Izuku could not believe his eyes. The Strange person just swiped the headband and stopped Tokoyami's Dark Shadow.
"Th-that's Steven's Team!" Uraraka exclaimed, "But who's that!"
"It… can't Be!" Izuku looked at the stranger, their hair, their skin, their Quirk, "their features are mixed but there's no doubt… That's Steven and Connie...!"
"FUSED… TOGETHER!?" Present Mic just echoed everybody else's feelings at that moment. "You knew about this?" he whispered towards Aizawa, whose wide eyed expression immediately told Present Mic otherwise.
"They never did this… on the quirk evaluation tests... they..." he thought he was ready for those two, but they were keeping something like that from him, was that Connie's quirk? Or was it another ability from Steven like they kept mentioning all the time? "They're gonna hear from me after this…!"
"Stev… Conn…" Jiro tried to call the statuesque person now on their team, while Sato just remained slack jawed.
"Stevonnie will do for-" Before finishing their introduction, Stevonnie spotted a column of ice approaching them at high speed only to crash against a recently made pink barrier! "Well, guess this is as far as the shock went!" they smiled. "Let's go!"
Composing himself Sato, followed by Jiro started running as fast as their feet could take them.
"Iida!" Todoroki ordered, and the motor-legged teen gave chase.
"Midoriya!" Tokoyami immediately pointed out "We need to get our points back, Now!" Izuku nodded, there was no time to lose!
'We can't outrun Iida, but neither can they,' the young man addressed his team "Uraraka, make us as light as you can and hold tight, lean on the ice wall!" the girl concentrated on her quirk as she applied it to the team, "Tokoyami, get Ready!"
"What's the plan?"
"We're getting our points back!"
On the other hand, Todoroki prepared another assault with his right hand, whatever tactic Steven had used, he couldn't let him win in first place, not when HE was looking. "You won't escape!" In a matter of seconds, Todoroki's team outsped Stevonnie's, blocking their path forward with a new Ice barrier, making Stevonnie's team stop cold on their tracks.
"I didn't think we could outrun Iida *haa* *haa*" said Sato trying to catch his breath, Stevonnie stood determined in front of Todoroki's team.
"Any plans?" Jiro asked
The fusion clenched their hands making their knuckles pop, "There's nowhere to run, guess we'll have to face them Head On!"
"What?!" Jiro saw a couple pink light barriers materializing around them.
#
"And it seems like Team Universe about to get into a close duel with the Ace of Class 1-A!" Present Mic announced to the audience. "And they are not backing out, but can they keep their advantage before time runs out?!" The public went wild.
"You sure it's not the girl- I mean Connie?" the hero Thirteen asked the cowboy, who simply shook his head.
"I supervised their training prior to the festival, to the point of letting me see their quirks, I don't think she would have passed the opportunity to show me this," answered Snipe.
"There is another alternative," the skeletal visage of All-Might stared intensely at the confronted teams "Steven's quirk may be more than we were originally thinking," the rest of the teaching heroes turned their sights towards Toshinori.
"Steven's power does include Shapeshifting, although this kind of use is stretching it a bit..." Ectoplasm added.
"Why wait until this moment to do it though? I would have made an excellent asset on the previous event"...
"I think the answer is obvious" Toshinori pointed towards the stadium screens, every single camera was now centered around Stevonnie and Todoroki's duel. "They want to be noticed." the rest of the heroes nodded while his sight went towards Izuku closing on the the other two teams from behind, 'I know I may have put a lot of pressure on you, Young Midoriya,' Even from that far away, All Might could see his young succesor's determined expression 'but I have never doubted your potential.'
#
Todoroki's sight was centered on Stevonnie, his right side ached and shivered due to the small ice crystals growing on his skin. All the ice was starting to take a toll on his body as a visible layer of frost was starting to appear in several places...
"Okay!" Stevonnie yelled "Get Ready!" a couple hexagons materialized on their teams sides.
"Hope you're sure about this," Jiro clenched her teeth, she didn't think this was such a good idea, but she understood that just hiding to win would not give the public the best impression about them.
"Charge!" The Hexagons shot forward, impacting against Todoroki's ice wall, though this time as far away from the teenager as possible, followed by Stevonnie jumping towards them.
Todoroki immediately recognized the tactic and prepared to immobilize Stevonnie as they landed on their improvised light footstool when, *Crash!* out of nowhere, new light hexagons slammed against his right hand, completely encasing it within them! "No!" Todoroki exclaimed as he saw his ice unable to break through the light barrier.
"Hehe!" Stevonnie's arm stretched making a grab for another or Todoroki's many headbands.
"Kaminari, Yaoyorozu!" In a matter of seconds, a powerful electric blast shot out of the blond's body, while the black haired girl made sure the electricity wouldn't hurt her own team, making Stevonnie retract their arm in pain.
"What was their pla- Urk!" Iida felt himself buckle, as a now enormous Sato held him in place, he could tell his classmate was using his quirk as his corpulence had increased dramatically.
"Hya!" Jiro, now standing on the light platform shot her earphone jacks forward and swiped one of Todoroki's headbands. "Now Stevonnie!" She yelled as the smiling fusion gave a thumbs up and jumped back to the platform with Jiro.
"Retreat!" they ordered, Sato let Iida go and in a swift motion, advanced in the opposite direction.
"We gotta get them!" Iida leaned forward "I was hoping I didn't have to use this" the exhaust pipes on his legs started spewing a blue flame as the motor revved up to an insane degree "Recipro!"
"Wait!" Todoroki's voice stopped Iida from unleashing his secret technique "I… I can't move,'' the young man struggled, yet the interlocked light barriers held arm firmly in place.
"What?!"
"If we move, our team will fall apart!" Yaoyorozu added "They didn't really want any of our headbands..."
"... They were just trying to neutralize us!" Todoroki turned his head to where Stevonnie stood up and distracted them. The barrier they have used had disappeared, while the ones holding him in place were still there "That person must need to concentrate to keep these on," his right side was compromised, and Steven's team only needed to keep this for less than a couple minutes before the battle ended "I'm… " Todoroki's jaw clenched, He needed to break whatever concentration Steven, Connie, whomever were exerting over him. "I guess I'll have to…" flames ignited along his left arm as he pointed close to the opposing team.
"SMASH!" The ice walls around Stevonnie's team shattered when a powerful shockwave and burst of air made its way towards them, the winds were so powerful that even Todoroki felt his left arm pushed back, flames put out by the shear strength of the blow, even the barriers holding him in place vanished in the blink of an eye.
"NOW!" Izuku's team was gliding towards Stevonnie, aided by Uraraka and Tokoyami, plucking one of the headbands from Stevonnie during the confusion.
"Wha?!" Stevonnie grabbed a hold of their remaining headbands by reflex, they would have fallen to the ground had it not been for Jiro and Sato's quick reaction. "I-Izuku?"
"Midoriya..." Todoroki could only gasp in awe after such a demonstration of power.
"What a Quick turn of events!" Present Mic Informed the audience "Having lost all their points a short time ago, Midoriya's Team pulled an excellent last minute maneuver, landing them back into… eh fourth place?"
"Nooo.." Izuku clenched his hand as he saw the headband with the number 630 in his hand, his finger was starting to swell after having shattered its bones with that last movement.
"DEKU!" Making their way through the fallen walls, after having beaten several teams from other classes on their way to the top, Katsuki Bakugo and his Team entered the fray.
"Wait, they don't have the 10 million Headband!" Kirishima pointed.
"WHAT!" Bakugo quickly turned his head to the left of Izuku, giving a quick glance to Todoroki, then to the right, noticing the person with the highest pointed headband immediately, "Who the hell is that?"
"We have no time!" Todoroki recovered from the surprise. "Let's Go get the Headband!" Iida started his leg engines at the same time as Todoroki sent a column of ice towards Stevonnie.
"Don't Care who the HELL you are!" Bakugo jumped followed by a loud explosion "I'm the one who's gonna BE at the top!"
"Take Cover!" Stevonnie materialized a pink dome encasing their whole team.
Izuku could not stay behind as his classmates gave it their all, he prepared his next finger 'I promised All-Might I would tell the world I'm here!' he thought, the energy of One For all started pooling into his finger, as both Bakugo and Todoroki's attack collided with the solid dome in the middle of the battle "SMA-!"
"TIME'S UP" Midnight yelled.
Everybody stopped in their tracks as the loud buzz signaled the end of the competition. Izuku let out an audible gasp as he deactivated his quirk. The pink dome still stood in the middle of the battle, flanked by a pillar of ice crashing against it on one side, and a very annoyed Bakugo swiping the smoke of the explosion on the other side. Izuku couldn't help but notice Todoroki's eyes focusing on him.
"Now we have the results of this extremely harrowing match!" Present Mic's narration filled the air as the teams disbanded and moved towards Midnight's podium to see the results. "On 4th place after a very close call, and an even more amazing comeback, the team led By Midoriya from 1-A!" Izuku tried containing his tears.
"We… we made it to the next event…!" Izuku cried, trying desperately to dry the waterworks coming from his eyes.
"E-everyone, Thank you!" He addressed his team.
"In third place, we have Todoroki's team!" the young man was not happy. Some were even groaning in disappointment. However the young man's sights were squarely on Midoriya.
"In second place, we have Bakugo's team!" that made Bakugo's face twist into an expression of deep rage…
"Uh… Bakugo? You okay," Kirishima stated, only to actually take a step back as he noticed the sheer hate on his friend's face.
"Second place is not that bad, right?" Mina asked
"Yeah, but," Sero stepped back from Kirishima and Bakugo "Try telling that to him…"
"And Finally, in first place, after a competition full of surprises, the Team led by one of our new exchange students makes it to First place!" The crowd cheered as the screens centered on the now 3 person team, Stevonnie stretched their muscles while getting a few looks by Jiro.
"Are you gonna stay like that for the rest of the festival?"
"Hehe, no, I just," Stevonnie looked at their hands, letting out a small sigh, "I just missed this a bit…" With a smile, Stevonnie's body was enveloped in an intense glow, their body separated into the 2 distinctive silhouettes of Steven and Connie as the light died down, much to the surprised looks of everyone there.
"This 16 students will pass to the final event of this competition!" Added Present Mic, "But, we'll see about that after a small break!" in the commentators' booth, Aizawa immediately stood up. "Hey where are you going?"
"I need to have a talk with our new students." the bandaged man answered as the door closed behind him.
Izuku wanted to talk to Steven and Connie once more, who would've known they had such an ace up their sleeves! 'A Quirk…? A Fusion?, can they combine with everyone, or just them?' his mind was just spinning with all the possibilities.
"Midoriya…"
"T-Todoroki!" his thoughts were stopped when his classmate blocked his path.
"Meet me at the outer gate" his gaze remained firm "There is something we need to discuss."
"Okay?" Izuku nodded, Steven and Connie walked among the rest of the students, while he was still pretty curious about their performance, Todoroki's request seemed a bit too sudden...
#
Her cheeks turned red, her heart started beating so fast as the commercial break started, was she getting a Crush?
"Hee-hee-hee..."
An innocent giggle came from the girl in the sweater, she usually didn't care for the 'Hero Sports Festival,' she saw it as just a bunch of stuck up people parading their quirks before joining the city. Before joining the system that kept her in hiding, that forbade her from using her quirk.
"Two people joining, two people becoming one?" A flurry of thoughts filled her mind. What would it mean to become something new? "A boy and a quirkless girl, something new, I wonder... Hehe…"
The girl licked her lips and smiled, showing a couple of sharp fangs decorating her mouth while she played with her hair, "I don't like heroes… But a girl can't choose who she falls in love with, right? hehehehe..."
#
"So, why did you keep this a secret from us?" Aizawa asked the two exchange students. The young couple just sat at the small table trying to explain their situation. Making use of the waiting room for extra privacy.
"It's not like we deliberately didn't tell you," Connie started, "It's just been so long since we did this and-"
"And I don't actually consider Stevonnie a Pow- I mean, Quirk."
"Hmm? And pray tell, what is 'Stevonnie'?"
"A fusion, is more than just two persons becoming a stronger person," Steven explained "Is a reflection of the bond those people share, can be family, can friendship, can even just be the determination towards the same goal"
"Stevonnie was special" Connie could see Aizawa raised his eyebrows "It was the first time Steven fused with anyone in his life."
The teacher sighed "I remember the deal was that you told us everything that you could do..."
"We did," Steven finally answered. Aizawa couldn't help but keep his suspicions towards the teenage couple.
"It seems you have a lot of reverence for this… Fusion. I'm not gonna punish you or anything, but, I want you two to get a more extensive evaluation in the future, understood?" The teacher informed "Now, go to the cafeteria you two, the next event is gonna be taxing, and you will have to face that on your own."
"Yes Sir!" both responded in unison leaving the teacher behind, who just sat in one of the free chairs, he now was gonna have to keep a closer eye on the universe boy, to intervene in case it was necessary…
#
After a short visit to the infirmary, a reprimand by Recovery Girl, and a very illuminating discussion with Todoroki, Izuku was running late for the short recess they had been given.
*"Irregardless of the results of this last competition, you surpassed me, and I think you even surpassed Steven."*
The words of Todoroki still resonated in his head, he could understand the young man's drive, and his dislike towards his own fathers way of raising him, but still. "To reject a part of yourself…?" he looked at his bandaged finger, he had to help him, somehow.
"I hope there's still a little food left!"
"Wait, Steven?!" Izuku's deep thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of both Steven and Connie.
"Oh, hi Izuku, you're also late?!" Steven answered, and Connie complemented with a small wave.
"I'll see if we can get a table," Connie excused herself and advanced.
"Oh, I was, hmmm," Steven's eyes widened after seeing the bandaged finger on Izuku "Oh, this? I had to go to the infirmary, I kinda hurt myself a bit in the cavalry battle."
"Oh. Well, let's go get some food then."
Connie on her part, kept looking for a table to have a quick lunch as time was starting to run low for the recess.
"Nice job back there." Connie froze at that voice, slowly turning her head, she noticed the dark haired young man sitting in an almost empty table, only a glass of water and a couple of plates remained on top of Shinso's tray. She didn't dare utter a word in front of him after their whole ordeal minutes ago. "Don't worry yourself. My Quirk won't actually activate if I don't want it to." he said to reassure Connie.
"I… see…" understandably, she was still cautious.
"I severely underestimated you both," Shinso stated, grabbing a glass of water from his tray, "but then again, I think I underestimated every other student on the Hero Course."
"You, you did a great job," Connie sat on one of the chairs across the young man, "I didn't know what happened, if Steven hadn't woken up..."
"Hehe, after seeing the show your team put back there, I realized I was missing something. You could have just taken the easy route after taking that headband and just hid in one of those domes, but you kept taking the risk further and pushed yourself," Shinso lowered his face "I don't think I had another plan after my quirk was overcome."
"I think you could be an amazing hero,"
"Hmm?"
"Your abilities could resolve and deescalate any conflicts without anyone getting hurt!" Connie grabbed Shinso's hand jolting the young man out of his gloomy mood, "But I think, you should push yourself harder, just like everyone was in there."
Shinso felt Connie's hand, his mind went back to a few days prior when he saw her hold a sword, the roughness and the calluses, this girl had been fighting for a while, probably even more than he ever tried…
"I understand," Shinso stood up and picked up his tray. "You're the only one from our class who made it to the final event, I am curious to see what you will do next…" and with a smile, he left the table.
Universe and Midoriya carried the food trays towards Connie's table, Steven was getting a few looks from the other classes, couldn't help but feel a little awkward.
"You really surprised them in the Cavalry Battle, huh?"
"I guess so, but your quirk nearly devastated our team, if you hadn't missed, we wouldn't have made it."
"You gotta admit that I haven't seen a quirk that allows people to fuse, how would that even work?"
"Hey guys! Over Here!" Connie waved her hands, inviting them to sit over. After a quick lunch, Izuku took out his notebook and decided on getting a few notes about Stevonnie.
"You discovered that by accident!?" Izuku added the notes on the entry marked as 'Stevonnie', in the page there was already a few notes *Stronger, faster and more agile that Steven and Connie Individually,*
"Well My family has always had that ability, but-but it was the first time someone ever fused outside my family," Steven said in explanation.
"Yeah," Connie added, "It was pretty weird for me too. One second you are goofing around in the beach and the next, well, you see what happened"
"I was never good at using my powers when I was young, I even feared I was never gonna be able to use them at all!"
"Wait-Really?!" Izuku almost dropped the pencil.
"When you're born in a family like mine, you grow up seeing all the awesome things your family does, all the good they do, and the adventures they go around to, and you start fearing that you'll never be able to follow in their footsteps." Steven started remembering how he began his journey long ago. "I mean, I don't think I ever manifested my shield until I was 12?"
"Wait, 12?"
"Um yeah?" Steven said, confused at Izuku's tone.
"Not four years old?"
This rung alarm bells in Connie's head. She then said hastily, "Y-Yeah! Steven was QUITE a late bloomer! I mean, he had the genetics for a Quirk, sure, but we were worried that something was wrong when he didn't show any signs at age four, just like I didn't!" She then put on a forced laugh, hinting at Steven that he almost blew their cover.
Noticing Connie's panicked reaction, Steven tried coming up with the quickest justification he could "Y-Yeah! I mean we were sure I was born with a Quirk, be-because of... because I inherited my mother's Gem!" the boy lifted his shirt showing the pink gem where his navel should be.
"Oh yea, I see" Izuku nodded, Steven and Connie's reaction was something he didn't expect, however, he could see they weren't too comfortable with the topic. "I think we can finish for now. I have enough new data." He took his tray back and decided to give his classmate a little space.
This made Steven and Connie breathe a sigh of relief as soon as Izuku left. "Sorry about that, I got carried away." Steven apologized.
"Don't worry, I think is believable enough."
"I wish we hadn't promised to keep quiet about our origins, Izuku seems like a good person, he would understand, maybe."
"I know, hopefully, our plan here works, I'm pretty sure that with the gems on our side, coming clean to everyone will be easier." Connie picked up her tray and started walking away. On her way she bumped with a very agitated Jiro preparing with the rest of the 1A girls for the next event.
Steven took a deep breath and stood up, "Well, time to keep going!"
#
The crowd in the stadium cheered as the students returned.
"Get those thumb fingers in the air, 'cause it's almost time for the last round!" Present Mic stated as he announced to the audience! "But there's also some good news for anyone who didn't make it to the finals! Since this Sports Festival is an actual FESTIVAL, we've arranged for a bunch of fun little side games for them to compete in! We even brought in some cheerleaders from overseas to get your blood pumping!" However, he froze mid sentence as he and Aizawa were greeted with a… unique sight…
"What are they doing…?" Aizawa said to himself upon what he was seeing…
All his female students, and even the exchange girl were dressed in what appeared to be somewhat revealing cheerleading outfits. Their faces however couldn't do more than display the utter shame of their situation.
Present Mic actually rolled with this, announcing, "Looks like Class 1-A is going full on FANSERVICE!"
Two students in particular were exchanging thumbs ups at this display; Denki Kaminari and, of course, Minorou Mineta…
"WHAT!?" shouted a VERY irate Yayourozou, "You TRICKED us!? YOU'RE GONNA REGRET THIS!"
Connie tried to cover her midriff with her pompons, as her face became redder by the second 'I knew this sounded fishy...'
*"Jiro! Uh, is something wrong?" Connie asked after bumping on a blushing Kyoka Jiro.
"Oh, nothing, nothing," Jiro clenched what it seemed to some new clothes in her hands, "I'm just preparing for the next event!" Connie could see every girl around Yaoyorozu, picking up similar getups to what Jiro held in her hands.
"I didn't remember them mentioning we needed new clothes for the next event..."
"Me neither, but, well, Mineta and Kaminari said that these uniforms are pretty much mandatory for each of the Hero Course and that the instructions were directly from our teacher Mr. Aizawa."
"Aizawa?" Connie remembered the stern talking from a few minutes ago, and a small plan started manifesting. "Can I participate?"
"Huh?"
"I made it to the final round, I think I can help with whatever this next event is," She said with a simple, cheerful tone, 'Besides, working along with his students may get him to understand Steven and I are taking this competition seriously!' she thought to herself.
"O-Okay, let's talk with Yaoyorozu."*
Connie's forehead veins were almost visible "I'm gonna crush that midget!" the girl said through clenched teeth.
Groaning, Yaoyorozu dropped to the ground, "Why is it that I always fall for that stupid little pervert's schemes…"
"Wait," Connie said in anger, "This is an actual THING for him?!"
"Yeah," Yaoyorozu suddenly looked MORE ashamed, "I even used my Quirk to make these outfits…!"
Connie was now visibly irate, thinking, Okay, now I'm DEFINITELY gonna crush him!
Seemingly to mirror Connie's thoughts, Jiro threw her pom-poms to the ground in disgust, "Ugh! This SUCKS!"
"Well…" the invisible Tohru suddenly piped up… "We only have a little time before the side contests start and we're already in these uniforms so…" She then began to wave her body around in an enthusiastic manner, "Why not just roll with it~!?"
"ARE YOU CRAZY!?" Jiro yelled at her.
Connie looked around at the rest of the students, some of them snickering and smiling, others indifferent, and then, "St-Steven?" the young man was blushing at her new attire, unable to take his eyes off of her.
"Uuuh, ehem, You- You look nice Connie!" Steven muttered, causing the girl to blush in return, a reaction that was not lost on the rest of the girls.
"Uh… Th-Thanks…" Connie stuttered, while also blushing greatly.
The awkward scene was interrupted by the blaring of Present Mic's Voice "Buuut, Before the side games commence, we are gonna decide the pairings for the final event!" The screens all over the stadium displayed a Tournament Bracket with 16 positions. "That's right, the one on one Tournament!" the crowd cheered.
"A Tournament?" Steven thought out loud
"Yeah, the UA Sports Festival's final event is always a tournament," Izuku responded.
"Only the best will make it to the top!" Midnight arrived into her podium carrying a box "the finalists from the last event, come pick your number!" One by one each of the four teams approached the podium and picked a random ball from the box. As soon as that happened their name appeared on the tournament bracket.
"Here are the combatants for the final round!"
*Connie Maheswaran vs Mina Ashido*
"Guess we're gonna be first eh?" The pink girl smiled towards Connie, who could only laugh a bit at her situation.
"Guess we are" Connie sighed, the battle ahead was not gonna be easy.
*Katsuki Bakugo vs Rikido Sato*
"'Sato'? Who's that?" Bakugo asked in a bored tone, ignoring the rage from his opponent behind him.
*Kaminari Denki vs Ejiro Kirishima* *Mei Hatsume vs Tenya Iida*
"Hello, Are you Iida by any chance?" Mei looked at her opponent with a mischievous smile on her face.
*Steven Universe vs Ochako Uraraka*
"I.. I'm fighting Steven?!" the girl couldn't help but feel nervous, she didn't know much about the young man, and turning her mind back to the competition before, didn't make her feel better, at all.
"Let's both give it our all?" Steven said, trying, and failing, to calm her, "O...kay…"
*Momo Yaoyorozu vs Fumikage Tokoyami* *Kyoka Jiro vs Izuku Midoriya* *Sero Hanta vs Shouto Todoroki*
Izuku looked at the pairings 'If I win, I will have to face Todoroki for sure.' Along the opposite end of the crowd, the son of Endeavor kept a close look on Midoriya. The hardest part of this Sports Festival was about to begin!