, looking with her.

There was another long silence. Off you could call this silence, you could hear explosions and other sounds from the combat in the woods.

"You... You really don't remember me... Do you?" Tris whispered.

"I... I remember you went to my middle school... But we never actually met." Aiko replied honestly.

Tris hummed softly.
"I figured as much." She said with a smile.
"We met once, but you were basically dead at that point."

"What?"
Aiko asked, mouth slightly parted.

"Dead to the world I mean."
Tris said again. But she didn't seem too interested in elaborating.

Aiko looked at her for a long moment, her burnt cheek against the itching grass.
What could she mean? Aiko had no memory of them ever interacting before UA...

"It's okay! Y-you're going to be fine! E-everything is going to be fine..."

Aiko gasped, the voice of a young Tris snow Echoing through her mind.

"Where the hell are the teachers?! I-it's okay! Just please don't look over there! You hear me?! Stop looking!"

Blue.

That memory had been all blue. Like the color of Tris's hair and the ice of her quirk. The color of the uniform they both wore.