"This... is hell." Al says as he stops to catch his breath for a second.
"I don't know how much of this I can take. We've been running away for half a day from him..."
"And somehow he's still behind us."
"Why did you stop? Do you think villains will stop from attacking you just because you are tired? Unless you can stand up and fight for 36 hours straight I won't stop hunting you. Rest? Rest comes either with absolute peace or the grave!" Apex shouts as he keeps chasing them. He chase the two of them for so long they left the city behind and reached a forest. Whenever he caught up with them he would attack them viciously only for the two victims to run away and prolong their suffering. Apex would leave the two some time between attacks to form a plan and put some distance between them before attacking mercilessly again from the shadows. They should have searched him up before accepting his invitation. Apex is a war general from a time when Quirks were still new and used in large scale conflicts. Because of how devastating Quirks are the world was forced to solve its problems through diplomacy and peace. There would be no end to a Quirk powered war. Any country could lose any war then suddenly a new citizen with an overpowered Quirk could overthrow the balance of power between the two warring nations. It would be endless conflict, the wars wouldn't stop unless there would be only one man standing. The new generations lived in peace but Apex knew war. He fought in South American when the continent was trying to become a loose confederation of states. It didn't went well, powerful states like Brazil tried imposing its will on the other states too much, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina they started creating alliances, making secret pacts splitting the continent into numerous states, back stabbing one another, plotting, boiling with the anticipation of conquest and war. For thirty years the countries fought in a continental sized war where Quirks were slowly introduced leading to even more bloodshed and devastation. Apex, he was a veteran even then, 120 years and still kicking, people even think he might be immortal. Back then he was young though, as young as he ever was, born with a beard and ten years of war experience. He fought, he lost, he mastered. Because of the war he was forced to learn every single hidden secret of his Quirk. He flew in the sky shot at by planes in his hawk form before charging them head first only to turn into a giant whale and smash them into the ground. He attacked bases and survived by sheer willpower, thick scales and speed bringing teeth and claws to gun fights. In his prime days his whale form, the 12 metres colossus could rise a tank over its head and send it flying. Every form has its own life, every form has to heal once it takes damage, every form has to live with the aftermath. While his less used forms like that of the giant river otter are intact and still fresh the ones he used in war are rugged and covered in scars he calls medals. Half the face of his whale form was blown off by an artillery shell and he still walked up to the enemy and brought his wrath upon them. He is terrifying, stubborn and experienced. A man with so much history, with so much experience is bound to suffer from it. To him, the hero apprenticeship started as a friendly gesture but once his eyes turned wide and he shouted "I'll be back Laurie!" Tsuyu and Al realised they were dealing with a man trapped in his own war torn mind. Apex decided that he would teach the two how to survive not a fight with villains but a Quirk War.
"We've got to take him out or he'll kill us with exhaustion. We can't keep this up for 36 hours."
"Yes, let me just find a way to defeat a man that can just turn into a whale on a whim and take to the chin whatever attacks we can dish out."
"What if we trick him? Maize, I have a plan."
"Damn it feels weird to be called that... Froppy" As weird as it felt to be called by his 'Hero' codename Maize had to consider himself lucky. Tsuyu came up with a plan to defeat, or at least knock out Apex so that the two of them might rest or at least be utterly defeated by him.
"Did Alphonse finally decided to run away and left the frog behind? I can't smell him any more. If that's the case I'll just take out the frog and be done for today. I'll hunt him down properly tomorrow morning" Apex thinks looking at Tsuyu who was looking out for him from atop a tree.
"Where are you many-bests-man? Ribbit" She says looking through the forest from the top of the tallest tree she could find. Apex sneaks up on her in his snake form but because of how large he is compared to her he turns into his eagle form and attacks her from above. As soon as he jumped out of the tree leaves and tried attacking her from above Tsuyu jumps down and grabs onto a different tree with her tongue.
"You fell for it!" She says as Apex realises the trap he fell into. From the tree he could see how on the ground Al created a giant field of corn and inside of it there were dozens of spring traps ready to shoot bolas at Apex. The first instinct he had was to turn into a heavy animal and fall to the ground but Al already covered the forest floor with more corn filled with spears pointing upwards. The only other option was the tree where Tsuyu just stood but!
"You lied to me frog girl." She could secrete poisonous mucus. When Apex reached the branch he touched the toxin and got paralysed because of it falling to the ground as Al made all the corn disappear. Apex falls to the ground making a loud 'thum' scaring every animal in the forest away.
"Can we rest now?" Tsuyu asks as she and Al approach Apex.
"Man... If he says no, I'll get myself an obsidian knife and eat him. I... I can't feel the tips of my fingers. Too much blood spent on weapons... I need meat..."
"Fine. I'll admit defeat for now. I'll even hunt you dinner as a reward. Luckily for you two I've been pushing you towards a camping site I've prepared in advance. Just go further to north east 200 metres or so and you'll find it. I'll track down that deer I smelt not long ago then I'll bring you dinner."
"How are you going to do that if we paralysed you?"
"Paralysed. I guess you never heard of honey beavers... pray I don't ever take that form to fight you, that one is fiercer than the giant whale." Success! Tsuyu and Al can relax for the evening as they managed to counter Apex and his relentless attacks.
The next two with a masked hero trainer were Jiro and Mina.
"Now, you'll have to think how to escape if you're captured. Jiro you go first. You're tied around and..." Sky High was about to ask the two about escaping but suddenly a villain attacked.
"Hahaha, nobody can stop me from robbing this bank! Get away or I'll snap this old man's neck!"
"A villain. Quick, what's the first things to do?"
"Asses the situation, get as many people to safety then intervene to save the hostage."
"Then get to it. Jiro, announce yourself as a hero and start guiding the civilians. Mina, sneak around unnoticed and prepare to save the hostage. That is a bank, it is bound to have a back entrance move!" Sky High says as she jumps over the crowd in between the civilians and the villain.
"Stop right there evil doer! Your actions of nefariousness have been noted and soon will be stopped by none other than the masked hero Sky High!"
"She told us to keep to the shadows and assess the situation from afar but run head first into danger?" Jiro says as she plugs in her earphones and starts guiding the people away from the villain. In the meantime Mina entered the bank from the back door and headed slowly through the building.
"The first thing to do when approaching a villain from behind is to make sure there are no other villains hiding in order to ambush us." She stops and looks around the main room where the villain was standing. She was right. Behind a desk was a crouched villain moving all weird trembling and making weird monstrous noises. The villain was a large muscular physical bruiser with bulging muscles and spikes all over his body while the one hiding was smaller and looked like a zombie with green hands and bandages and belts all over the body.
"Think, how do I go and free the hostage without making myself seen... Acid armour!" Thinking about what Sky High told her Mina starts secreting acid creating a puddle of it. She lowers herself down on the floor and starts skating from one desk to the other planning on getting as close as possible to the villain before throwing an acid bomb making the villain drop his weapon and freeing the hostage.
Outside after Jiro managed to liberate the area she joined Sky high ready to fight if necessary.
"We are two against one! The odds are against you. Give up criminal and let justice be served!" Sky High says as she tries getting closer but she couldn't as the villain kept threatening to hurt the hostage.
"Closer Pinky, closer. Just one more push and..." She throws an acid attack at the villain and startled he drops his weapon.
"Now!" Sky High shouts as she runs to save the hostage but the villain has an ace hidden up his sleep and when Sky High passes close to a car parked in front of the bank it explodes knocking her unconscious.
"Now that the main hero is down I don't need this any more. Just two children planning to fight me? Ha, this is going to be easy." From behind Mina is attacked by the zombie looking villain who stumbles and makes weird noises while rushing towards her.
"Green hands while his whole body is covered up? His hands got to have something to do with his Quirk. Better not get hit by them!" Mina thinks while dodging Zombie's attacks.
"The hero is knocked out, there are no more civilians and the villain is ready for a fight."I guess the only thing left to do is fight then!" Jiro charges the villain aiming to reunite with Mina so that the two might fight together against the criminal. Mina quickly takes out Zombie who barely can move and just stumbles everywhere while trying to get a hold of her.
"Useless peon. Why did I even bothered having a partner in crimes? It matter not though for I shall deal with the two of you alone!" The villain says before rushing in between Mina and Jiro to attack them.
"He's really fast!" Jiro says before the villain reaches her and hit her with his biceps into the ground. Mina starts circling around the villain aiming to enter his blind spot before throwing more acid at him.
"His legs! Get his legs first, we need to cut down his mobility!" Jiro shouts as she rolls away from the villain's range preparing to attack with her sonic blasts. As she rolls away Zombie nearly grabs a hold of her legs but she dodges out fast enough and gets in position to attack. Mina throws her acid at the villains feet creating a slippery pool underneath him. Jiro prepares her earphones and releases a sonic wave to attack the villain. As the waves approach him the villain cannot run as the acid is too slippery to get out of. On a whim the villain jumps in the air and the sonic attack pushes him forward beyond the boundaries of the acid pool.
"Damn it, he got away!"
"No, that's perfect Jiro, keep going!" Mina shouts as she dashes in front of the villain and starts secreting acid from all her body. "Acid Armour!" she shouts as she jumps towards the villain ready to cover him with sticky acid while making him fall to the ground.
The villain gets covered in acid and the more he struggles to break free the more Mina covers him with it.
"First rule of a hero! Take out all the villains before resting!" Jiro says as she brings Zombie to the pile and tie him up too.
"Second thing to do, call immediate back-up and help for the wounded."
"That won't be necessary! I'm perfectly fine!" Sky High says rising her head off the ground. The car explosion was fake. Jiro and Mina never realised it because of how busy Sky High kept them with her questions but she lured the two on a set where she prepared a villain attack to test the two.
"We've planned this to test your skills in a real threatening situation!"
"Then the one we've tied up is?"
"None other than El Santo."
"And Zombie?" They remove the costume and realise inside was a very dizzy Uraraka still dazed from the spin she took from El Santo's training. Everyone from the crowd outside to the bank personal and the hostage were in on the act. Everything was studied to test them and see how capable the two are to put their skills to use.
"Congrats, you've passed the first test. Tonight I'll offer you all dinner out in town. Where do you all want to go?"
"Pizza!" Mina says.
"Grilled meat!" Jiro proposes.
"Sushi!" El Santo counter.
"Blrugh, blrugh, blrugh" Uraraka tries to say.