"Howdy, all."
Class 2-A instinctively snapped to attention at the sound of their new homeroom teacher's voice. Karyoku Roku, or rather Snipe to the vast majority of the population, stepped into the room with little flourish or flair; his decorative spurs were jingling a little, but there was no panache to how he moved. He ran a finger along the polished butt of his lucky ten-shooter, holstered now at his hip.
"I don't suppose I'll need to say much to introduce myself, considering y'all dealt with me for a month before winter break," Snipe continued, his masked face slowly scanning the room. "It's January now, and y'all have made it to the second year of school. Well... most of y'all. You may notice a few of these faces have changed. That was Vlad and I's meddlin', so don't worry too much about it."
He glanced towards Class 2-A's new transfers; the ethereal Reiko Yanagi, her pale hands folded on the desk before her, cold eyes staring straight ahead at the back of a rather tense-looking Sero's head. Darksome Shihai Kuroiro, fidgeting a little in his seat and fiddling with a pencil as he tried to ward off his boredom. And the furtive Kinoko Komori, so easily forgotten, eyes hidden behind a bob of hair and head ducked down.
Beside her sat Izuku Midoriya, with one sleeve dangling loosely from his shoulder. Beside him sat a protective Ochaco Uraraka, and to his front Katsuki Bakugou was glaring at the chalkboard. Behind him Iida Tenya watched with a stern expression, focused as always on the teacher. Snipe smiled to see them all together again, even if circumstance had nearly pushed them apart.
"To the new members of 2-A; welcome aboard." he continued. "And to the old, welcome back. I'm lookin' forward to teaching' all y'all about heroism as it ought to be, and trainin' you to be the best you can. Any questions 'fore we get started?"
Iida's hand rose, as Snipe had expected. He pointed a single finger Iida's way, but before the boy's mouth opened he raised his thumb on that hand. The boy went silent, until Snipe depressed his thumb again.
"Will we be attending the opening speech this year?" he asked, and Snipe chuckled.
"I'm 'fraid not," he replied, shaking his head. "Heroes don't got too much time for formalities, 'specially when y'all probably stuffed yourselves with turkey and eggnog over Christmas break. Nah... we're openin' the year the 2-A way."
He pointed to the door.
"Training Ground 16, in ten minutes." he commanded. "Gym strip on, stretched and ready to go. Midoriya,"
He cast an eye toward the green-haired student, who looked at him with a glint of curiosity in his eyes. Snipe nodded.
"You stick around for just a second longer." He looked back to the rest of the class and drew his pistol. "Now git."
He fired his gun into the air. The blank banged loudly but only startled the class, leaving the ceiling hole-free as everyone scrambled to their feet and made a break for the door. It was a mad scramble to get going as he ordered, and as they ran he sat down atop his desk at the front of the room with a sigh.
Midoriya approached, stance and bearing almost cautious in the way each step hesitated for a microsecond, his expression guarded. Snipe smiled at him, inscrutable behind his mask.
"That new gadget of Mei's ready for the road?" he asked, and Midoriya nodded once, a smile cracking that careful facade. "Damn good. Can't wait to see it in action."
"Was that all, Snipe-sensei?" Izuku asked, and Snipe shook his head.
"After we're done out there, I want you to get together Bakugou, Todoroki and Tokoyami." he stated. "UA's tryin' a new program that we think you four'd be perfect to test for us, on account-a your above-average experience and ability. Sound like somethin' you'd be interested in?"
"It's Monday, Snipe-sensei." Midoriya replied, frowning a touch. "I... have other arrangements after school."
"Ah, that don't concern," Snipe shrugged. "Meetin' should only take a fiver at most. It's real simple stuff. Can you make it?"
Midoriya's eyes narrowed, his hand coming up to rub the bottom of his chin with his left thumb. He stood there in silent consideration for a moment, before nodding once.
"I won't miss my bus," he admitted. "I'll tell them."
Snipe gave Izuku a pat on the shoulder as he stood up, before leading the boy to the door. Nothing more needed to be said; Snipe knew where Midoriya was headed, and Midoriya had the information he needed. The green-haired boy disappeared into the men's changing room a few minutes later, while Snipe made his way toward Training Ground Sixteen with his hands in his pockets, whistling a song about Arizona Rangers and the iron on their hips.
By the time he got there, eighteen of his twenty students had arrived. He excused Midoriya's lateness in his head; he knew that the boy getting ready would take some time. But Bakugou's lateness was more confusing than that. The blonde was usually a little too eager to partake in any sort of physical training event. Particularly the potentially violent ones.
Then the two exited the school and Snipe understood.
The two walked side by side, both in the red white and blue of UA's gym uniforms. First came Bakugou, hands in his pockets and an unusually bright expression on his face, a grin that was as savage as it was gleeful. And behind him came Midoriya, who was fiddling with his hand. An impossibility on a regular day, because Midoriya only had one arm. But on a day like this, he had two again.
True, one hand was made of grey polymer and glinting steel, but a hand it was nonetheless, unmistakable in shape and motion. Four fingers and a thumb, jointed as a hand should be, twitching and twisting, curling into a fist and then extending out into a knife hand, thumb tucking and untucking smoothly. Midoriya was holding his metal wrist with his hand of flesh and bone, as if to stabilize it.
Then he punched his metal arm out to the side, and there was a quiet whirring as he began moving it in a circular motion at the shoulder. The rest of the class stared as Midoriya joined them, a rare smile on his face, and then looked to Snipe.
"If you've all had your share of gawkin'..." he chastised them lightly, before pointing to the familiar mimicry of a demolished city in front of them. "It's time for today's exercise. I ain't gonna play no mind-games with you; there ain't no winning or losing here. I'm just tryin' ta figure out exactly how rusty y'all have gotten since we last did somethin' like this. Alright?"
The class sounded out with a sound general affirmation, a few looking suitably embarrassed by their previous staring. Midoriya nodded, while Bakugou shouted a profanity-filled 'yes' while clenching his fists.
Snipe drew his revolver, spinning it in his hand a few times before bolstering it again. Then he pointed two fingers; one at Bakugou, the other at the bubblegum pink Mina Ashido, who looked just a little nervous when she realized who else was being pointed at.
"Ground Zero and Pinky," Snipe said. "You two're team one."
He continued to point out students. Solemn and quiet Todoroki was paired with the jovial, light-hearted Kaminari. Kuroiro, apparently given to solitude, was sent to join Iida, a team player at heart. Ochaco was paired with Reiko, in a hope that the earnest brunette could break through the latter's strangely lonesome nature.
Then he pointed to Midoriya and Komori, and watched with confusion as the former winced while the latter stiffened up in a clear display of fear. His head cocked to one side, but then he frowned, pointing to Jirou and Kirishima. Whatever issue Midoriya and Komori had, it would be settled today.
Midoriya, meanwhile, was in a strange place mentally. He had just put on the brand new Crescendo Mark Four, named so because Crescendo Marks One through Three had all failed, the first catastrophically. It had been a learning experience for both himself and Mei, but he had confidence in the Mark Four. It was sturdier than Three, more flexible than Two and hadn't exploded when he tried to rotate his shoulder the way One had. This all had him feeling quite happy.
But then he looked to the silent girl beside him, the diminutive and nervous Kinoko Komori, and he had to swallow back a surge of guilt that rushed into his chest and made a game of grabbing for his heart. He had done wrong by her in a panic last year, and this was the first time they had met face to face since.
"Komori?" he began, voice a little more hesitant than he had wanted. "I'm ready when you are."
He hoped she would understand the double meaning behind his words. She simply nodded once, before looking up at him with eyes hidden behind her bangs.
"A-are we... n-never mind..." She returned her gaze to the asphalt at their feet and Midoriya frowned, before reaching out and touching her shoulder.
This was the wrong move. She flinched away first and foremost, letting out the tiniest squeak of surprise and, much to Midoriya's horror, fear. He recoiled as well, like he'd been burned. He knew that sound and that reaction. She was afraid of him, the way he had been afraid. She thought he wanted to hurt her.
"Komori..." he began, scrambling for words. "I... I'm sorry."
Snipe fired a shot into the air, another blank rather than a bullet. Izuku had learned the difference. He called for the teams to gather up, before pointing to the far end of the city.
"Half of y'all are gonna head that way." he said. "One partner from each team. Your objective in this exercise is simple. In hero work, it's a common problem for two teammates to end up separated during an event. So I'm gonna have y'all split up just like that. Then I'm gonna fire this here gun and y'all are gonna find one another. With one 'little' tic."
He pressed a button on the remote in his jacket pocket, and the ground shook for a few seconds, rattling the entire class as a colossal zero-pointer robot surged into the open air, emerging from one of the destroyed buildings. It was monstrous, and a little upgraded from its last time facing heroes. Its chest bristled with three large rotary cannons that looked more or less like upsized miniguns, while its hands had gargantuan scooping claws that clanged together with ruthless force. The class stared at it for a long moment, most of them more stunned and confused than afraid.
"That there is our prime obstacle." Snipe declared, grinning. "Say hello to Zero-One: Warhound. She may look familiar, which is good, but I can assure you; Power Loader and I worked hard to make sure she's just a mite better than your last encounter with 'er. Those rotary cannons fire rubber bullets at two-hundred a minute, with laser guided accuracy. I don't recommend spending much time in the open air if you can manage, unless you like getting knocked down and out."
Snipe pointed his pistol and fired one of his red AP bullets, which bounced off the heavy green glacis plate covering the titan's chest.
"She's faster, smarter and better armoured than any of the other Zero-Ones, aside from her brothers of course." Snipe continued. "So don't go thinking you can smash her up the way Midoriya did to her last year."
Midoriya froze at that, before looking at him with wide eyes. It couldn't be, he reasoned. Snipe just chuckled.
"Same one, Deku," he declared. "You gave us a whole lot of room to experiment, given that half her upper body was scattered all over the training ground."
He holstered his pistol.
"Oh, and one other detail of note." Snipe continued. "Y'all are competin' here, in truth. First team to rally up don't gotta do chores for a month. Last team takes the first team's chore duty for said month. Sound fair?"
There were no complaints, and several students (Kaminari very much among them) lit up with grins at the thought of a month chore-free. Snipe let out a low chuckle himself, before crossing his arms and nodding.
"Alright, split up now." he commanded. "At the designated start points you'll find some lovely little halves of doohickeys Power Loader threw together. When you find your partner, click your doohickeys together and that'll log you as finished. Don't lose your doohickey though, or else you're disqualified. Got it?"
The class once again declared their affirmation, before teams began to split, heading either to the far end or the entrance. Warhound loomed over it all, guns lazily tracking a few students but not yet opening fire. Snipe would have to press a button for that. He also had a couple other buttons for fun.
So he climbed up to the top of a nearby ruin, one of the highest in the training ground, and pulled out a tablet. He waited until the camera footage on it showed both sides to be ready, then grinned.
"Showtime!"
He fired one more blank in the air as he pressed the other button, and Warhound let out a terrible roaring sound from a set of inbuilt speakers, a noise deliberately modelled after some science fiction monstrosity from one of Power Loader's old games. Warhound looked less like a giant black space-crawfish and more like a zero pointer with some upgrades, but the spirit was certainly the same as she began to slowly grind forward through the city, guns tracking back and forth as they searched for targets.
Snipe leaned back and touched a finger to his ear, opening a communications line with Nezu.
"We're goin' live," he warned, and he heard his boss giggle delightedly over the radio. "You ready for a show?"
"Always." Nezu assured him. "I'll be releasing the Iron Legion as soon as they look to be winning, alright?"
"Works for me," Snipe replied. "Just remember not to bully them too bad, alright?"
"Bullying?" Nezu laughed. "I prefer... educating."
