Chapter 9: Defusing the Bomb


-]-[-

Izuku ran his fingers over the steel case that contained his suit.

Heroes should dress to look cool, All Might had told him minutes earlier.

Izuku hastily undid the latch and looked at the case's contents. When he was designing it, Izuku was thinking more along the lines of "practicality" than "coolness," but the support company in charge of the final design had added their own flair to the costume.

There were five interior compartments each with its own label:

Midoriya Shadow Bodysuit

Midoriya Stealth Hood

Midoriya Reflector Armor Plating

Midoriya Sneakers

Midoriya Lense Gauntlet

Huh, they separated the suit into each of its subsections. This will make it easy to put on…

-]-[-

Thanks to all the clamps and buckles on the thing, it took Izuku longer than the rest of the class to put his suit on. And although it covered most of his body, Izuku found the material breathable.

"That's a dark suit," Tokoyami mused when Izuku emerged from the locker room. "Nice."

Izuku nodded back, eyeing Tokoyami's pitch-black cloak. "Yours, too."

Tokoyami nodded in approval before walking towards another group of students, and Izuku looked down at his own costume.

It was dark. In fact, Izuku had requested that the Uniform Subsidy use the darkest material available for the interior bodysuit and the attached hood. The exterior layer was a bit brighter— a set of dark green metallic armor that covered his chest, arms, and legs. The armor protected the delicate fabric underneath while leaving his joints open for movement. Izuku had easily embraced the green motif. After all, his green suit would aesthetically fit with his skin when it glowed.

And the suit worked well with Glow-in-the-Dark in more ways than one, as his classmates would soon learn.

"Is that your suit, Izuku?" asked Ochako, walking up to him.

She was wearing a skin-tight suit colored pink and black along with puffy-looking boots and bracers. It compliments her body well, thought Izuku. The support company must be full of pervs. He had to struggle to keep his eyes above the neckline.

"Yeah, this is mine. It has a few tricks up its sleeves, so to speak…"

"You'll have to show me later! I was thinking, we could communicate better if we-"

She was interrupted when All Might coughed. He stood in front of the class in his weaker form, which everyone, save Ochako, was still not used to seeing.

"I see you've all changed into your hero costumes. Very nice." He shifted awkwardly on his feet.

"Contrary to what many of you might believe, the majority of hero-villain confrontations take place indoors, rather than on the streets. This fact has inspired our very first exercise: Bomb Diffusion!"

He explained the rules of the game, and that there would be two teams of two facing off against each other.

"We will determine the match-ups by drawing lots," he explained. "And since Aizawa has seen fit to expel a student already, there will be a team with only one person. Any more questions?"

Not even Iida raised a hand.

"Alright then." He momentarily transformed into his hero form. "LET'S GET STARTED!"

-]-[-

"Izuku!" shouted Ochako, turning to him. "We're on the same team! And…" she checked the team postings. "We're against Iida and... Bakugou. Shoot, that guy was scary…"

"He's nice on the inside," said Izuku. "He's really smart, too, and he knows a lot about my thinking and fighting styles. I trained with him, you see…"

"Ah, that explains why you two seem so familiar."

Izuku nodded. "I'll tell you what I know about him, and then we can formulate a plan. Don't tell Bakugou I said this about him, but…"

-]-[-

"When it comes to practical exercises like this, Izuku is a tactical genius. He has killer instincts, and he can analyse complicated situations as easily as you and I can breathe. He's a force to be reckoned with, and that's not even taking his overpowered quirk into consideration…" Bakugou continued to tell Iida all the details about his training partner. "...But don't tell him I said any of this, okay?"

Iida scratched the chin of his helmet. "He sounds like a tough opponent."

"Yeah, and you can bet he already figured out his plan. If we want to win, we want to keep them away from this bomb." He tapped on the comically large warhead. Paper mache.

"AND, BEGIN!"

Iida puffed. "They're coming. Do you have any ideas?"

Bakugou thought for a second. What would Izuku do?

"In this mission," he started, "information equals power. The hero team needs to find the bomb, while we need to find the heroes. So the team that knows the most about the other team's strategy and location wins. Get it?"

"Yes," Iida said. "With my speed, I can scout the hallways ahead without having to worry about being captured."

"Sounds like a solid plan. Run around until you see something, and then report back to me. I'll stay here and protect the bomb. Don't take any risks, got it?"

"I would never." Iida nodded one last time and then took off. The idea worked in theory: if Iida saw either Izuku or Ochako, he could turn tail and run, and the villain team would be made aware of the heroes' positions. From there, the two villains could set a trap and disable the heroes before they could pose any threat.

Now, it's time to wait… Bakugou thought. He leaned against a window, but he couldn't quite get comfortable. Something was bothering him. Izuku knows our quirks, so he probably has a fair idea of what we might plan… He shook his head.

Iida is fast and skilled enough that he'll be able to scout just fine. He tapped the earpiece. If there's a problem, I'll know. He looked around the room, noticing a few empty metal crates. For now, I can stack some of these boxes around the bomb for protection…

A few minutes later, Iida's voice came through the earpiece:

"Bakugou, it's strange: I searched the whole place and found nothing. The heroes are nowhere to be found."

"Hmm." Bakugou started to think.

Iida continued: "They have to be here somewhere, right? Perhaps I can search again on my way back up, but more thoroughly this time."

"Okay," said Bakugou. "Do that." He couldn't think of any better options.

"Roger that."

But the doubts in the boy's mind resurfaced. Maybe he's not in the building. From doing all those exercises with him, I learned one thing: Izuku thinks outside the box. And with his quirk, along with the girl's antigravity, they don't follow the normal rules of physics, do they? So why use a door when they can use a-

Window! He whipped around, only to find himself face-to-face with Ochako through the pane of glass. She was floating in midair, and she wore wide eyes, like she had just been caught doing something wrong. Acting on instinct, Bakugou raised his hand and blasted the glass to smithereens, blowing the girl out of the air.

"Change of plans," he growled into the headset. "You can find Ochako on the ground below our room. Deal with her. Izuku has still yet to be found."

"Sounds good," said Iida. "Over."

-]-[-

"Oh no!" Ochako shouted as she fell. "He found me!" She activated Zero Gravity, and her descent slowed to a survivable speed.

Izuku sighed from his end. "There goes our plan to incapacitate him through the glass. Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I have a few cuts from the glass fragments, but I'm otherwise fine." She softly landed on the ground feet first. "How is the breach coming along?"

"Good. I'm almost through, but I'm not sure if I'll be see-"

Ochako cut herself off from the communication so she could turn and face the rapidly approaching footsteps. Iida. Moments later, the armored boy was right on top of her, and she barely had time to deflect his roundhouse kick. She buckled under the weight of the blow and fell to the ground as Iida stood above her.

"Well, well, Ochako. Looks like we've found you, at long last."

"Ack!" Ochako scooted away from the armored boy, who had lowered his voice to a deep baritone. "You don't sound right, Iida. Are you doing a villain impression?"

"No." He stepped closer. "Anyway, we've found out your plan, so you might as well give in. We don't want to stretch this exercise for any longer than it needs to be, right?"

"Wrong. You didn't find out our plan. That explosion was just… a setback!" With those last two words, Ochako degravitised herself and punched out with 15% of One for All. Iida was knocked off balance as she shot backwards.

"I see," said Iida, holding up his fists and revving his leg engines. "Prepare to fight, then."

-]-[-

Bakugou's blood was still pumping from Ochako's surprise appearance and her subsequent fall, so he at first didn't notice Izuku hanging from the wall two windows over. It wasn't until he saw the bright green flashes through the window pane that he knew something was up.

What's that? The blond turned toward the source of the bright lights. Is that Izuku's Glow power? In broad daylight?

Shit, thought Izuku when he saw that he caught Bakugou's attention. I need to work faster.

He was moving his wrists in an arc so his lasers could cut a hole in the glass in front of him.

Normally, Izuku would not have been able to shoot glass-cutting lasers, but he had his hero costume, now. The costume had been specifically designed to utilise the effects of Glow-in-the-Dark, even in broad daylight. It worked like this: the extremely dark undersuit allowed Izuku's covered skin to glow exceedingly bright, although nobody could see it. The bright light could then be channeled through Izuku's Lense Gauntlets. The gauntlets could function as flashlights, signals, or even intense surgical lasers.

The costume had even more features, like a 'hood' that Izuku could don to prevent his Glow-in-the-Dark from giving away his position, and lustrous armor plating that could reflect and amplify the light from his own skin. He even had his own utility belt around his waist.

But for now, to cut a hole into Bakugou's room, he used only his laser gauntlets.

At long last, Izuku brought his hands together to complete the circle, and he kicked the glass in. Throwing stealth to the wind, he jumped in after the circle and rolled to his feet. But before Izuku could dive for the faux-bomb, he was pushed aside by a huge blast.

"Fool!" shouted Bakugou. He fired another blast, and Izuku barely had the time to Reject himself out of the way. "Did you think I would miss those bright green lights?"

Shoot, thought Izuku. He caught me off-guard! He looked at Bakugou and tried to read his opponent's next attack. I'll need to calm down if I want to use Empathy. But he barely had time to take another breath before Bakugou lunged at him again.

He's keeping me on my toes so I can't read him!

"You caught me by surprise, there!" Bakugou yelled, throwing an explosion-powered left hook. "I had no idea you could shoot lasers. Is your glow power actually more useful than it seems?"

Izuku stepped back to dodge. "My suit lets me harness it, even in daylight!" He reached out with Attraction in hopes of pulling Bakugou closer, but he had to pull himself back when the blond sent another powerful explosion at him.

He's keeping me at a distance, too, where Reject is too weak to do any real damage!

Bakugou reached down to a gauntlet of his own, which was crafted like a grenade. "I have a few new tricks, as well!" He held out his arm and stuck a finger in the grenade's pin. "As you know, my palms secrete explosive, nitroglycerin-like sweat. Well, that sweat can be stored, too. For an all-out attack!"

In this lapse of action, Izuku finally got the chance to focus Empathy on Bakugou's mind. But when the blond pulled on the grenade's pin, Izuku could detect only one emotion: confidence.

What's he up to?

And then, Izuku's thoughts were cut short as the nitroglycerin ignited and an explosion consumed the room.

-]-[-

The monitor room went silent for a moment. Not even All Might could manage words. Bakugou's attack was so devastating that they could feel it from where they stood in the basement.

"Wha-" stammered Kirishima. "Why did he do that? Is Izuku dead?" Class A started to murmur.

"-No," said Momo. "It was an indirect hit, see? Bakugou was aiming at the ground, not at Izuku." Now that she mentioned it, they could see that the crater from the blast was on the ground, and not on Izuku's face. "And what's more, Izuku seemed to have dodged it."

As the dust cleared, yes, it was apparent: Izuku was not anywhere near the crater. He had seemingly flown over to the corner of the room the minute the blast hit.

Kaminari's eyes were wide. "Did he just… magnetize himself to the wall?"

Momo nodded. "That's his quirk in action. It's extremely versatile on its own, and that's not even considering his strange glowing powers..."

The class chattered as they discussed the mechanics of Izuku's quirk, but All Might knew better. He was impressed at Izuku's performance so far, and even more impressed with Bakugou for holding his own with only one quirk.

So that's Attraction at work. It's interesting how Izuku's been able to hide his abnormal abilities by 'combining' two quirks into one and dismissing Glow-in-the-Dark as a genetic trait. But he'll still have to hide Empathy and Sacrifice…

"Hey," blurted Sero. "Something's going on with Iida and Ochako."

-]-[-

In the courtyard outside the building, Iida cringed when he heard the explosion four stories up. If he's resorting to such a great level of power, Bakugou must be having a tough time up there. I need to finish this soon so I can help with the defense.

He stared at Ochako, who stared right back at him from twenty feet away. The two had been standing like this for a full minute. Iida hadn't been bothered by the standoff; better to keep Ochako down here while the heroes' time ran out. But now, it was clear he needed to do something.

I'll take her out with a swift and precise strike. It's time to use Recipro Burst!

He revved up his leg engines, storing up potential energy that could be released in a burst of power. Ochako noticed something was going on and tensed up.

Is he preparing to sprint towards me?

When Iida sprung forward, Ochako reflexively activated One for All and dove to the side. As the armored boy flew past with his legs oscillating furiously, she pivoted and tapped one of his calves' exhaust pipes. Before Iida knew what was going on, he was suspended in the air by Zero Gravity, legs flailing uselessly.

"Ach," he grunted. "You got me. Nice dodge!"

Ochako smiled. "You almost got me too! Such speed…"

"Yeah, Recipro Burst is strong, but I cant use it without my leg engines stalling for a minute or so." he waved his arms, trying to find purchase. "It looks like I'm stuck here…"

"Welp," Ochako said. "Sorry about that! But I must be going: there's a bomb that needs defusing."

-]-[-

Reeling from the recoil, Bakugou coughed and blinked away the smoke from his most recent blast. Much of the ground in front of him had been reduced to rubble. He looked down at his gauntlet, and then back to the destruction he'd caused.

This thing packs quite the punch! It wasn't a direct hit— I didn't want Izuku to die— but there's still no way he's getting up from this!

But sure enough, Izuku slowly emerged from the blast, stumbling over the pieces of rubble.

Phew, Izuku thought. Good thing I grappled to the wall at the last moment. Otherwise I'd be toast!

"Izuku," barked Bakugou. The blond boy prepared another blast, but Izuku was faster. With a tug from Attraction, Bakugou's palm was redirected and the attack missed. But Izuku had to leap away when Bakugou followed up with another blast.

Izuku wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. He's relentless, even with only one quirk! I need to think of a way to end this, fast! He leapt with Reject to avoid another attack. I'll need to take advantage of my quirks' wide range of abilities…

After a moment of deliberation, Izuku had a plan. First, I'll wait for an attack…

Izuku didn't have to wait long before he sensed Bakugou's aggression level increase. He's attacking! Sure enough, Bakugou lifted his right palm towards Izuku in preparation for an attack. Now, I can throw him off balance.

Izuku fired Reject from his left hand and Attraction from his right. The shockwave hit Bakugou just as he was pulled forward, and the force of the two blows spun him around.

Now, Izuku thought. This is the perfect opportunity!

He twisted a dial on his Lense Gauntlet and a concentrated beam of green light shot out— right at Bakugou's yet-to-be-detonated Grenade Gauntlet. The beam's heat instantly ignited the volatile material, and Bakugou was consumed by the resulting blast.

"Gah!" shouted Bakugou as he was blown into the ground. He was resistant to the knockback and heat from his own explosions, but this blast was powerful and unexpected.

Now! thought Izuku. He turned to the faux-bomb and leapt forward with a blast from Reject. When he toched the soft material, a buzzer sounded, and All Might's voice came over the radio.

"PLUS ULTRA! And victory goes to the hero team…"

"Dammit!" Bakugou shouted as he struggled to his feet. "I guess this is your win, Izuku. For now."

"Good game," Izuku responded. "I thought you had me when you pulled that pin. And you would have won if you pointed the blast directly at me…"

"...Yeah, but then you'd be crippled or dead. Take the win. I'll live." Bakugou managed a sneer before turning around and sulking out into the hallway. But a quick scan with Empathy revealed two emotions in the blond: devastation and self-doubt. Before Izuku could think of something to say, however, Ochako rushed into the room and wrapped Izuku in a bear hug.

"Izuku, you did it! I was worried when I heard the huge explosions, but you managed to do it anyway!"

"Y-yeah," Izuku stammered, still locked in the hug. Ochako took the hint and let go, but her body was still so close…

Izuku took a breath and continued: "And I take it by Iida's absence that you took care of him?"

"Yep!" Ochako realized something. "And he's still floating now…" She pressed her palms together to release Zero Gravity.

"Ow!" came a voice from the ground floor. "Be careful where you drop me!"

-]-[-

Ten minutes later, Izuku caught up to Bakugou in the locker room, where the latter was changing out of his dusty hero suit. The suit itself hadn't taken much damage— a testament to the durability of the fabric used. Izuku wondered if the costume was designed specifically to weather explosions, but he wasn't here to ask that.

"Bakugou, you weren't in the monitor room when I checked."

The blond puffed. "And neither are you. Don't you want to take notes on your classmates or something?"

"No." Izuku shuffled. "I wanted to talk to you."

"What do you want?"

"Well… I want to know what's wrong. It's obvious that you took that loss pretty deeply, and that you're disappointed in yourself. Trust me. You'll get another chance eventually-"

Bakugou slammed his locker shut. "I'm mad… disappointed— whatever— because I tried. I tried hard. I thought of the best plan I could, and I imagined myself in your shoes, but it still didn't work. And when we fought, I tried to overwhelm you, but you were still so quick to dodge. And that last attack, using my own weapon against me…" he sighed. "...It was genius. There was nothing I could do. How am I supposed to become the Number One if I get upstaged by my friend on the second day of school?" Bakugou opened his locker and slammed it shut again. "Useless!"

Izuku was at a loss for words. Bakugou had rarely showed his emotions, if ever. And now… it was not good. And what's more, Bakugou was right. There was nothing the blond could do. What use was one quirk against five? The odds were stacked against the boy from the very start. And Bakugou deserved to know that.

I can't believe I'm doing this.

"Bakugou…" said Izuku. "You lost… because you only had one quirk."

"What?" said Bakugou. "Of course I have one quirk! What kind of nonsense are you spouting?"

"...And I have five," Izuku continued.

Bakugou just stared. "What?"

"In the accident that killed my mother," Izuku explained, "there was a chemical spill. And I somehow gained the quirks of the five people that died there. Glow-in-the-Dark is one, and 'Polar Control' is actually two separate quirks-"

"I don't believe you," Bakugou grumbled. "You're making this story up so I can feel better."

Izuku shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Here. I'll show you." He gestured to the boy's arm, which had a few scrapes from the rubble, and then to his own arm, which was battered, but not as badly injured. He then placed his hand on the injured arm and activated Sacrifice. Bakugou's scrapes started to disappear and reappear on Izuku's own arm.

"If I only had one quirk, would I be able to do this?"

Bakugou just looked at his arm incredulously.

"That's crazy."

"I know."

They both sat in silence for a bit, side by side on the bench.

Bakugou started again."So that's four quirks that I've seen. What's the fifth?"

"Oh," Izuku's cheeks turned pink. "That's Empathy. I can use it to read people's emotions. It's part of the reason why I can predict everyone's attacks, and it's how I figured out that you were upset."

Bakugou's fists clenched. "So you're reading my mind?"

"Not exactly. I still can't tell your exact thoughts. Just your general feelings."

Bakugou relaxed a little. "With a power like that, it's a wonder you still can't talk to girls."

Izuku chuckled. "Yeah. Maybe I'm not using Empathy to its full potential. But imagine if someone like Mineta had it…"

Bakugou chuckled slightly.

"I swear I'm gonna kill that kid if I see him again…"

He straightened up. "Listen. Sorry about that self-pitying rant. Truth is, whether you have five quirks or a hundred, you still outsmarted me back there, and I won't stand for that. So, prepare yourself, because next time, I'm not going down so easily!"

Bakugou stood up and jabbed a finger in Izuku's face. "Remember, I'm going to be the Number One, so you and Shoto better start fighting for second place!"

And with that, he walked out of the locker room with a noticeable bounce in his step.

Izuku smiled. There's the Bakugou I know.

-]-[-


And that's a wrap for Chapter 9! Glow-in-the-Dark is now useful, and Izuku got to fight against a more tactically-oriented Bakugou.

I appreciate all the support! Please leave a review if you have anything to say!

Chapter 10 will probably be out Sunday. Next up: the Class A presidential election and USJ! Keep an eye out. Things are starting to heat up...