Strings (BNHA x OC) [Rewrite]

47 || Flaming Feathers

Once the flames had diminished, Hawks was left on the ground, sweating, lightheaded, and exhausted from the fire.

Though Hawks' vision was blurring, he was able to make out Endeavors flaming boots approaching him.

"I'll say this once, Hawks. Stay down," he said darkly. His tone told the winged man that he was far from messing around.

With that, the flame hero turned and started to walk away.

"WAIT! ENDEAVOR NO! STOP!" Hawks yelled. In a final burst of strength, he lunged and grabbed onto the hero's leg. He knew it would do very little, and that's exactly what happened; Endeavor easily kicked him off.

He turned back at the former hero with an expression that radiated nothing but disdain. It hurt to be the winged man, having someone that he looked up for so long looking at him like that.

Endeavor lifted his hand and flames began to ignite his palm.

Hawks quickly rolled onto his side. He covered his head with his hands and arms, shielding himself as best he could and as he waited for the blast.

But it never came.

After a few more moments of stillness, he cautiously looked over his shoulder.

Endeavor wasn't standing over him anymore, he had backed away, and instead Puppet was there, standing in between them.

His face paled. No... Why did you come back?

Puppet had her back to Hawks as she faced Endeavor in a defensive stance. If she had gotten there any later, Hawks surely would have been scorched.

Backing up a few steps, she crouched down next to the injured man and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"You still with me?" she asked, not taking her eyes off the flame hero.

"Heh, yeah," he coughed. "I'm not dead yet."

Her shrugged her hand away and pushed himself up to stand.

She saw his legs shift unsteadily. "Careful," she urged.

"I'm fine."

He very clearly was not fine. Despite that, Puppet didn't pester him on it, letting him hold onto some of his dignity.

Uncaringly, Endeavor wound his arm back, flames forming into a spear in his grasp. He threw it at Puppet with no hesitation.

Easily, she dodged to the side and the flaming spear missed by a long-shot.

The annoyance with the attack was that the flame hero repeated it over and over, throwing more and more spears at her. He was forcing her to move erratically, dodging as many spears as she could.

Puppet didn't notice that after avoiding another attack, out of her vision, a fire spear was rocketing towards her.

Hawks however, he noticed.

He rushed in front of her, purposefully putting himself in between her and the spear of fire. He wrapped his arms around her in a protective manner, shielding her completely as he put his back to the oncoming threat.

The flames of the spear deformed into regular flames just before they reached him. Still, he took a whole blast of high-powered fire to his back, and let out a sharp yell.

Puppet quickly caught him when he fell forward and supported his weight as he froze, breathing heavily and exhausted. He was in a lot of pain, and the blast had burned away whatever was left of his wings.

"Stop fighting... run," he breathed. "Please."

"And leave you here?" she asked rhetorically. "Not a chance."

He regained himself and glanced over his shoulder back at Endeavor, who had fired up flames at his back and started to rush towards the two.

Hawks shoved Puppet to the ground, albeit not with much force, but likely as much as he could muster.

When she looked back at him, she saw nothing but his shirt getting grabbed ahold of by Endeavor and the flame hero rocketing the both of them up into the air.

She quickly pushed herself up to stand, but before she could get her footing on the ground, she had to dodge away from a smaller green flame that was thrown at her. She turned to see the famous sidekick of the Endeavor agency, Burnin.

Dammit.. Puppet cursed, getting into a defensive stance and yelling at the sidekick, "Bring it on!"

—

Above in the sky, Endeavor was dragging Hawks up and up, higher and higher. They even got higher than a nearby news helicopter that was filming and reporting on the scene of the battle.

In the distance, Hawks could noticed two other helicopters coming towards the area. They looked like army helicopters, equipped with missile launchers and other weaponry.

Focusing back on Endeavor and the situation, Hawks had to do something before they got too high. He pulled a small feather from his pocket. It was one of his smallest feathers, but regardless of the size, it would be enough. He quickly shaped the feather so that it was a blade and stabbed it into the flame hero's side.

In response to the pain, Endeavor dropped Hawks. The once winged man, now with no wings on his back, began to free-fall.

The flame hero quickly regained himself and negated the pain in his side. Almost instantly, he dove after Hawks to catch him.

But Endeavor was moving slower than Hawks was falling. They were high up, and if Hawks wasn't caught or his decent wasn't slowed, the outcome of the situation wouldn't be good.

"PUPPET!!" Hawks screamed out.

Puppet turned towards the scream of her name as soon as she was able to get far enough away from Burnin. What she saw made her freeze: Hawks, plummeting down to earth while Endeavor tried to catch him.

She immediately started to run to where Hawks was falling, summoning several souls to fight nearby heroes and buy her as much time as possible.

But she was too slow. Hawks slammed into the ground, the impact making a crater in the hard earth. His figure laid there, unmoving.

Puppet skidded to her knees beside Hawks as soon as she got to him. She propped him up into her arms. "Hey! Talk to me!"

But he stayed silent and still in her arms.

Her souls surrounded the two, making a perimeter that the heroes would have to break through in order to get to them.

"Hawks!" Puppet shook him vigorously but still got no response.

She placed her ear against his chest, waiting, listening as best she could.

Please. Please.

As moments passed, the souls Puppet put out to stall for time were being destroyed, all while she sat there, listening with nothing to show for it.

Another few moments passed with her hearing nothing.

No.. no, please...

After a final few seconds, Puppet's hope faded. Her eyes watered as the realization finally set in.

He was gone. Hawks was dead.