Chapter 21
Izuku was satisfied with the results of the first event. Thanks to the accidental creation of Puppy, they saved much more energy, which was pretty evident. Most of the people, who passed to the second event, were panting from the fatigue. Sure, riding zero pointer attracted 'some' attention to them, but he and Momo agreed that it outweighed the benefits. Besides they had fun. He really should look into what happened with Puppy's program to make him so different from other robots.
Momo… that sounded both weird and right. Being able to call her by name left him utterly overjoyed. But swirl of emotions got worse. He didn't have time to dwell on it.
"Gather up! We're heading straight into the second event!" Midnight called, waving with her whip.
All forty two students stood next to the podium and waited for the game to be picked. Izuku's mind started going through the plans. Second even always had a team focused activity. His boots and gloves would provide some power, Mei'd give them necessary ability to move around freely and Momo being live factory would create equipment to cover their needs. Maybe they would have to go and take one additional person, but it all came down to what game they had to play.
Izuku looked up when machine stopped and saw it displaying 'Cavalry Battle'. That one would be a bit problematic due to their height differences, but they could manage. Most likely by finding someone to match Momo.
He felt Mei pull him by hand. Right, they needed to grab their friend. Squeezing through the crowd he caught the sight of Bakugo being asked by his classmates to form a team with them. He looked really annoyed, but that was natural for him.
They finally saw Momo, who was talking with Todoroki. From the looks of it, he wanted to recruit her. Well… tough luck, icy boy.
"Sorry, she's taken." Mei declared happily, grabbing girl's palm.
"Yup, we're team. Hope you understand." he added, and taking other hand.
"Right, I'm with them. Todoroki-san." Momo smiled softly at the teen and squeezed her palms a bit.
He blinked at them and nodded dumbly, before turning around and looking for other possible teammates.
"Thanks for the safe." His friend said with sigh.
"No problem." Izuku nodded. "Now we need to find someone."
Momo quirked her brow. "Do we really need to?"
"I guess. Unless you want to be a rider, but Mei would be a better one. She could freely observe around and aim better if she's up." he explained, looking through the crowd for potential candidate.
"That's some nice boots you have there, pinkhead." A tired voice said.
"Thank! Tho…" Mei answer ended abruptly.
Izuku snapped his head to the left. He saw a tall guy with wild indigo hair and similar eyes, that had deep bags under them. He quickly remembered the file about teen and felt himself smirking. He hit the jackpot.
"Mei? Are you alright?" Izuku asked, faking his obviousness towards the situation and grabbed girl by her shoulder.
"What?" she blinded and gazed around her, clearly lost.
He pushed her back to Momo and gave them a nod. Looking back at the boy, he saw him scowling and getting ready to leave.
"Hey!" Izuku called, making teen stop. "Do you want to join our team?"
Boy gazed at him with bewilderment. Looks like his info was right. He really was socially awkward.
"We were searching for forth person and you're high enough to match Momo, which would balance our team nicely." he sent him soft, inviting smile. "I'm Izuku Midoriya." he extended his hand.
"What?" teen asked with shock. "Are… are you sure you want me?" he sounded rather torn between being overwhelmed and happy.
"Yeah! You're going to fit nicely. I'm sure of it." He answered with excitement.
"But… I've tried to steal your teammate with my quirk? Aren't you like… mad?" Looks like he still couldn't believe in what was happening.
"Steal with your quirk?" Izuku asked, keeping his obvious act. "Oh, you have some kind of mine control power? That's so useful for heroics! You could resolve any conflict before it even begins." That was true. Quirk like that really would be beneficial to hero." Have you thought about applying to Hero Course?" He knew the answer.
"Um… yeah." Boy scratched behind his head. He peaked at Izuku shyly. "I heard that depending on how well we do in Sports Festival, we could get a transfer to hero class." he said in longing tone.
"Then let me help you. Join us and you'll get a chance to show what you can do in one-on-one. We're all aiming for third round. Soooo?" his arm was beginning to stiffen.
"Yeah, sure…" he grasped Izuku's hand. "I'm Hitoshi Shinso."
"Nice to meet you, Shinso-kun." he smiled brightly at him. Then he turned towards the girls, who were watching them with curious expressions. "Go grab the gear."
Mei grinned widely and stated jumping, showing her excitement. "What should we bring?"
"Anything that is good for containment, but nothing too FANCY. We still need to keep our hand hidden." he informed.
Girls nodded and ran towards the lockers. He still needed Momo to create something. He lead Shinso-kun towards the side and begun fiddling with regulator to up the power. He had a feeling they would need a bit more punch.
"So uhh…" Shinso-kun started, looking at him awkwardly. "What do we do?"
Izuku smirked and snapped his eyes back to the crowd. "We're observing our enemies."
"This certainly is interesting." Nezu said, passing his binoculars to Aizawa.
"Hmm? What do you mean?" Yamada asked curiously.
"It seems like Genius Boy made an alliance with Hatsume and Yaoyorozu. It looks like they have planned this." Eraser Head stated, watching field.
"Oh! I see. So they really are some kind of a team then." Mic commented with huge grin.
Nezu nodded and looked at young Midoriya, who was standing with another boy. He watched them as two kept themselves at the sideline, from time to time pointing at another team. He grinned, looks like teen was already developing strategies. He noticed that inventor and his teammates from previous event could place higher, but I looked like they chose not to. He wondered what they were going to do now.
"Aizawa-san, are you up for the bet?" Nezu asked with huge grin and chuckle.
Izuku checked the harnesses around his waist, that he asked Momo to make. They were secure. Good, they needed to be. This way they wouldn't risk getting split while flying. He was at the front of their formation with special board strapped to his back, next thing that his friend created. It had footstool with straps for rider's feet and bars for other's palms. Due to his repulsors he needed to have his hands free.
Mei was their rider. She was the smallest one, had a good grasp on how to operate jetpack, could easily use her quirk to look for valuable headbands and warn them of possible treats. Besides thanks to her headset their three hundred twenty points would be hard to steal. She also had modified stun gun.
Momo and Shinso-kun, who were accordingly on his right and left side, wore Mei's hover boots. Good thing that she made one additional pair, when their friend gushed over them, it was a cute scene to witness. Special handguns with cylinders were strapped to their outer arms. Inside those were balls filled with strong glue-like substance.
"Remember, we're going for 'taking candy from the baby' strategy. We don't go after Todoroki's team and their ten million, unless we can easily take it away." Izuku informed with steel in his voice.
"What about blond jerk?" Mei asked curiously.
"Avoid at all cost." he said sternly. "But… if the Pomeranian comes and starts barking…" he added with hint of mischief, which caused girl to giggle.
"You really must hate that guy." Shinso-kun stated simply.
Izuku chose not to comment on it.
Game begun and they started slowly, marching around the field and looking for potential catches. Izuku catch the sight of mixed hero class team, that was doing rather nicely with fending off any danger. As he suspected, Todoroki was under the siege, hiding behind his ice fortress. That seemed to be a smart choice, until ice changed literally into a goo. People poured in, but their target escaped, using a ramp Todoroki made. They were moving fast, due to Iida-san's quirk. No doubt Uraraka-san also played her part in it.
Now, where was…
"DEKU!"
That's his answer. He looked over his shoulder and saw Bakugo along with Kirishima, Ashido and Sero. They were gaining on them fast.
"I assume, that's the Pomeranian." Shinso-kun stated dryly.
"Activate boots. We're running away. Catch any headband you manage." he ordered.
After a few second he launched his repulsors and begun flying away, keeping close to the ground. He had hard time maneuvering effectively, but somehow he managed. Hours spent in the testing room proved really useful.
"They're still on us. Momo, catch headband from the guys that's riding beast boy." Mei told them.
Izuku snorted. Bakugo really wanted to beat him. He was kind of surprised when blond menace didn't come after him during first round. Unfortunately for firecracker, he would need to wait longer.
"Shinso-kun, fire behind you a few times. Make it look like you have a lousy aim." he said, steering them towards another team that was suspecting nothing.
"I won't need to act." teen commented sourly.
He heard a hiss of the gun and soon enough a litany of curses. Using his gloves, he stopped his team and turned around. He gazed straight at Bakugo's pissed face and smirked smugly. That only agitated Pomeranian more. "Take this as a warning. Come again after us again and you're saying goodbye to Festival." With that he turned to the side and started running again. They needed to save batteries in hover boots for later.
"Izuku, why did you say that?" Momo asked both curious and worried.
He bit his lip. Should he tell her, that he wanted to literally beat the shit out of Bakugo, for what he did to the girl? He still held into that wrath, it fueled him and pushed to have dark thoughts about firecracker. He knew he'd just thrown a challenge at blonde. But that needed to be done.
"I will tell you later." he would do it. Izuku felt Momo place her hand on his biceps and squeeze it lightly. He tilted his head to her and showed her small smile.
"Another team with annoying blonde is closing on us." Shinso-kun said.
Turns out 'annoying blonde' was Neito Monoma from 1-B. Seriously, dude had some issues. He started rambling about the greatness of his class, how superior they were and how they would finally take away the limelight from 1-A. He said that while he recommended their effort and respected them deeply, all while shedding a fake tears, he needed to take away their headbands to assure that he would pass to the next event. It took him three minutes to finish his monologue!
"Wow. You're good at speeches. Are you natural?" Shinso-kun asked with fake awe.
"Ah, finally…" Monoma said, before his body went limp.
"Throw your headbands to us and jump of your horse, idiot." he commended in satisfied tone.
Izuku caught the sight of blonde throwing points perfectly into Mei's extended hands and using palms of his teammates as a spring board. He crashed into the ground hard. The rest of 1-B boys were too shocked to comprehend what just happened.
"Thanks, Shinso!" Mei happily exclaimed.
"Yes, thank you. He was starting to get on my nerves." Momo admitted with sigh.
"Told you. Your quirk can resolve any standoff." Izuku added.
"No problem…" Shinso-kun told them timidly.
"Mei, how much do we have?" he asked. The point value would determinate they next actions.
"Give me a moment." she started counting under her nose rapidly. "One thousand three hundred and fifteen."
"That should be enough, right?" Shinso-kun asked hopefully. He was panting rather heavily.
"Yes. There're only two minutes left." Momo answered with confidence. "We're moving into defense, right Izuku?" That sounded like a statement.
"Unless something happens. For now we're changing our pace to march." he confirmed.
Looking around he saw almost every team trying to get Todoroki's ten million. Then he witnessed three of them rising into the air, leaving Kaminari-san on the ground. Teen used his quirk and unleashed a powerful electric wave, that shocked everyone near him. After that the rest of the team returned, and immediately began running away from Bakugo's pack. But Izuku caught up to something. First place squad wasn't moving as fast as earlier.
"Mei, does Uraraka-san look green?" he asked to confirm his suspicions.
"Hmm.. yeah. She's about to barf." girl stated bluntly.
Izuku stroked his chin, thinking if the gambit was worth it. They could get ten million points. No need trying to get attention away from them now, when they'd no doubt advance. But they couldn't just go in. If they only had some kind of cover. Wait!
"Momo." he turned towards his best friend with small, sweet, innocent smile. "Can you make us some smoke grenades, please?"
Nezu couldn't help but fidget in his seat. Cavalry Battle proved to be a real thrill. He left most of the commentary to his teachers, savoring the chaos down on the field.
Young Todoroki's team was focused on the speed young Iida provided. Thanks to young Uraraka, most likely, the only things teen had to drag were clothes. Rider himself continued to use his right side to create ice walls and protect his team with them. From time to time he froze the ground, trapping students after them. Finally young Kaminari served as a ultimate weapon to paralyze huge threats with his quirk. From time to time they took some headbands, most likely as a backup plan.
Other interesting team was the one with young Shiozaki as a rider. Her horses were girl's classmate, young Tetsutetsu, young Tokoyami and young Aoyama. He heard a few things about the 1-B grudge against 1-A for 'taking down' the villains. He was worried, that problem could escalate badly, but watching this team function and gather points, gave him hope that things weren't looking grim.
The chase, that young Bakugo made against young Midoriya's team, ended well and without the bloodshed he feared. He laughed when he saw inventor using his repulsors and young Hatsume's hover boots, to leave explosive teen in dust. Then they glued them and he witnessed young Midoriya turn and say something. Whatever it was, young Bakugo's team left them alone, chasing after ten million points.
As for the Genius Boy and his squad, they took a tactical approach and stole headbands from teams that were distracted or too weak to pose a challenge to them. They left glue on the field from time to time to cause inconvenience for others. They run with young Monoma's team was utterly hilarious and made him check papers. He had to say, that young Shinso's quirk would be very useful for hero. Being able to literally talk your way out of any situation was useful. Besides he seemed to be quite intelligent young man. Teen's homeroom teacher informed him, that boy had aspiration to become a hero. If he proved himself, then transfer would be very possible.
"What's going on?! Smoke filled the area! You can't see a thing!" Yamada screamed into his microphone, pulling Nezu out of his musing.
He looked down and saw great amount of thick, black gas covering more than half of the ring. Soon enough from it emerged young Midoriya's team, using jetpack, but the boy himself was missing.
His mind quickly caught up to what was happening. He turned to Mic, wanting to tell him to hold off with commentary, but Aizawa already silenced his friend with his scarf. Nezu shrugged it off, whatever works.
He gazed back at the field and after short wait young Midoriya shoot out into the skies, meeting with his team. Young Hatsume took something from his mouth and started cheering. Nezu gazed at the scoreboard and let out a laugh.
"Look at that people! With only a twenty seconds left, Team Hatsume takes ten million points for themselves, gaining indisputable first place! That's what you call a twist!" Yamada commented, making crowd go wild.
Explosion happened and young Bakugo shoot up, flying towards young Midoriya with tremendous speed. Nezu felt a pit grow in his stomach. This could end up badly. But then happened something, that he hadn't envisioned. Inventor pointed his arm at teen and fired a repulsor blast. Attack was too fast to dodge and hit young Bakugo, sending him towards the ground. Fortunately his team caught him.
"Genius Boy protects his team victory, literally shooting down their competition! Who would have thought, that he would be so set up on winning this with big prize!"
Nezu frowned. That kind of fall would easily put young Bakugo's life in danger, if not outright kill him. He took his binoculars and looked at young Midoriya. He had scowl on his face and seemed… displeased with the result of his action.
"Aizawa-san, young Yaoyorozu is rather close to our inventors, right?" he asked in curious voice.
"From what I know, she's eating lunches with them and visits them daily. Whenever class talks about duo, she's first to join, abandoning her prim persona." Eraser Head said in his usual tired tone.
So it seemed that young Midoriya's already bad relations with young Bakugo only worsened. Without a doubt after young Yaoyorozu close call. Nezu knew how inventor's mind worked, or at the very least he thought so. He knew that young Midoriya didn't have friends before U.A. due to his quirkless status. And with how close the relationship between teens sounded… He hoped that his business partner wouldn't do anything too serious.
"By the way, you owe me three thousand yen and month of detention coverage." Nezu informed happily.
Aizawa's groan and quiet curse filled him with joy.
A/N:
Here's the second round. I don't know why, but I had hard time with it. Hope you're going to enjoy it anyway.
Most likely there won't be update tomorrow. I have a doctors appointment in another city and it would take a while to go and come back.
Stay safe guys and leave your thoughts about a chapter.