Chapter 7: Intent
"Hero team begin the operation."
"Let's go." Todoroki grabbed Menzou's arm shaking his head. "I'll go in alone." Saying that he placed his arm on the metal walls and froze the entire building solid. He made the domain his within a moment's notice.
"Huh? Whoa what the hell is this?" Mineta gasped. Leone grabbed hold of him and Momo latching the group to the ceiling. The room froze solid. He dropped them back to the ground and shook his head. "I won't be getting fooled twice." He said to himself. "Alright you two stick to the plan and...oh my gosh." The boy took off his jacket and handed it to the girl. "This is what you get for not wearing clothing to a battlefield."
"Th-thank you." She said shakily.
"No problem. Makes it easier to look at you now. Well I'm off." He said with a wave. The door to their hideout closed shut. "Let's see where they are." The vizor lit up showing two silhouettes not too far from him. "Ok," he said with a roll of his shoulders. "Let's see if my fear was well placed or not Shouto."
Todoroki walked composed throughout the building searching for the weapon. He believed that eventually he would run into one of the three people in the group but even then they would be no trouble. "Everything alright in there Shouto?" The octopus hero asked. "Nothing to report." He responded. "I've almost check the entirety of the first floor I'll be making my way up to the second in-gah!"
He spat. "What the!?" He jumped backwards avoiding the next attack. "Watanabe? Why isn't he frozen? Doesn't matter I just need to capture him now!" He shot forward using the ice to propel himself. "Acting like Bakugou, this is your loss." He failed to take hold. Leone jumped upwards vaulting over the hero's head. Once over him he delivered a quick kick to his backside and skate off. "Damn it. Menzou," He said into the mic. "I need your assistance. I'm unfreezing the floor."
"Roger coming in." The boy dashed into the building the moment the ice melt searching for his partner. "Over there!" Leone glanced to the right having to double take- a scowl crossed his face. "Grab him before he can head up to the second floor!" Menzou rushed him reaching for his opponent stopping him was a wall of ice. He immediately looked over to his partner. "Why did you do that?"
The chilly youngster swore it was not him. "Watanabe must have some sort of device on him to create ice." He concluded melting the walls. "We should stick together we don't know where the other two are."
"Yeah I can't hear them either. They must be staying silent somewhere to ambush us." They proceeded quietly up the stairs. At the top of the stairs they checked their corners, once checked they advanced. "Where could they be?" No sound could be heard anywhere. The boys could only rely on their wits and quick reactions. "Well that takes care of the second and third."
Todoroki nodded following behind his classmate up the next set of stairs. "Where are they hiding? Watanabe was unfrozen so I think it's safe to assume the other two are as well. If so why are they allowing us to proceed so calmly especially with so much time left."
"No need to clog our minds with unnecessary thoughts. They're still waiting for us ahead obviously."
"I believe so too but-"
"Not like you'll reach them anyway." Ding ding ding. A grenade clanged in front of them. "Tick tick boom." The villain wagged his finger. The hallway burned brightly searing the eyes of both the heroes. "Only five minutes left. More than enough traps left to slow them down." He smiled. "All going according to plan. Come on you two make this a little more fun for me."
~Observation Room~
The young heroes sat back in awe watching the spectacle before them. No one wanted to tear their eyes away from their screen as their friends fought against one another. "It's like he's just playing with them. One little mistake and that plan of his is going to fall apart. That glint in his eyes. Leone...are you having fun?" All Might asked.
"Leone's definitely taking to the villain role well like myself." Tenya complimented.
"If it was me that bastard wouldn't be getting away with those cheap tricks." Everyone ignored Bakugou's assertions which only succeeded in angering him further.
"Seems a little unfair though the two smartest people in the classroom working together."
Shouji rubbed his appendages scanning the area. They were still in the tightly confined staircase. Todoroki stood up trying to get the stars out of his eyes. Leone had shown himself again but why? "We need to go." Menzou grabbed Shouto. "He's still on the third floor!"
"Oh no." He said. "That's what I wanted you to know." Leone said throwing out another flash bomb. Shouto was ready creating a wall of ice before both boys charged forward at him. The lone villain sprint off deeper into the base his enemies close behind. "Still need more exercise." He coughed. "They might catch me like this." Endeavor's son was gliding over ice shortening the gap. "The exact opposite."
"Get on. Grab him!" Menzou grabbing their enemy. "Got him!" Leone brandished a knife cutting a thin wire right behind him. Grapes fell to the ground. The boy somersaulted sending the octopus into a nearby wall sticking him to it. "Close but no cigar fellas." He chuckled running away. "No you don't. Shouji where is he?"
"Huh?"
"Tell me where he is!"
"Um, yeah. He's heading towards the fourth floor stairs."
"Ok, gotcha." Grabbing a hold of the ground Shouto felt the vibrations and with one thought yelled out! Gah! Could be heard not too far in the distance. "Got'em." He sighed. He froze the grapes and retrieved his partner. They walked towards the fourth set of stairs. "He should be in this set of ice spikes that I created."
The silver haired boy nodded. "To think he just used him imagination to create the trap. Very interesting."
"Alright Watanabe the game's o-over?" In place of a boy was a white jacket with a large flame on the sleeves and backside. "What is this?"
"Checkmate. Now Yaoyorozu!" They villians jumped over the ice striking at their enemies. Leone engaged Todoroki knocking him off balance. Momo created a whip tying up three of Shouji's arms and reeled him in sending him on the ground. Shouto seized hold of Leone's hand ready to freeze him but found himself on the floor before long. Leone threw out one of his bombs freezing the boy's arm.
Unlike he had predicted Shouto refused to flinch at the pain freezing his quickly. Leone forced him to let go with his other arm and jumped back. He smashed the bits of ice he could and prepared to continue. With a barrage of punched Shouji put Momo on the defensive forcing her back to a wall he pulled back arm and thrust only meeting contact with the metal sheets.
The creator hero flipped into the air dodging his strike and created a second pole. She matched him blow for blow but the longer they fought the less durable her weapons became."Not too good under pressure are you." Her enemy commented. "So in fire power they surpass us for sure but only two minutes left. We just need to stall them for a little while longer." Shouto had enough time was running out.
"I didn't want to have to do this." Ice formed over his right hands a sword was created. In a single flash he struck through his opponent shattering the exoskeleton's arm, spinning on his heels he grabbed hold of Leone then threw him into Momo. To finish he got the tape and tied both of them together facing one another. Watanabe tried to pull away as he was far closer to the girl than he wanted to be. Due to how short he was in comparison to her his face was square in her breast.
Shouji and Shouto sighed their mission mostly complete. The last door to the building was before them they opened it ready to grab the weapon. The only thing in that room was emptiness. "What the hell? Where is the damn thing?" Shouji panicked. "We've checked every floor in this place where could it be!?"
"No way. Think for a moment. I searched the first floor. Menzou and I found nothing on the second and third. The fourth only has one room. Watanabe attacked me on the first and third. We checked all the floors Watanabe attacked us on the third...wait we didn't check the entirety of the first floor. He attacked me on the first floor and gained all our attention diverting it from where the real weapon was!"
Leone clenched his teeth. "Thirty seconds." He mumbled. The two took off racing for the first floor. "This door." Menzou broke it open and grabbed hold of the weapon. "We did it!" Shouji jumped for joy.
"The winners are...the villian team!"
"Huh? Th-this isn't the weapon." The fake toppled over. "It is smaller than in the videos wasn't it."
"What the?" Leone and Momo had gotten free. "Where the hell is the weapon at?"
"Hm." Momo looked off to the side. Leone glanced at her wondering what could be going through her head at the moment. She had deviated from his plan and the weapon was not in it's intended location. "Good job Momo!" Mineta raced down the stairs ready to jump for her. She sidestepped causing him to plant his face into the sheets. "Man if it weren't for you we woulda lost for sure."
"So not only did you not listen you moved the weapon. That's cheating isn't it?"
"Not exactly." She responded.
"How did you do it then?" He wondered. He entered the room while everyone else left. There were crowbars around the room as well as screws thrown around. The real weapon was poking through on the second floor. "She broke open the floor and moved its location. I suppose according to the rules the two rooms technically became one. How astute of her," Leone coughed. "Wh-why am I still so c-cold...?"
"Watanabe get out of there we need to start the next test." Momo returned. "Watanabe? Watanabe!?" He shivered on the ground unable to move. The mock battles continued with everyone showing off their quirks. The battles continued to be flashy everyone giving it their all but none matched the spectacular breathtaking atmosphere of the first. At the end of their battles they made their way over to Recovery Girl's office.
~Class 1-A~
"Izuku and Leone have been gone all day. Possibly due to the strain of their battles," Tenya readjusted his glasses. "They did both fight against arguably the strongest members of our classroom today after all.
"Pretty sweet how you wounded Katsuki though." They laughed opening up the door. The class rushed over jumping in their faces. "I just had some ice embedded in my chest must have been when Shouto attacked me. I'm sure it was an accident." Leone walked past the group who was now focused on Deku. Momo sat alone reading a book. "Ahem." He coughed twice.
She looked up for a moment only to return her eyes to her book. "I see that you're fine."
"Yes. Um...thank you for getting me to the Recovery Girl so quickly. She said my body could have frozen from the inside out." He rubbed the back of his neck. He had a feeling that she was waiting for something but for the sake of his pride he did not want to say it. She glanced up and sighed. She gathered her books and headed for the door. "Yaoyoruzu," He grabbed her arm. "Would you...mind coming with me to my house this evening. I feel it is the only proper way to thank you."
"You saved my life before it's only-"
"No I don't mean that." He whispered. "Without you today my plan would have failed. I'm not so pompous to not admit where I am at fault. So to make it up to you how about I make you dinner or whatever." His head snapped to the side. "But if you don't want to I understand I'm not very good at cooking anyway you'd probably throw up and-"
"Sure."
"I knew it. I'm sorry for-what?" He asked flushed.
"Sure I'll just need to inform my parents."
"Th-then would you allow me to walk you home at the very least."
"Sure. I'll be waiting by the front gate when you've gathered your things." She walked off.
"Leone you player." Uraraka noogied him. "I didn't think you'd have the heart to ask a girl so directly like that."
"Y-you've only known me for a weak how could you know anything." He stumbled over his words. Try as he might every word only caused him to blush more and more. "I'm just trying to properly thank her for performing an intellectual feat!"
"According to Midoriya you've never shown interest in a female before. He started to believe that you batted for the same team." Tenya's glasses flashed.
"I do not like her!" He said flustered. "Izuku!" He yelled tackling his friend. "Stop telling people my business all the time!"
Shouto was leaned against a pillar on the outside. Momo passed by having gotten off the phone with her parents. The two locked eyes she stopped. He began to speak. "You do know who he is don't you?"
"Obviously."
"Then why did you help him? That was the perfect opportunity to get rid of him."
"...I don't know."
"You don't know? Ok. Think of this question, "The son of the man who almost killed the symbol of peace is in front of you, according to reports he's the spitting image of the same man. His mannerisms, the way he talks, acts, and walks are all mirror images. You believe he's someone you can trust until he's gotten what he wants out of you. Then he stabs you in the back. Wouldn't you kill that seed?", or at the very least that's how my father put it."
"Didn't you say you despised your father?"
"Yes and to be honest after my first attempt I was ready to let him go however today got me worried. He's more resourceful than I pegged him for."
"And you're willing to kill him for that?"
"I don't want to. But...that man said I could see my mother if I did."
"Yaoyoruzu," Leone puffed descending the steps. "Sorry I took so long. Ah Todoroki," He extended his hand. "Well fought today." The young man took his hand and disappeared. "You ready to go?" She nodded.
~All Might's House~
"So to start," He set down the plates of food. "Think of a conversation starter you did invite her here after all. Dang it I should have read more books on this subject. Talking to girls is far more difficult than talking to males." He thought. "Yaoyoruzu would you mind telling me about your quirk a little bit more? I have an inkling about everyone in our classes but yours still alludes me."
"Hm," She thought back to Todoroki's words. She shook the thoughts. "I can show you better than I can tell you.
"What do you-wow." She materialized an exact replica of fork she was using. "I can basically create any non living object."
"Interesting." Leone pulled his destroyed jacket out of his backpack. "To keep us on even ground let me show you this. This jacket I requested from the clothing allowance has two distinct purposes." He pointed to the fibers. "These were made specifically to dampen the pain I feel whenever I use my quirk. I could have asked them to nullify it completely but that would have taken too long. Secondly," He pointed to the flame on the back. "The inside of this houses an auxilarry power unit for my exoskeleton."
"It seems you've thought this through very much."
"Yes but there's still more to do. Much much more. That being said this suit isn't the only one of my projects. Follow me." He forcefully grabbed her hand and dragged her up the stairs. In his room, which was surprisingly clean for him, were papers tossed around on a desk. "You see this." He brought her over to his work table. "You see this?"
"Is that an action figure?"
"No. No. It's name is C.C. It's supposed to be a personal assistant for me and continue work on projects for me but you see," He cracked open the back. "There's a particular piece I'm missing. Could you please make it for me?"
"Let me get a look at the parts and components it needs." I no time flat she had created the object. Leone jammed it in the back and screwed it shut. A moment passed, then another, and another, and another. "It seems it still need more work on it."
"I don't think so!" The figure popped up. "Booting system! Booting system! The whole board is green! C.C, that's me, is ready to work creator...creators!" It saluted them.
"Holy crap it works! Holy crap it works! Haha! Recording nine thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven C.C is finally operational! Thank you Yaoyorozu!" He said hugging her. A second later he reeled back apologizing for what he had done. "Goodbye," He had brought her home. A sly smile crossing his face. "One step closer. Thank you Yaoyorozu. One upped twice by you in one day. You truly are interesting." He said sincerely. "Welcome to the list of people I desperately want to defeat." He put her name on the list right under Izuku Midoriya. An ever growing list.
