Chapter 4: Zero

The monstrous robot leered its head towards the group, making a blaringly loud metallic groaning sound. The students gawked at it in stunned silence.

"So..." Archie broke the silence. "By the way things look, we've got about 30-40 seconds to compose a plan before that thing decimates our position,"

"Well, some suggestions would be nice," Randall sneered. Archie looked like he thought intensely for a couple of seconds before holding his finger up to the group.

"Okay, when we get attacked I want everyone with solid combat quirks to go over there" Archie said, pointing his finger towards the pass between the two colossal stone columns that the robot lay between "And everyone with solid manoeuvrability or movement quirks to go up there" He pointed to the top of the right column.

"So a sort of vertical pincer approach, with the robots arms pinned by the columns on either side?" Hayato inquired

"Something like that," Archie waved vaguely. He was met with suspicious looks from all sides, but no opposition as it was the only plan they had to go on.

"Well, it looks like our 30 seconds are up" Marek signed. Everyone turned their attention to Zero, whose head had been cocked as if trying to focus on them deeply. Its hand was raised with one finger pointing towards the group and just as its eyes flashed brightly, a multitude of small slits opened up on one if its fingers. Moments later, a hail of shots rang out around the arena and the group sprung to attention.

They split into two, just as Zero's barrage obliterated their position in a flurry of red and a plume of dust. Archie ran off towards the pass, being followed by Randall, Iris, Morticia and the tired kid lagging behind sluggishly. Marek, Hayato, the stocky kid all ran towards a column with Maria tagging along with them at the last second.

Deku shifted uneasily in his office chair, fixated strongly on the student observation screens and whispering incessantly to himself. He was brought from his trance by a friendly hand on his shoulder.

"Hey," He said, Deku jolted in surprise before turning to face the man. He had an orange mop of hair covering one of his eyes, which got more yellow towards the roots and wore a long white coat. He thrust a warm mug of hot coffee into his hands "You were doing the mumbling thing again. You take it dark don't you?"

"Yeah, thanks Yashiru," Deku nodded briefly before directing his attention back to the screen. He took a small sip to test its temperature before putting down to the side of the desk.

"How are the new group doing?" Yashiru asked as he reclined into a chair towards the back of the room.

"Their performance in the second phase was impressive overall-" Deku began

"What about outliers?" Yashiru was a little too quick to ask.

"Well physically they were all above average, but especially..." Deku paused to flick through a large notebook "Marek and Archie, I think..."

"Never learned their names, huh?"

"I've had a stressful day," Deku put his hands behind his head, looking slightly embarrassed. "But those two had an about average end result. I'm more interested in the girl,"

"Who, the one with the pink hair?"

"What? No, although she was impressive in her own right. I'm far more interested in the short one; I think her name was Morticia?" Deku pondered "She completed the entire course in about forty seconds,"

Yashiru's eyes widened, and he choked on his coffee, taking a couple of seconds to cough all the liquid out of his lungs.

"Wait, f-forty seconds?! Am I hearing you right?" He exclaimed

"Yes, she went over the top of every fence, and even cut up most of our silver villain bots. She got through the gate before the golden one even woke up,"

"O-okay... Well, what about the third phase?" Yashiru stammered.

"As for results, it's too early to say. But their attack plan has an important flaw,"

"Oh, how so?"

"Well..."

Archie and his group dived behind a boulder, just as Zero began a barrage. They ducked their heads until the stream of pellets let up and leant against the rock.

"So, now that we've got some time," Archie panted, looking over to Iris "I never asked what your quirk does."

"Well, it's pretty simple actually. All I can do is make shockwaves, good for destroying things and not much else,"

Archie looked over to the dark haired boy, who slumped against the rock, panting aggressively.

"And you," He said, pointing to the him "I don't think we've been introduced,"

"I'm... Nemure... Nemure Mado..." the boy croaked between deep gasps.

"Quirk?"

"I can... exhaust things I guess?" He shrugged "When I touch people I can make them get really tired. And I once drained all the battery from my phone which-"

"Cool," Archie interrupted "We good to go?"

"I think..." Mado groaned, clambering to his feet. Randall pulled at Archie's sleeve, drawing his attention. He pointed over towards the outward side of the column.

"I thought the only target was gonna be the big one..." He sighed. Around 50ft from their position a copper and silver villain robot, probably stragglers from the last round and both scratched and damaged, were slowly advancing on them and readying a shot. Iris noticed the two of them, and took a ready stance. Mado shifted around the rock, farther into cover. Each robot fired their shot at the same time, Archie and Randall ducked, but Iris advanced towards them. She thrust both her arms forwards with open palms, and both the projectiles were reflected away by a wall of force, exploding under the stress and splattering away from the group. Archie looked up at her, and gave a thumbs-up. She smiled sweetly at him, and gave one back. Randall dug a heavy stone from out of a mound of sand and hauled it up over his shoulder. He began to focus intensely as the muscles in either of his arms twisted and coiled up inside of him, giving his skin an unpleasant writhing appearance. He swung the stone with his arms, releasing the strain on them at the last moment and launching the stone forward with a sound like a catapult being released. The stone soared through the air, striking the copper villain robot in its left flank and causing it to collapse. The group dove behind the cover with Mado as the silver villain bot fired another volley.

"Is everyone okay?" Iris asked. Archie scanned the surroundings briefly

"I can't see Morticia..." He said in a serious tone. He looked over out of cover to find the silver bot's attention had been diverted. It fired a shot, but it was cut in twain and blasted the ground on either side of Morticia with its payload of paint. Morticia stood defiantly in front of it; one of her arms had been converted into a tendril of water, with the very tip seeming to be condensed into a blade. The villain bot fired three more shots, but each was masterfully diced before coming anywhere near Morticia. By the time the group diverted its attention back to the robot, each of its arms had been cleanly sliced off and it lurched forward heavily, crashing down on its front side. Morticia returned her arm to normal and dashed towards the group impossibly quickly. She was standing before them before their shock had even worn off.

"Morticia... I had no idea you were..." Archie stammered

"So cool!" Iris squealed

"Yeah, something like that," Archie mumbled.

Maria just about caught up to the rest of her group as they reached the bottom of the stone column. Hayato was the only one to continue running when the others stopped to catch their breath. He leapt up onto the column and began to scale it hastily, leaping from alcove to alcove in a display of inhuman acrobatics.

"Shit, that's cool..." The stocky boy muttered.

"Hey, Maria," Marek huffed. Maria looked over to him. He wiped sweaty locks of hair away from his eyes with his wrist and for the first time, Maria got a good look at his eyes. They set slightly wide and had unexpectedly full lashes, along with an intense dark blue colour not much different than the depths of a lake or ocean. Looking at them made her a little uneasy. "About your quirk, it didn't sound mobility oriented when you explained it to us earlier, so why'd you come with us?"

"Uh, well, I'm not really good at either of the things Archie said, so I just followed you because you're like, cool... " she said sheepishly.

"Right..." Marek said, fixing his hair and going into a leg stretch. "Just don't slow us down,"

Maria nodded. Marek took a few steps back and inhaled deeply before running dead towards the column.

CHARACTER REPORT

Aspiring hero name: Desaguerrero

Full name: Marek Leonardo Antonio Roderico Mateo

Age: 15

Quirk: Hammer space

Named for the old cartoon phenomenon, Marek can remove from and store objects in a metaphysical space so long as the entrance and exit points are not visible to anyone but him. Marek has idea what the conditions in this space are like, where it could be or what its dimensions are.

Hobbies: Watching 50's and 60's cartoons on the internet, weightlifting and browsing department stores for utilities to store in his hammer space

Statistics:

Power: C

Speed: C

Durability: C

Tactics: A

Quirk: A

Marek leapt towards the column at around 3 feet away from it, throwing his legs forward like an Athlete. He angled his feet inwards at the last moment before he hit the ground a vaulting pole appeared between his feet. It was thrust deep into the sand by his weight, bending almost in half before he was propelled upwards, just about managing to grip the rim of one of the columns shelves. He clambered up with ease and turned to look down at them.

"Can you throw me that back up? I don't have a lot of those," He shouted down to them. Maria went over to grab it but the boy with the narrow glasses put one hand on her shoulder.

"Please, allow me," he insisted. The boy coughed and wretched thoroughly for a while and opened his mouth unsettlingly wide. Out of it flew in succession 8 or 9 large flying insects which looked sort of like mosquitoes, only green and dripping an unpleasant fluid from the proboscis. Maria's eyes widened as she covered her mouth with her hands. The sight of it made her want to puke.

"That was pretty cool, right?" He exclaimed. Maria nodded and tried to smile because she didn't want to be rude. The bugs buzzed obediently over to the pole, picking it up and dropping it into Marek's outstretched hand.

"Uh... hey, what's your name, just for the record?" He asked, opening his mouth for his bugs to crawl back down into his throat.

"O-Oh, its M-Maria... what about you?" she tried her best to mask her gagging.

"Felix, Felix Baugi," He smiled and reached his hand out, Maria shook it with hesitation. Felix held one finger up as he turned around and made a cacophony of wrenching, vomiting sounds. By the time he turned around his bugs had made a sort of writhing carpet on the ground.

"Care to join me?" He said, beckoning her with one hand. She tip toed awkwardly over onto the mat of bugs, carefully avoiding skin contact. Felix stepped gingerly onto the carpet and clapped his hands. The buzzing from the bugs became more extreme, and the pair began to slowly but surely gain altitude.

"Hey, you should sit down," Felix said, sitting down himself.

"W-why's that?" Maria laughed nervously

"It's more stable, and easier on the bugs cuz' your weights spread out or whatever,"

"Um... you know... I think... uh..." Maria babbled. Felix whipped off his blazer and laid it out over the cloud of insects supporting them.

"Yeah, I get it. Bugs are gross, apparently. You should just say," He sighed. Maria sat down over his blazer, but kept her hand over her face to mask her embarrassment.

"Um, thank you,"

"Don't worry about it. It's not like you're the first," He chuckled. Maria looked over to see Marek, halfway up to the next plateau and staring at them. She waved over to him, and he nodded back. Felix spat out a bunch more bugs, which formed a separate carpet for him. He got onto it and flew over to them, lagging a little below them.

"Hey, Maria," He called up. Maria poked her head over the cloud of bugs.

"Don't look down," He warned.

"Oh, don't worry about me, I'm not afraid of heights, I prefer being up high actually!"

"It's so that if you fall I can make a net or a rope or something. To catch you with..."

"Ohhhhh..." Maria blushed. Although she knew she was gonna be a strong and renowned hero one day, it felt nice to be worried over. They reached the top of the column. Zero's billboard sized head cast a huge shadow over them as they took cover behind a nearby rock. Hayato was there, leaning over it and observing Zero carefully.

"Hey, shouldn't we be getting out there and like, blowing it up?" Felix asked, crawling out of cover. Hayato tugged hard on his shirt, pulling him back. He looked right at Felix and shook his head. Felix ordered one of his bugs over to Zero, but the second it flew out of cover a slit opened on the side of Zero's head. The bug was peppered with shots and fell to the ground with a wet thump.

"Nooo no no no no..." Felix stammered, leaping over to the bug, he took a handkerchief out of his pocket and began dabbing it on the little bug carefully so he never got any paint of himself.

"You... idiot..." Hayato groaned. Zero's gun set Felix in its sight, and he looked over to it like a deer in the headlights. Felix ducked as it began to fire, but Marek was quick to throw a tarp over Felix blocking Zero's shots. But the barrage never stopped as paint started to pool around Felix and he was slowly pushed towards the edge.

"Stop squirming you moron! Its vision is based on movement!" Hayato called over. Felix froze solid and the shots let up after a moment.

"I know it's just paint, but that stung..." Felix groaned. Zero shot just one pellet at him, and he let out a yelp, followed by a long sigh.

"Marek, have you got some kind of shield in that hammer space thing you mentioned?" Hayato asked.

"Lemme check," Marek turned away from the group.

"I have this little buckler. Here, I'll show you," Marek turned to show him. It was pretty miniscule, round and made of plain steel with and a leather strap. The very edge of its rim glinted in the light but overall it looked pretty dull and beaten, with scratches and dents littering its surface.

"Yeah, that'll do," Hayato said, grabbing it from him. He took a moment to brace himself before running out of his cover. He was immediately sprayed with countless shots, but he deftly moved around them, blocking the ones which strayed towards him. He dived to the side and held the shield towards the stream. He was being pushed backwards by the force of all the tiny pellets impacting the shield, but he jumped backwards and, propelling off of the rock, leapt all the way over the stream of pellets and towards Zero. Zero adjusted the aim of its attack upwards slowly until it and Hayato were moving parallel to each other, but Hayato began to drop towards it. Thinking quickly, he threw the buckler down onto the relentless barrage of pellets. The force froze the buckler in mid air as it struggled to fall against the relentless barrage. Hayato used the now static buckler as a stepping stone, leaping a second time all the way over to the source of the attack. Before zero could even aim upwards, Hayato brought one foot down over it at blinding speed. The impact buckled the barrel of the gun, halting Zero's attacks.

"Shit, that's cool..." Felix muttered. Hayato caught onto the barrel and dangled over the edge of the column for a second before leaping over and bowing to them.

"You are now free to attack at you leisure," He said. Marek smiled.

The sound of Iris' blast wave echoed around the pass, but it deflected around Zero's thick armour plating, Randall repeatedly struck Zero with his best attacks to no avail and Morticia slashed ineffectively as his thick plating. Even Archie's explosions left little or no marks no matter how long he took to charge them.

"X20 000 didn't even do it?!" He exclaimed, rushing to cover as Zero started another barrage. "Guys, I hate to admit it but this shit isn't doing anything. We need a new plan of attack,"

"How are the others doing up there?" Iris asked. She looked up just as Zero's head rocked with a great impact; a large indeterminate grey object had struck it at incredible speed and now tumbled towards them.

"Is that an I beam?" Randall asked, pointing upwards. "Did Marek do that?"

Archie tackled his brother just as the I beam crashed down vertically onto the spot he was sitting.

"That hurt, asshole..." Randall grumbled, squirming out of his brother's grasp.

"Oh, sorry, would you rather I hit you in the head with a girder going 10 meters per second?" Archie asked sarcastically. Randall snarled.

"Guys, forget that, look!" Iris said, pointing at Zero's head.

"I don't see shit..." Randall groaned.

"It looks dented!" Mado cried.

"Okay, so no offence to Marek, but no way in hell is a girder getting launched at the speed of fall stronger than two sticks of dynamite going off at point blank," Archie grumbled.

"Maybe its armour is weaker up there?" Mado pondered. Iris thought for a second.

"That's it!" She exclaimed. She rushed over to Randall and pulled him to his feet.

"How far do you think you can throw a person?" She asked

"I don't know... Last time I tried I got suspended..."

"You think you can throw me up there?" She pointed at the top of the column where the others were.

"Well, I could try, but you might get hurt..."

"Don't worry about it," She smiled.

"Okay," He relented. He bent over and cupped his hand; Iris put on foot on them and got ready to jump. Randall strained and twisted, gritting his teeth and winding his muscles until they ached powerfully. He threw her upwards with as much force as he could muster, and she went tumbling upwards through the air. Zero tried to swat at her, but his hands were to lumbering and sluggish to ever hit her at the incredible speed she was moving. She reached the arc of her flight just at the top of the column, and she flailed her arms towards the edge, trying to get a grip on something. She hit the side of the column, just shy of the rim, but Maria dived over and grabbed her hand just as she began to slip.

"Hey," She said. Maria gave her a little wave.

"Could you give me a lift up? I really, really don't like heights" Iris asked nervously. Maria gladly obliged

"Goddammit! No matter what we do to this thing, we can barely dent it!" Hayato bellowed.

"Hey Hayato," Iris mewed. Hayato turned to meet Iris' voice.

"Wait, Iris? What are you doing up here?" He fumbled.

"I thought you could use some help. Clear the way, will you," She said. Hayato got everyone out of her way. Zero turned his head towards her and raised its hand, preparing for a barrage. Iris focused her energy into both fists, throwing them back.

"Special attack: Bunker buster" Iris whispered to nobody in particular. She lunged forwards, releasing all the energy pent up in her fists in one devastating strike. The force was immense; everyone was thrown backwards by the wind coming off of the blast. It tore clean through Zero's fist, and caused his face to collapse completely inwards onto itself. Zero was thrown backwards, knocking into the other column and toppling it. By the time the smoke and dust cleared, Zero was nothing but some scrap metal intermitted with rubble.

Deku and Yashiru stared at the observation monitor, giving impressed nods.

"Well, they got around that without much trouble, didn't they?" Deku said. Yashiru nodded, and leant over to a microphone to his left, pressing the button to activate it.

"Congratulations students, all targets have been eliminated. Please make your way to the exit gate," Yashiru announced jovially.

"Well, I need to go greet them at the end," Deku said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, I'll see you at lunch," Yashiru replied. Deku gave him a little wave before speeding off in his buff form, throwing up miscellaneous papers in the process. Yashiru looked to see there was no one around, and quickly chugged Deku's abandoned cup of coffee before scribbling some notes.

Maria dropped off of Felix's bug cloud, joining the others around the exit gate. They passed the threshold together, and were accompanied by the same fanfare as the phase two exit gate.

"That was... intense..." Marek said. Everyone nodded in agreement. The door beyond the exit gate flung open automatically as they approached. The light from the sun shone into their eyes, and they covered them up until they adjusted. They were standing in a courtyard, there was a pristine marble fountain portraying a three dimensional rendering of the schools logo. Hedgerows surrounded them along with finely crafted wooden benches. Deku stood before them, beckoning them with open arms. He stood before the school building; it was a colossal structure of steel and glass with a sleek modern styling and impressive architecture.

"Welcome to valour academy, new students! This is where you will be spending the next four to five years of your lives, providing you don't get expelled of course!" Deku chuckled "Come now! There isn't any time to waste; lunch is in 8 minutes exactly!"

"Hey, teach..." Archie asked, raising his hand.

"Yes... Archie!" Deku cried, slightly pride he managed to remember his name.

"What was all that?"

"Oh, that? Just a simple apprehension test. We needed to gather information so that we could tailor your education more effectively. Now, please follow me and I'll introduce you to your new classmates!" The group followed Deku as he strode eagerly through the schools halls. "Here we are" He said, pointing towards a door to their left. "Class 1A, your brand new homeroom!" Maria hopped with excitement as Deku slid the door open. There, sitting with an impatient look on their faces were the rest of her new class...

A/N

Well, these things just get longer and longer. Im just now realising what I'm getting myself into, writing this. Oh well :p.

Thanks for your submissions everyone, student submissions are now officially closed for business, but feel free to submit your teachers and your villains, but put their names in the gosh darn title for the PM, I think im gonna lose my mind searching through them all just to find the one character out of like a bajillion with the title as "SYOC", thanks :). I'm also willing to discuss potential story ideas if anyone whether they are for your OC or just in general.

I've read your reviews, and in light of your feedback, im gonna be taking a little longer on these chapters from now on. But dont worry, I'll try to keep a consistent rate of at least 1 per week :)

Well, that's all I needed to tell you about, have a fine ass day y'all, and keep the reviews coming :D