Darkside (BkDK)

~~** The power of words. **~~

"Bandersnatch."

"What the hell is a Bandersnatch?"

Behind the one-way Katsuki suddenly collapsed only to be caught by Hound Dog. A bang on the glass signaled the amethyst-eyed Hero in training; it was time to return to the others. Still a bit confused over what might have just happened, Hitoshi left the room and released the raven haired women from his quirk. Leaving her to curse him wildly as the door closed behind him.

Walking quickly he returned to the observation room to be nearly tackled by a shaken Denki. Quickly noticing the fiery blonde knocked out on the floor he looked to his own yellow haired companion for clarification. "What the hell happened?"

"As soon as she said that word, Boom Boom basically passed out." Straight to the point with no preamble. Thank you Jiro.

All Might held an unconscious Dynamight on the floor as Hound Dog checked his pulse. Nezu and Specter had already stepped out to check in with Flurry and Mr. Ghast and get the med specialist for the police station.

A few hours later Katsuki woke up and looked around to see the familiar walls of the UA infirmary and the watchful eyes of Recovery Girl. "What the hell happened?"

"Now now young man, you lie right back down. Let me call in the others and they can fill you in but you are to stay in that bed, do you understand me?"

"Yes ma'am." A few minutes later Aizawa, All Might, Hound Dog, Midnight, Present Mic and Shinso stepped into the small room. Before he could as about the day's events another question occurred to the slightly dazed teen in the hospital bed. "What time is it?"

"Almost nine. You were out for four hours Blasty." Hitoshi's voice did nothing to betray his true concern. He may not be the biggest fan of the temperamental blonde but he WAS important to Izuku and Denki and Jiro so that made him worth worrying about.

"What the fuck happened to me?"

"Bakugo, I understand you are disoriented but I am losing my patience with your language lately." A noncommittal grunt met the onyx haired teacher's warning before Hound Dog filled in the grumpy teen in on the events from earlier that day.

"When Shinso was speaking with the Villain, who we now know goes by the name Darkside, she mentioned that her quirk can be reversed with a keyword. Apparently she uses a different release for each victim so she can control how long to hold each person under her full power. It seems her quirk is based on her voice and the longer she speaks to someone the longer the amount of time between her activation and the full effects of the quirk taking place. Flurry informed us that Darkside spoke with YOU for only a few moments resulting in roughly a week in between that attack and your full symptoms. Considering the length of time it took Midoriya to fully manifest the final symptoms she must have spoken to him for quite a while."

Taking a moment to process, Katsuki came to a realization. "So if she released me does that mean she released Deku too?"

It was All Might's turn to speak now. "Unfortunately not my boy. We suspect that she chose unusual words to trigger her quirk release to reduce the possibility of accidentally setting someone free from its effects. Though it would seem the young woman has an affinity for a fiction known as 'Alice in Wonderland'. The release term for yourself was Bandersnatch. A cat like character in the novel that protects-"

"The Vorpal sword." Everyone was taken aback by the teens' seeming familiarity with old English literature. "Kitty Kats. That's what she called me when she attacked. She said she spoke to the Nerd with her true voice too and he was looking for the sword to do something and I was protecting him which made me that bander thing somehow. The chick has some screws loose."

"Flurry told us you weren't able to remember the attack at all, let alone anything Darkside actually said to you?" Flinching slightly at the natural loudness to the voice Hero's tone, UA's most short-tempered student did his best to explain.

"I couldn't till now. That word. When All Might said that bander thing's name it's like a light switch in my f-" A quick glance to the left confirmed Eraserhead was paying keen attention. "-eeeereekin' brain flipped. I can remember the whole thing now. She called Deku the White Rabbit and said he was off to slay something with the Vorpal sword."

"Were those her exact words?"

"Sort of? She said something about the Nerd going down the rabbit hole and asked if we were Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dumb or a Mad Hatter. Then she asked if the rabbit found the Vorpal sword and called me that bander thing. That was it." Crossing his arms and scowling at the group gathered around his bed the blonde did his best to hide his discomfort. They had all seen him weak and vulnerable and he hated it.

"Well we can eliminate those words as the possible triggers for Midoriya since she used them freely. His release term must be something else specific to those novels but what? There are so many possibilities. And now that this Darkside listener is familiar with our dear Hitoshi's quirk, trapping her in it again may be challenging yo." Present Mic leaned on Aizawa's shoulder as the man barely noticed. Constantly having their Principal cuddled up on his shoulder wrapped in his capture weapon made him somewhat immune to his friend's brotherly gesture.