Chapter 26 – Air Born
They had completed their team pretty quickly from there on out. Once Bakugo had the fire of potential victory over Midoriya in his sights, he had spun around and looked at everyone until his eyes landed on Sero from their class. He pointed right at him and announced that he wanted the 'Sticky tape kid' on his team.
Sero had not been too enamoured with his name but had joined none the less.
They were now stood in their starting positions, Mika on the left, Sero on the right and Kirishima at the front. She could see all the other teams now, and a quick glance up to the leader board showed who had the highest amount of points, they currently were in second because they had Bakugo and Mika who were in the top five. Todoroki's team were second, with Izuku's team in the lead. Everyone was going to be going for him, and she knew that they would be no different. They were going to be moving at the behest of the gremlin sat in the rider's position, and that gremlin was only glaring at Izuku.
"Ne, Sero-kun?" Mika leaned back and looked to her classmate from behind Bakugo.
"Yeah?" He smiled back to her.
"You will probably need to be on the lookout for sunshine… he's a wild card" She quietly reasoned with him, and she watched as he frowned not quite getting her. She sighed. "If he tries to launch his arse off after someone, you will have to tape him and pull him back before he touches the floor, otherwise we will be disqualified"
"Oh, I got you… I'm on it!" He nodded to her with a fresh new determination in his eyes.
She looked back towards the front and noticed then that Bakugo was looking down at her. She met his sharp red eyes and merely shrugged at him. Dude, you know that I was right to warn him… you're a hot head…
"Heard that Curly…" Bakugo sneered down to her.
"Just covering your arse, Sunshine… you're welcome" She smiled sarcastically up at him.
"Formed your teams? Made your plans? TOO BAD IF YOU HAVEN'T!" Came Midnight's shout across them all. The crowd roared all around then, realising that it was about to go down. Mika could feel all the tension around her swell up as if it was a flood. The way her classmates were eyeing each other up was intense for sure. "Here we go… the countdown to this brutal battle royal!" She yelled.
"Here we go team!" Kirishima called out from the front.
"THREE… TWO…"
Mika reached out then and began sucking up their shadow, immediately storing it up in her arms and her legs to make sure that she was strong enough to rush around holding Bakugo up and also to drive them all at a faster pace than everyone else. She was so ready for this; she could feel the shadow energy buzzing inside her limbs as they all but started to vibrate with the energy. Ready to be expelled in the imminent fight.
"So ready for this…" She breathed lowly.
"ONE!"
They literally spared no time, and they weren't the only ones, in making a bee line straight for Midoriya's team. Every single team was heading straight for them, all shouting and screaming to each other, trying to coordinate their movements to make sure they were moving as quickly as they could. Some of the teams were pulling ahead and that was when Bakugo called them to a stop.
"Woah woah… why are we stopping?" Sero called up to him, confusion written across his face.
"Too many teams in one space, someone could take our headband whilst we are fighting…" Bakugo stated matter of factly, his voice clipped as if he didn't have enough time to explain, his eyes were intense and darted all around him and the space before them where the first team was now engaging with Midoriya's.
Mika watched as a team from Class 1-B made their way towards Izuku, the floor before them and under Ochaco and someone else Mika didn't recognise, went soft and she could see them sinking into it. It was a brilliant quirk for this battle, completely grounding your opposition and leaving them without a way of escape. That was if the team that was stuck in there didn't also include someone who could make things weightless and float, as well as what looked like support items that Mika watched explode into a jet like stream that propelled them high up over the heads of everyone else.
"Are you keeping a look out Mika-chan?" She heard Eijiro call from the front, and she had to check herself because she was not keeping a good enough look out at all.
She cast her eyes out to the left where she was stationed and noticed there were a few of the Class 1-B teams trying to move around each other, but there was no danger head their way at the moment.
"All clear over this side…"
"Sero?" Eijiro called afterwards.
"All good here too!" He replied quicker than Mika had.
"Now, WE GO NOW!" Bakugo barked out of nowhere, and they launched forwards. Mika pounded her feet into the ground pushing them forwards faster than they had all expected. She could hear Eijiro and Sero gasping as they were propelled forwards. It was intense, but an edge the needed. All around them Mika could hear fighting and shouting, and on top of all of that her Brother was hollering through the stadium with his quirk, and the crowd was just one big cacophony of cheers and boo's.
They zoomed forwards and Mika was quick to assess all the teams and how close they were to being an issue as they passed them. They had gotten away with not gaining much attention from anyone from the left in their sprint, but then she spotted them. A battle horse was approaching from behind them slightly to her side and she was immediately turning back over her shoulder as they went to assess what the danger was.
There was an all-girl team rushing their way towards them, the rider with the biggest hands she had ever seen, big enough to just completely swat them out the way.
"Guys, incoming to the back left!" She shouted, and Bakugo was immediately turning over his shoulder with his arm outstretched to blast them into the next life.
The group caught up to them and the rider immediately used her giant hands to knock at Mika, to tip them over, but Mika was prepared, and all her energy had been shifted through her body to her right leg. As the crazy huge hand came swiping through the air towards her, she pivoted off of her left leg and lifted her right leg and slammed it down with all her might. She couldn't help the yell as she crashed her foot down on the giant hand causing the girl to call out in anger and shock.
"RIEKO!" The giant handed girl screamed as she bought her hand up to her chest, now a normal size.
The girl on the front of their team horse started raising her hands up towards Mika. Mika had no idea what this girls quirk was, hell, she didn't know what any of their quirks were. She had not paid any attention during the race, and now she really wished she had.
She was about to suck up some more of their team's shadow for energy when she felt her feet lift off the ground.
"WOAH, Sunshine!" She yelled out as she was all of a sudden yanked away from them. She didn't let go though, her hands grasping Sero's shirt and Eijiro's shoulder. Each of the boys groaning and they tried not to be pulled with her.
Bakugo twisted fully onto Eijiro's shoulder raised his hands right at the front of their battle horse.
"DIE!" he screamed before letting off a powerful explosion. Breaking whatever was happening to Mika and as soon as she had been lifted up in the air and pulled away from her battle horse, was she dropped down towards the floor. She was going to fall flat on her face at the rate she was falling, and she tried her best not to let go of her grip otherwise they would be disqualified, and she was not about to let that happen. Just when she thought she would hit the floor, Sero managed to grab the hem of her shirt and pull her up onto her feet.
"LET'S GO!" Kirishima yelled back to them as he took off again, Mika immediately finding her feet and sprinting them away from the danger as the other battle horse brushed themselves off from the explosion.
Jeez, Mika pull yourself together… you almost made you whole team fail!
"I'm sorry guys!" She called out to her team as they sprinted on ahead towards where Izuku' battle horse had just taken off again.
"Shut up and run Curly!" Bakugo barked back down at her and she nodded, shaking herself back into the moment.
With a burst of white light, sizzling heat and a deafening boom, Bakugo took off leaving them behind to just grind to a halt, watching as their rider propelled himself up into the air after the air born number one team. Mika felt her anger split across her face, even though she knew that he might try it, she didn't realise how pissed off she was going to get that he would just put their team in that much jeopardy. If he failed and hit the ground like she almost did then they were all excluded from the next part of the sports festival, the bit that really counts. At least when I almost got us disqualified it was because of some unknown quirk and not my hot hotheadedness!
"Fuck!" Mika bit out as she turned to Sero with wide eyes.
"I'm on it!" He shouted, raising his elbow up into the air in the direction of their wayward sky born rider.
They waited to see if he made a connection with Izuku, and once he had been blocked by Tokoyami's dark shadow, they could see him losing his momentum and that was when the three of them lurched into action. Sero was quick then to shoot his tape out and latch onto Bakugo's shoulder, yanking him back down onto their battle horse.
All the time trying with their heads up in the air looking for Bakugo and trying to catch him meant that neither Mika nor Sero noticed when another battle horse from Class 1-A came sneaking up right behind them. As soon as Bakugo was back on Mika and Sero's shoulders a gust of wind flashed past behind them as an obnoxious blond looking kid yanked the headband straight from Bakugo's head.
"He got us!" Mika fumed, trying to pull Sero and Kirishima back round so that they could face their opponents.
"GIVE THAT BACK OR I'LL KILL YOU!" Bakugo basically exploded into full on gremlin mode.
"When midnight announced the first event, it didn't take a genius to realise they wouldn't be thinning our numbers that much in a preliminary… It wasn't much of a stretch to imagine they be letting a good number of us advance to the next event…"
"Did we ask for this kids life story?" Mika rolled her burning with hatred eyes at them. Yet the blond carried on, undeterred.
"It was the perfect chance to hang back and observe our soon to be rival quirks and tendencies… "
"Was your whole class in on it?" Kirishima gasped.
"Not everyone, but that wouldn't have been a bad idea… instead of aiming for some fleeting first place, like a horse going for a dangling carrot"
Mika could basically feel the anger and murderous intent emanating from Bakugo and to be honest, she was feeling just as pissed. This kid had just slinked out of nowhere, gaslighting them and turning his back like he was bored of them. Mika felt something in her snap, and she became furious. We need that back or we won't stand a chance, time to kick some bitches…
"Ah, but you are already famous, aren't you?" the kid carried on over his shoulder. "The victim of that sludge incident! I'll have to ask you sometime… how does it feel to get attached by villains on an annual basis?"
"Oh shit, you guys are such dead meat!" Mika smirked, her eyes flashing contempt at them.
As if to prove her point, a dark and almost black like the night aura started to permeate from Bakugo, inching closer and closer towards the blond git who had stolen their headband. Bakugo was furious, his chest heaving and his eyes practically on fire as he scowled over at them.
"Kirishima… plans changed!" Bakugo began, his voice a low growl. "Before we go for Deku… I've gotta murder every last one of them!"
