"Ow."

Hanta Sero was having a less than stellar time. Which was to say he was nursing a throbbing shoulder which he had few doubts was a lovely shade of purple under his gym uniform while leaning against a cement wall in a destroyed city. Or at least, a facsimile of a destroyed city, which in his mind was near enough to count. His whole body was sore, the primary sticking point of course being his battered shoulder.

The day had been going so well before now; he'd woken up, eaten breakfast, walked to class with Jirou, tried to decipher what the heck Snipe was saying in that weird accent of his, gotten changed into his gym uniform and then been shot in the shoulder. Which was, while not an unexpected turn of events given the holy-wow-okay-that-might-be-a-little-too-giant-robot wandering the streets of the aforementioned ruined city, still a pretty crappy way to end a perfectly good morning.

He had been swinging his way through the city, searching for Yaoyorozu, who apparently held the other half of his little metal "doohickey" (whatever that particular Americanism meant) that he kept stowed in his shoe for the time being. She was, after all, his partner in this exercise devised by the devil (or so he believed) and as such he required her assistance to finish the job.

His first order of business was to find her. It was also still his only order of business, given that he had yet to do so. He figured she would be holed up somewhere solid, keeping away from the colossal machine hunting them both (demonstrating the clear difference in intelligence between them), and as such he had taken to the streets to find that somewhere as quickly as possible. He had also overestimated his ability to dodge rubber bullets, and paid the price in bruises.

"This sucks." he lamented, looking at his sore shoulder and giving it a gentle rub. "This really, really sucks."

He shrugged, feeling for stiffness that fortunately had yet to set in. Then he rolled his shoulders, let out a quiet sigh and used his canister-like elbow to sling a length of his tape up to attach to the edge of the roof above. He started to climb up, until he was about halfway between the roof and the ground.

Then he ran forward along the wall, and released the current length of tape, letting another shoot out and grab the edge of the roof opposite. It stuck and he swung, a series of steps he repeated as he began to swing through the city. It was a series of motions he was well practiced in, and he began to hum a little tune as he carried along.

He was well aware he looked like Spider-Man. He was also appreciative of the comparison; Spider-Man, quite frankly, kicked ass. Sero was quite certain he too would one day kick ass. As such, he had no issue with being compared to such a kick-ass superhero.

He continued along, careful to only pass through areas away from the Warhound's interest. He had no desire to be peppered with even more black rubber; he'd had more than enough of that to last him a lifetime or two. No, he'd much rather duck and dive away from the monster than confront it head on. Better to live an ignoble coward than die a moron. Kyoka would never forgive him if he did that.

He spotted other students; the mysterious Kuroiro, fading into the black asphalt of the street itself and vanishing from sight, darksome Tokoyami trailing a confused looking Koda, Bakugou swearing up a storm as a beleaguered Ashido (his unfortunate teammate) carefully manipulated his right shoulder back into its joint. There were many things to see, but Sero was a busy man.

Eventually, he found Yaoyoruzu. That he found her alongside Midoriya and new girl Komori was odd, but Sero didn't think too hard about it. He landed on their little stretch of side road, and reached into his boot for his half of the device while greeting them.

"Yo." he said, grinning. "Looks like you beat us to it, Deku. Nice. No chores for you for a month, lucky guy."

"I-I don't think it's that easy." Midoriya replied, shaking his head in that very serious, Midoriya way that made Sero quite worried indeed. "Have you seen the other robots yet, Sero?"

"The... other robots?" Sero cocked his head to one side. "You mean besides the giant one? Nope."

Midoriya frowned, before glancing at the asphalt beneath them and shaking his head slowly. Then he reached out and took Sero's half of the device, and raised another half with his other hand. He put them together, and there was a soft beep as a red light atop them began blinking slowly.

"I thought so." Midoriya declared, right before the ground began to tremble.

Sero was caught off balance, but he quickly caught himself as the road began to split in two, mere inches to his left. He staggered away from the sudden gap in the ground, from which rose a metal platform with six robots atop it. They were ugly things, generally human in shape with hunched backs and stumpy necks ending in hexagonal boxes that looked more like sensor bars than functional heads. Their legs were permanently bent at the knee, and their dangling arms ended in hulking metal fists or shovel scoops.

One by one they let out sounds like metal creaking, before turning those heads towards the four students beside them. And in a flash Midoriya was among them, his left fist crackling with green lightning and his feet flying like an old Kung-fu film, knocking off heads and battering torsos into ruin. He sidestepped a two-handed slam and drove his metal arm into the machine's head, ripping out a fistful of wires, before ducking a swing from behind and bringing up one leg in a donkey-kick that took his assailant's head clean off.

The other four were destroyed in even quicker succession. Midoriya took a slow breath as each advanced, before surging into motion once more. One punch each, that was all it took. Each machine fell, a hole gaping in its steel skull, and Midoriya rolled his shoulders as the last of them fell, before turning back towards the other three students.

"Every time a disc is finished, a group or two of those pop out." he explained. "I'm pretty sure they're the next part of the exercise. These discs are emitting some kind of signal that activates them, I think, and I'm pretty sure we need to find... well, that's what I haven't figured out yet."

Sero blinked.

"Yeah, uh... alright." He nodded. "What should we do?"

"I made a flare gun." Yaoyorozu announced from beside him, holding up a red plastic pistol. "Should we use that?"

Midoriya shook his head.

"Not if we don't want the Warhound bearing down on us." he declared. "Although... do you think you could wire up some kind of remote trigger for it?"

Yaoyorozu nodded, and her exposed midsection began glowing as she pulled some pieces of metal and plastic free of her stomach, humming softly to herself as she did so. Sero glanced at Komori and then at Midoriya.

"And uh... what do I do exactly?" he asked, and Midoriya smiled before putting a firm metal hand on his shoulder.

"You're going to be our reconnaissance man." he declared.

Sero swallowed.

"Ummm..." He looked at the other three and nodded. "I... okay."

And so it was that a mere fifteen minutes later Sero found himself swinging through the city once more, this time carrying both of the teams' transmitter-discs. They were testing one of Midoriya's theories, and gauging by the fact that the street beneath him was splitting in two and disgorging a dozen of the robots, Sero was fairly certain it was a correct estimate. He was also fairly certain that, gauging by the distant explosions and shouting, Bakugou was having the time of his life.

He swung that way, rounding a corner to find the blonde furiously blasting a multitude of robotic opponents into so much scrap metal. This was normal Bakugou behaviour. Mina was back to back with him, throwing globs of worryingly corrosive acid that were melting through steel as though it were hot butter.

"Too late for the party, Sharkie." he declared, and Sero shook his head in faux-disappointment. "Chin up; there's probably more for all of us."

"This is so awesome!" Mina punched the air with a smile, before looking at Sero and laughing. "What's up?"

Sero held up the two discs in his hand, glancing sidelong at the demolished robots around them for a moment before swallowing.

"Midoriya has an idea about what the robots and the discs are for." he declared. "The discs are activating these things, and the Warhound is probably connected."

"That makes sense…" Bakugou nodded, putting his foot on a destroyed robot's chest and leaning on it a little. "Stupid things started popping out like fucking mushrooms after we clicked our disc together. Fuck!"

He kicked the dismembered metal man away, before blasting another nearby one, kicking up dust from the road. Sero choked on it, coughing.

"Fucking logical ruse bullshit." he spat, eyes burning suddenly. "Even after he's gone he's still fucking with us! Goddammit!"

He turned his eyes toward the Warhound, which was blasting a distant section of the city with rubber bullets, and pointed a finger at it.

"Bet you a week's lunch we're supposed to knock that fucking thing down." he declared. "I fucking knew it! Nobody builds a fucking Metal Gear and then tells you not to smash it into pieces!"

"Metal Gear?" Sero replied, his voice rough from the dust as he hacked out the last of it, Mina giving him a hearty slap on the back. "Okay… Midoriya thinks that might be it too. I-I think he has a plan?"

"He'd better," Bakugou spat. "Pinky, let's go. Where's Deku hiding?"

Sero told them, before launching himself into the air again, going back to swinging. He found Iida, Jirou and Kuroiro sprinting away from the Warhound and a pack of robots, the former also hauling an unconscious Koda over his shoulders. Sero swung beside them, matching their pace.

"Midoriya has a plan to handle the Warhound!" he shouted. "Head for the second tallest building, he's on the second floor with Yaoyorozu and Komori! Tell anybody else you see to head that way too!"

Iida called an affirmative, but Jirou shouted at Sero to look for Kirishima and Shouji, who had been separated from them by the Warhound and robots' attack. He nodded, taking off low to the ground again to avoid the Warhound's arc of fire. Somewhere behind him he could hear Bakugou blowing something else up, but he kept his head down and focused on the mission. He needed to find Kirishima and Shouji.

Finding them wasn't difficult. Shouji stood atop a building, scanning the city with four eyes on the ends of his tentacles, while Kirishima threw chunks of cement at the robots swarming the bottom of the building. The two had managed to attract at least fifty of the things, and Sero had seen even more awakening, seemingly in the wake of the Warhound's passing. He climbed their buildings and Kirishima hauled him over the edge.

"Midoriya has a plan to take down the Warhound." Sero declared. "But we need to get to that building over there."

He pointed to a broken skyscraper some five blocks away, which led to Kirishima groaning before tossing another chunk of cement over the edge, crushing a robot into a sparking mess at the base of the building.

"Alright…" he nodded. "Hey, Shouji, ya wanna try that Fastball move again?"

Sero left them to their escape plan. All he had to do now was find Uraraka and her partner, whose Quirks were apparently crucial to Midoriya's strategy. What that strategy entailed Sero wasn't entirely certain; not because Midoriya was being mysterious about it but because the greenette had admitted himself that the plan was currently little more than a fistful of vague ideas slowly coming together to resemble a proper scheme.

Sero had faith in Midoriya. He couldn't say why, or even how Midoriya had earned that faith; he just knew that if there was one person in 2-A he trusted with the planning side of heroism, it was Midoriya. Bakugou was his top pick for an action man, but tactics and schemes were all Midoriya's gig. Sero, meanwhile, was fine doing the basic things. Not everybody could top the charts and get plastered all over the billboards, after all. The world needed heroes who could just get the job done, and get it done right. If Sero could pull that off, he'd be happy with his lot.

From behind came a sound like thunder. Sero spun on his tape and watched as the Warhound broke through a building less than a block behind him, scanning the road with its six eyes. He swallowed and decided to pick up his pace, diving down towards the street and catching himself on another strand of tape, swinging even faster mere feet above the pavement. The Warhound let out that terrible foghorn bellow again, firing away at him with its guns. Sero spun and dove and twisted, narrowly avoiding the rain of black rubber.

This sucked even worse than it had at the start of the exercise. Why had it targeted him? Was it because he was moving so much? Did it have a personal grudge against him? Was it the discs? He was pretty sure it was the discs.

Regardless, he dodged as much as he could. A few rounds winged him, forcing the breath from his lungs and making him nearly miss his swings. These things freaking hurt, and he was looking to take a lot more of them. He tried turning down a side street, but the Warhound just kept firing, following him as close as it could.

"Oh, come on!" he shouted, right before it bellowed again. "Go shoot at something else, you overgrown garbage can!"

Another bullet hit his back and he fumbled his next swing, tumbling down to the ground. He rolled to disperse his fall and prevent himself from snapping his own neck, but another shot hit his leg and for a second he wanted to stop moving. But he rolled to the side, into an alleyway, and let out a ragged gasp.

The Warhound bellowed yet again. It was still hunting him. This wasn't looking good, not at all. At the other end of the alley, one of the hunched robots from under the street turned the corner, scanning the shadows with its stumpy monocular head. Sero looked over his shoulder at the Warhound.

"Plan…" he muttered to himself. "C'mon brain, let's get a plan going please…"

There was a colossal explosion, and the Warhound reeled as the alley was bathed in yellow and orange light. Sero stared in awe at the Warhound as it swayed back a bit, knocked off balance by the sheer size of the fiery explosion that had struck it. Then the ground shook as it rumbled forward, bellowing in anger at whatever had just hit it.

"What the hell?" he asked, as it began rolling down the street, away from him.

He shook his head, firing off some tape and beginning another climb up the sides of the alley again. He couldn't stop. He needed to find-

"Sero!" Ochaco Uraraka's hushed voice called, making him blink before looking straight up at her as she peered down at him over the edge of the roof. "Up here, come on!"

She looked a little queasy when Sero made it to her, sitting down heavily on the roof as he climbed over the edge. Beside her the white-haired Reiko Yanagi watched the Warhound grind down the street away from them, her expression neutral.

"You really thought it was a water truck?" she asked suddenly, and Uraraka grimaced.

"I thought it might be!" she snapped back, before leaning against the power transformer at her back. "Besides, it got the giant robot away from Sero, didn't it?"

Yanagi shrugged, before looking at Sero with Uraraka. He took a deep breath.

"Midoriya has a plan to beat the Warhound." he declared. "And he needs you two to pull it off apparently. You good to come with?"

Uraraka nodded with a big smile, while Yanagi frowned a little, glancing down at the roof. She looked almost annoyed.

"One of the infamous Midoriya schemes," she muttered, arms crossed. "Will this one also include breaking several of his own limbs and being hospitalized?"

"Hey!" Uraraka protested, looking up at her partner in outrage. "Deku hasn't done that in months!"

"Yes, because that is the reassurance I was looking for." Yanagi fired back. "Tell me, Hanta Sero; do you trust Midoriya's ability to handle this?"

She looked at him expectantly. Perhaps she expected Sero to admit to uncertainty, or act like he wasn't sure. Sero just grinned at her.

"More than I trust myself," he admitted. "Trust us. Midoriya's plans may seem crazy from the outside, but he knows what he's about. And he's damn good at doing what he says he will."

Yanagi stared him down for a moment, probably trying to see if he was screwing with her. Sero just laughed a little, before pointing to the same tall building he'd been pointing out to everyone else.

"Meet us on the second floor there," he advised. "That's where the plan'll come together. Uraraka, you in?"

"Always." the brunette declared, rising to her feet. "I trust Deku."

Yanagi looked between them both, before sighing softly. She brushed the dust from her shoulders, before nodding once.

"Fine." she said. "I will go along with this plan. Let us be off."

"You're gonna love this." Sero promised, grinning. "There'll almost definitely be at least one giant explosion. Usually more"

AN:

Fun fact: Chapter 35 was finished before this chapter. Make of this what you will.

Unsettling A.I.R's Input: Yes, his mind works in mysterious ways.