Pass or Fail: Face The 10th Strongest Hero
Two Years Ago: Musutafu
"So who exactly are your favorite heroes?" Questioned Midoriya as he, Slade and Clay were walking back towards the apartment where the green-haired boy lived. It had become something of an unspoken practice for the three of them to stick together until Midoriya got back home. Less chance of him potentially being jumped by bullies that way.
"My favorite heroes," said Slade as he scratched his head in thought, "Well I don't exactly have a favorite that would make me jump up and down when I see them. But if I had to pick, I'd say Ectoplasm."
"Oh, his quirk allows him to multiply if I recall," said Midoriya, "though some people are a bit put off by his appearance."
"Any guy that can fight with a peg leg is already impressive, even if they've got an evil grin," said Slade, "But he's also well-versed in mathematics, so much so that he accepted a position at U.A. as a teacher because of it. And yes, the trench coat is kinda bad SS."
"Slade's always been a fan of super smart heroes," remarked Clay as he walked with his hands behind his head, "And Ectoplasm probably reminds him of that Blade Runner movie."
"It's a good commentary on human nature, and asks the big questions like where does machine stop being machine and become something else?"
"Wow, is it really that good of a movie?" Questioned Midoriya with an inquisitive glance as they turned a corner on the street.
"It is," said Clay, "But trust me when I say we do not have time to go into the rant that Slade is most certainly about to start."
"It's a good rant," said Slade, "the best movies are the ones that make you think a little bit."
"Well I think you should let Midoriya see the movie first before explaining its fine intricacies," said Clay, "Otherwise you'll spoil the whole blasted thing."
"Fine," said Slade as he crossed his arms, "we'll have a deep conversation later I suppose, in the meantime, I guess we should get back on topic. I believe you still need to tell Midoriya who your favorite heroes are."
"Ah yes," said Clay as he held up a finger, "Well my most favorite would have to be Snipe, followed closely by Gang Orca. I love the cowboy/gasmask look Snipe's got going on and I'm a sucker for awesome gunplay."
"Yeah, but don't you hate gangsters," Slade pointed out, "It seems kind of ironic that you're second favorite would be a guy who dresses up as one."
"Oh that, it's just a costume," explained Clay, "Gang Orca chose that look because he wants to appear intimidating but professional, and because Boss Orca doesn't have the same ring to it. But the reason he's my second favorite is because despite his intimidating look, he's really not that mean of a guy, as long as you don't count the ##whooping he lays down on villains."
"So basically, you like him because he inspires you to be a tough but kind person then," surmised Midoriya as he pulled out one of his hero notebooks and jotted down some of the info he'd just heard about Gang Orca.
"I guess you could say that," said Clay, "I just hope that if I ever do meet him in person, he's as nice a guy as I've been saying."
Dagoba Stadium: Now
'Okay, keep calm and think,' thought Clay as he turned his cloud around in the air. 'Gang Orca, your second favorite hero, has just busted out of the sidewall into the stadium with the guys from his agency in order to harass us as villains. Obviously we'll need to fight back, but we have to do that while still rescuing injured civilians and getting them to-oh crap.' The airborne student turned his attention back towards the first aid station, which he now noticed was incredibly close to the entry point of the faux villains. 'Those pricks!'
Clay shot forward, pushing his quirk to a higher than normal speed as he flew over the wreckage of the fake city. He formed his trademark cloud gear along the way and as he approached, he noticed that he wasn't the only one to realize the villain's intentions. Shindo from Ketsubutsu was charging forward towards the many threats as well, yelling back at Midoriya and the other examinees to protect the civilians before slamming his hands on the ground and using his vibration quirk to shatter the earth beneath the advancing villain's feet. It proved effective in stopping the first wave of attackers, but not the second.
Before Shindo knew it, Gang Orca was upon him with surprising speed for his size as he blasted him with a powerful ultrasonic wave. 'Crap, that attack is capable of paralyzing its opponents!' Clay recalled as Shindo fell back onto the ground, seemingly unconscious from the attack. 'Only got one shot at this,' the 1A student thought as he summoned a massive cloud from his body and formed it into a giant spike ball which he swung forward.
"How naïve of you," said Gang Orca as he noticed the attack coming and blasted it apart with another burst of his ultrasonic wave, leaving only thick vapors drifting to the ground. "Only two on the rear guard when the difference in ability is this great? Clearly you're underestimating the threat you face."
"Oh I know all about the threat we face," said Clay as he turned the new knobs on his sleeves which released all of the stored clouds in his costume's built-in tanks, "And despite the circumstances, it's still an honor to meet you. I hope we can both live up to each other's expectations."
"Then you'd best do better than that last attack," remarked Gang Orca as he stalked forward, "Half-hearted moves won't help you here."
"Hate to say it but you're wrong on one account," said Clay as he took a fighting stance while using some of his excess clouds to move Shindo out of the way, "that last attack was more of a setup move."
"Setup?" questioned Gang Orca as he stopped and looked around. But he realized his error too late as all of the scattered clouds from Clay's first attack converged and clamped onto his back.
"Grasping thunder!" exclaimed Clay as the clouds flashed with the energy of a small storm, electrocuting the pro with a powerful surge of lightning. "I know you're sonic attack originates from your head which is also how you aim it! So I figured your lower back was just the slightest bit more vulnerable than the rest of you."
Gang Orca didn't answer for a moment as he just seemed to stand there, whether he was brooding or disoriented Clay didn't know. "Not bad," said Gang Orca as he suddenly shot forward, closing the distance between him and Clay in only a few heartbeats, "I actually felt that." The cloud user hardly had enough time to erect a cloud shield before a massive sonic blast knocked him off his feet. The blow was so strong that even with the cloud's protection, it still sent him flying several feet away.
The 1A student didn't even have time to create a cloud cushion as he hit the ground and rolled a few feet before finally stopping. He had to do his best not to throw up the bile in his throat as he struggled to his hands and knees, fighting the paralyzing effects of the blast. 'Gotta hit back,' thought Clay as he gathered what clouds he could, 'Or this'll all be over.' But just as Gang Orca was about to step into striking distance, he whirled around and used his sonic attack to blast apart a mass of ice that seemed to be charging at him.
The cloud user looked towards the source of the ice attack, sighing a bit in relief when he realized Todoroki had shown up. 'Looks like we still might have a chance,' thought Clay as he noticed that Tokoyami, Ojiro and Mina had shown up as well. "Clay, are you alright?" Questioned Mina as she grabbed onto him and helped him to his feet.
"I've been worse," said Clay as he gathered his remaining clouds in front of him, "Listen, you need to go help evacuate the civilians."
"But you're hurt," protested Mina, "I can't just leave you here." Clay's response to this was to form a cloud wall to block a number of grey projectiles then striking back at the approaching henchman with a cloud tendril from the wall.
"So long as I'm conscious I can still move my clouds," explained Clay, "Our top priority is the civilians, now please, go!" Mina glanced at the oncoming henchmen, noting that a number of them had also been frozen in place by Todoroki, before glancing back at Clay.
"Be careful," she finally said as she ran back towards the civilians, leaving Clay to resume a shaky fighting stance. 'As careful as I can be,' he thought in reply before moving his cloud wall around to block more projectiles. But as he was about to counterattack, a strong wind began to pick up all around the area.
"An attack by villains!" exclaimed Inasa as he propelled himself through the air with several swirling gusts of wind, "What incredibly hot developments you've prepared for us all!" As he yelled, he used a massive blast of wind to blow away a good number of the henchmen who'd rallied behind Gang Orca, though he was unsuccessful in moving the number ten hero himself. 'So his quirk controls wind,' thought Clay as he witnessed even more faux villains flying through the air, 'with him and Todoroki here, we might actually have a chance to hold off the big boss.'
In fact, it all seemed to be going their way as both Inasa and Todoroki launched a simultaneous attack of fire and wind, which missed completely? 'The heck,' thought Clay as he went over what he just saw, 'the fire was blown away while the wind rose from the heat of the flames.' "Hey, your flames caused my wind attack to miss!" yelled Inasa at Todoroki, "Why'd you even use a fire attack anyway." 'And now of all times, they've started arguing?!'
"Because he blocked my ice attack!" Todoroki yelled back up at Inasa with an irritated look on his face, "and if anyone's interfering it's you! Your wind blew away my flames!"
"You shot your flames on purpose, to keep me from getting the glory," accused Inasa.
"Why would I do something like that, what's up with you?" Questioned a confused and frustrated Todoroki.
"Isn't it obvious, you're the son of Endeavor, so of course you'd do something like that," Stated Inasa.
"What in the world does my old man have to do with any of-," Todoroki couldn't finish his question as he was hit in the shoulder by a round from one of the henchman's U-shaped gauntlets. 'Cement guns,' Clay recalled as he shifted his clouds to block some more of the projectiles which had been aimed at him, 'they fire a substance which can solidify incredibly fast and make it difficult for a target to move.'
"To be arguing in the middle of an emergency is nothing short of outrageous," Scolded Gang Orca, who'd been watching the exchange between Inasa and Todoroki with as much confusion as the rest of his men. But he was done waiting for them to sort out their differences as he ordered his men to begin bombarding the two examinees with a barrage of cement projectiles. Todoroki was able to use his right side to create an ice wall while Inasa used his wind to evade the shots in midair. Despite the situation, the two of them were still yelling at each other. In fact they were so unfocused on the situation that they launched another simultaneous fire and wind attack that veered off course yet again.
But the result was even worse this time as the flames headed for an unconscious Shindo. "You freakin' idiots!" exclaimed Clay as he was forced to direct some of his clouds to block the flames. He was successful, but the fire evaporated the portion of the clouds he was using to maintain his cloud wall, allowing some of the cement shots to start getting through. Fortunately, Midoriya arrived just in time to yank Shindo out of the way with the energy of full cowl swirling around his body.
"What in the world are you guy's doing?!" Yelled the green-haired boy as he shot through the air. It didn't seem to help, however, as Gang Orca maneuvered around the ice wall and stopped in front of Todoroki. The ice/fire wielder stepped back to avoid the pro hero's swipe, but it turned out to be a feint as he directed his ultrasonic attack at Inasa. Taken by surprise, the Shiketsu student couldn't react in time as the sonic waves impacted and paralyzed his body, causing him to also lose control of most of his quirk as he fell to the ground with just enough wind to keep him from impacting hard.
Todoroki attempted to strike back, but Gang Orca was too quick and grabbed a hold of him before using another sonic attack to incapacitate him. The henchmen took this as their cue to make a full on charge for the first aid station. ' #%&,' seethed Clay as he tried to extend the wall more, 'between Gang Orca and Todoroki's fire attack, I lost a number of clouds and the longer I make the wall the thinner it's gonna be. I guess I've only got one option.'
Clay began to produce even more clouds from his body, feeling the strain as the first signs of dehydration began to take hold. But as Gang Orca's men were about to reach the barrier of clouds, the ground broke beneath their feet. 'Shindo's back up,' he realized as he glanced back to see the Ketsubutsu student was kneeling on the ground, still shaking a bit from the earlier sonic attack, but otherwise ready to fight. "Get the remaining injured moved away from here!" Called out Shindo, "I'll hold the line here!"
"We both will," Said Clay as he moved next to Shindo, purposely dropping some of his cloud wall to allow the Ketsubutsu student a better view. "As long as you keep your side guarded, I can actually spare some clouds for combat." Clay articulated his point by having parts of the wall transform into boots that kicked away some of the approaching henchman before reforming into one large boot that forced the rest of them to jump back from the wall.
"As long as you don't become a glory hog like those other two," commented Shindo weakly before sending out another tremor.
"I don't know what any of that's about," said Clay as he repelled a few more attackers with several thorny cloud vines, "But they won't have a chance against Gang Orca until they get over it." Fortunately for the both of them, getting paralyzed seemed to allow the two first years some time to reflect on their actions. A brilliant spectacle followed as Todoroki produced a mass amount of flames from his body while Inasa commanded what wind he could. Neither of their attacks were much good separately, but together, the two quirks created a tornado of flame around Gang Orca, effectively trapping him in place.
"Hey, the boss is trapped back there!" called one of the henchmen as the faux villains all turned back towards the number ten hero. It didn't take much for them to realize that they needed to stop the flames and attempted firing more cement shots at Todoroki. But the dual quirk user was able to activate his ice side as well, creating a crude but effective ice wall against the incoming projectiles. "Some of us should keep up the pursuit while the rest-AAAAH!"
The lead henchman couldn't finish giving the order as Midoriya leapt in and kicked away three of them with full cowl. As the others attempted to aim at him, Ojiro pounced, using his tail to wrap around one of the henchmen's cement guns and douse two of the others with their own weapon before leaping next to Midoriya. "We've managed to evacuate all the civilians," reported Ojiro, "And reinforcements are on the way."
"Reinforcements are here!" exclaimed Slade as he, Mina and Tokoyami entered the fray, batting henchmen out of the way with their respective quirks. Some of the faux villains attempted to form a firing line to use their cement guns, but were quickly tripped up by Tsuyu's tongue as she seemed to materialize out of thin air.
"I finally got my new camouflage move good enough to use in combat," remarked the frog girl before her eyes went wide. "Ojiro, behind you!" The tailed student reacted too slowly as a number of henchmen jumped towards him from among the rubble. But their charge was quickly stopped by a mass of yellow hair as Mora arrived on the scene as well.
"For there to be so many left after I sent Inasa here," said Mora, "Is a disgrace to the Shiketsu name!"
"Well the rest of us are glad to see ya if that helps," said Clay as he converted the remainder of his cloud wall into a tidal wave attack that sent all of the henchman still shooting at him falling among the rubble. "I'm just happy that I can finally stop playing defense!" The cloud warrior emphasized his joy at the turn around with a pair of giant cloud rings which he sent rolling among the ranks of quickly decreasing henchman. 'Most of the people from the stadium have been evacuated to the first aid station,' thought Slade as he used an aikido throw to toss one henchman into a group of others, 'we just need to buy enough time for the remaining ones to be rescued.'
The sound of a sonic blast interrupted his thoughts, however, as the vortex of wind and flame was suddenly torn apart by a full power attack that Gang Orca had directed upward. "Not bad, but what have you got next?" Questioned the pro hero, who'd poured water on his head to keep himself from drying out. The looks on Todoroki and Inasa's faces said it all, they had nothing else, not even the ability to stand up.
Meaning Gang Orca was unopposed as he reached for the nearest hero in order to finish what he'd started. Or so he thought, until a pair of green and grey blurs flew into the area, forcing the pro to block a roundhouse kick with one arm and a high density ax kick with the other. "Ah, Midoriya and Slade," said Gang Orca, "let's see what you've got." The two classmates might've responded if the horn for the exam didn't suddenly sound.
"All the deployed H.U.C employees have been rescued from the danger zone," announced Mera, "Arbitrary as it may seem, all exam procedures for the provisional licensing exam have been completed."
"Oh thank God we're done," sighed Clay as he dispersed his clouds and walked a little unsteadily towards Slade and Midoriya.
"The results shall be announced once the scores have all been tallied," continued Mera, "All injured examinees should report to the infirmary. The rest should change out of costume and stand by."
"I guess that's a wrap," said Slade as he brushed some dust off of his costume, "Good thing, I was getting weirded out by all the 'kids' with adult voices."
"Whatever we do, I just need something to drink first," said Clay as he removed his mask and goggles.
"This might help," said Gang Orca as he suddenly extended a hand, causing Clay and the others to flinch for a moment. "Don't worry, the exams over now so I don't have to act like a villain anymore. And before you ask, this is fresh water, I keep some in case I run into a dehydrated person in need."
"Right, yeah sorry, long day," said Clay as he rubbed the back of his head before accepting the water skin and taking a rather long swig from it. "Ah, now that's the good stuff."
"You three did pretty well out there," commented the killer whale hero as he accepted the water skin back, "If this test had gone on too much longer, I might've been in trouble after drying out. But don't let that go to your heads, you've still got plenty you can improve on."
"Yes sir!" exclaimed the three of them with a salute.
"Oh, and sorry about the whole shocking you thing earlier, I honestly couldn't think of much else that would slow you down," added Clay as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"I've been hit by worse, now get going before they announce the results," said Gang Orca as he urged them on with a wave of his hand. The three friends all nodded once again before turning and heading off towards the locker rooms.
"I hope we didn't lose too many points at the start," said Midoriya as he wiped some of the sweat off his head while they walked, "that whole situation was rough."
"Tell me about," said Slade as he rubbed his ears a bit, "I don't think even real disaster victims yell as loud as some of these H.U.C people did."
"I just hate that I found out what it was like for Midoriya to punch All Might in the face," said Clay, "I finally get to meet my second favorite hero and what do I do? Hit him with a contained bolt of lightning. I mean the guy inspired the color scheme I use for my costume for goodness sake."
"Well if he's anything like All Might, he'd probably have been disappointed if you held back," Midoriya said, "I mean I tried to run away from him at first and it might've disappointed him a bit back at the final exam."
"I'm sure he'll still give you an autograph if you ask," said Slade, slapping his friend on the back with a slightly dense hand, causing Clay to grunt a bit. "You can add it to that autographed hat Snipe gave you at the beginning of the year."
"What! When did that happen!" Exclaimed Midoriya, "You've had a peace of memorabilia like that and didn't think to tell me!" Clay laughed weakly at that as the three of them entered the locker rooms.
Shortly after that, Class 1A stood at the edge of the stadium with the rest of the examinees. A stage had been set up with a large screen and a podium in front of it that Mera was using to address everyone. "Alright everyone…..Thank you all for your hard work," said Mera into his headset, still sounding just as tired as ever. "We will now announce the results of the test, but first, I'll give a better explanation of the scoring system we used."
'Great,' thought Clay, 'more hidden variables.' "A two-fold demerit system was used by both the outside examiners and the H.U.C.," explained Mera, "In short, you were graded on how few mistakes you made in a crisis situation. Keeping that in mind, here are the names of everyone who passed." The screen lit up behind him with all of the names on it listed in syllabary order.
All of the gathered examinees searched the list frantically, looking for their names. Clay was no different as he looked in the section that started with 'C's, feeling the same tension as everyone else. Then breathed a massive sigh of relief when he finally found his name. "It's there," he said while double then triple checking to make sure he hadn't misread, "It's freakin' there!"
"I can't believe it," said Jirou with a relieved smile, "We actually passed."
"Yay! We passed!" yelled Mina as she tackled Clay with a hug, knocking the both of them to the ground.
"Mina! What's the matter with you!" exclaimed Jirou as she tried to get the energetic girl to loosen her grip on their classmate, creating a rather comedic scene as she somehow managed to lose her own balance and fall on both of them.
"What in the world is that about," said Slade as he watched his friend's dilemma, "We can celebrate after we get bac-hello." The density shifter found himself silenced by a sudden hug from Momo.
"I can't believe it, I passed," said Momo happily, "And you passed too! We did it, we're one step closer to being actual heroes!" Slade was confused at first, but then hugged Momo back as a smile crept across his face. 'Ah what the heck, we can celebrate a little right now. After all, Class 1A just cleared a big hurdle.' At least, most of the class had.
And so ends the final test of the provisional licensing exam, with all but a couple passing! But now that this hurdle has been cleared, a new set of challenges await our aspiring heroes-to-be! In the meantime, I hope you all enjoyed this latest chapter and will be just as happy to hear this latest bit of news. From what feed back I've gotten, the next fanfiction shall be on one of the more recent isekai gems, The Rising of the Shield Hero. The working title at the moment is 'Armory of the Fifth Forgotten Hero,' or 'Armory of the Forgotten Hero.' As always, feel free to leave a comment or a review about what you liked/disliked, any neat ides you might have about future chapters, or if you think the title of the new fanfiction is a little wordy. Be sure to stop in next time as Clay overhears something troubling between Bakugou and Midoriya. 'Til next time.
