Beta'd by Greed720 and HardwinPotter

Shouta had all of last year to prepare for this moment. They had discussed how they would handle Izuku in Nezu's secret meetings. Nezu had left hundreds of pages detailing all possible variations of Izuku's Quirk and how to approach each one, pages which Shouta had studied whenever he could. Every class they had, each moment they sparred, Shouta kept an eye on Izuku and wondered if that would be the day he'd finally reveal his Quirk.

Shouta was not ready for this.

Tear-streaked, vomit-stained, and gasping for air as if he had run a marathon, Izuku looked far too fragile for the calm, poised kid that quietly excelled in every class. For a moment, Aizawa knelt there, frozen, eyes burning as he fixed his Quirk-halting gaze on Midoriya.

"What do you mean, you have a Quirk?" Vlad King asked. "Did you falsify your records?"

"Kan." Aizawa snapped at his fellow teacher without taking his eyes off Izuku. More gently, Aizawa asked, "What did you see?"

Words tumbled out of Izuku in a confused jumble. Blue fire, noxious gas, dead students. As the frantic explanation went on, Aizawa paused only to blink, never giving the precognitive Quirk more than a second. Even with his eyedrops, Aizawa's eyes felt as though they were aflame.

Kan interrupted, demanding more information, demanding to know how he knew everything, but Aizawa silenced him each time with a hand signal. He felt his fellow teacher seething with impatience and glancing around as if the villains were waiting right outside the door.

Towards, the end, Izuku broke down into hysterics. With tears streaming down his face, he shouted, "It doesn't matter where I go or what I do, no matter how hard I try I can't save them!" He sobbed into Aizawa's shoulder, shaking with grief. "I don't know what to do!"

"You did the right thing, coming to us with this. We'll think of something. Stay inside for now, we'll gather the others-"

"We can't, it's too late." Izuku wiped snot from his nose. "The ones farther out will never make it in time."

Aizawa gently squeezed Izuku's shoulders. "Listen to me. Fact about being a hero is, you can't save everyone. I've lost people, Vlad King's lost people, even All Might's lost a few. Taking care of your classmates is my responsibility, not yours, and if they do die, it will mean I failed them. I will mourn them later, but for now, I need to save as many as I can. Do you understand me?"

Izuku nodded.

Aizawa blinked again, fighting back the urgent need to close his eyes, and said, "I need you to give me a plan that will help me save as many people as I can. Can you do that?"

When Izuku nodded again, Aizawa closed his eyes. "Let me know if you need me to stop it again."

Izuku tensed. Within seconds, he let out a groan and clutched the right side of his stomach. Aizawa opened his eyes, but Izuku held a hand in front of his face. "No, wait, it's working. Just a bit more…"

Shouta kept his Quirk inactive, but he watched his student as the vision progressed. Pain and exhaustion crept across Izuku's face. A scream left him, and he clutched his heart. Shouta was a second away from cancelling the precognitive Quirk when all emotion faded away from Izuku's face.

"We can save them all," Izuku said. "Have Mandalay warn everyone and authorize them to fight. Push north, gather everyone you can find, and meet by Aoyama's laser."

"Hey, wait-" Shouta called after Izuku as he sprinted out of the building. By the time he made it out, Izuku had vanished.

Vlad King spun him around by the shoulder. "You knew about this, didn't you?"

"We don't have time for this now. I can explain later."

With a grunt, Sekijiro asked, "So, how long do we have?"

A strong, hot gust of air shook the branches. To the north, the night sky was lit up by a blue inferno, its veil of hot gas funneling the noxious cloud trapped inside it.

Shouta dryly asked, "Does that answer your question?"

Sekijiro glowered at him and said, "There better be a good explanation for all this."

After a brief planning session with the rest of 1-B, Neito took a handful of Quirks and set up at the third obstacle with Komori. Tsubaraba's air wall Quirk, combined with some ghoulish-looking mushrooms Komori whipped up, had gotten a nice scream out of Jirou and Ashido.

"Victory is assured!" Neito shouted into the night. "Those 1-A showoffs are no match for my tactical genius!"

"Uhm, Monoma-san, shouldn't we stay quiet for the next group? They might hear where we are."

"Relax, there's no way they're going to find us. This is the perfect hiding spot!"

Branches rustled above them. As they both looked up, a green blur swooped out of the sky, like a giant bat, wing-like membranes outstretched and catching the air as the figure descended upon them like a vampire.

Komori let out a shriek as the figure landed between them. Neito tried to throw up a barrier, only to find that his five minutes were up. Before he could prep his last Quirk, however, a sliver of moonlight revealed Deku's face.

"Hey!" Neito shouted. "You're supposed to stay on the path! How did you find us anyways?"

Izuku grabbed Monoma's wrist. "Take it three times, no time to explain."

Monoma's eyes widened as he felt the Quirk lurking under Izuku's skin. "What? But- you're Quirkless!"

"Take it. Now."

Grumbling to himself, Neito took it. As the Quirk settled in his chest, a strong, sharp headache pierced between his eyes. Knowledge of the Quirk rushed in, but it was lost in the rushing torrent of sights and sensations that crammed themselves into his skull.

Neito scooped up Izuku's Quirk twice more, something he didn't even know he could do until he saw himself doing it. "I know what you need," he said tonelessly, his expression a near-perfect match of Izuku's.

Izuku nodded and grappled away. Komori looked back and forth between Neito and where Izuku had gone, and asked, "What was that about, Monoma-san?"

"Villains. We need to get to Yaoyorozu-san."

"Ehh? Villains, where?"

Questions spun around Neito's head as he took Komori's hand and ran, but for the moment, he was too wrapped up in Midoriya's Quirk to think about them.

Kota huddled in his secret cave, ignoring the rumbling sounds his tummy made. Alone with his thoughts, he fumed over the presence of the hero students, especially the one he had tried to punch on the first day. A flash of anger ran through him when he thought of how easily the teenager had handled him.

A loud crackling noise caught his ear. Drawn out by the noise, Kota walked out of the cave and saw a blue blaze stretching across the horizon.

"What… what's going on?"

Footsteps scraped against the stone. Startled by the stranger's presence, Kota whirled, and found himself face to face with a man in a gas mask.

"Hey kid, neat hat." He ripped off his mask, revealing a scarred face Kota knew all too well. "Tell you what, why don't we trade?"

Kota stood, transfixed, as the man who murdered his parents loomed over him, backlit by the blue inferno consuming the forest.

Muscular waved a hand in front of Kota's face. "Hello, kid, you in there? Speak up, or I'll just take the hat."

"You're… you're Muscular!"

"Hey, a fan!" Muscular grinned and bent down to look the kid in the eye. "So, who did I kill?"

"M-my parents!"

"Oh no, not your mommy and daddy!" Muscular cried in mock distress. "Tell you what? How about I bring you to them? You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Kota nearly wet himself at Muscular's menacing tone of voice. With shaking arms, he fired a jet of water at the villain's face. Muscular yelped and leapt back, frozen for a second before he snapped out of his flashback.

"Oh, so you're the Water Hoses' brat, eh?" Muscular growled as he wiped water out of his eyes. "It must be my birthday! You see this?" he asked as he turned his head so Kota could get a closer look at the prosthetic eye embedded in his skull. "Your parents did this to me before I killed them. I want you to remember that. I was going to kill you nice and quick, but now, I think I'm going to savor this one a bit."

Muscular took one step, then another, reveling in the terror on Kota's face as he drew closer and closer. Paralyzed by fear, Kota could only watch as the man that had taken his parents away from him came to take him next.

A blur raced out of the horizon, just out of Muscular's sight. A wire latched onto the rocky cliffside by Kota's cave and went taut as the blur whipped around it. From behind Muscular, Izuku swung around and kicked Muscular in his mechanical eye. Metal crunched beneath Izuku's boot, and blood spurted out of the cracked electronics.

Muscular staggered back and howled with rage as he covered his broken eye. Izuku fired a wire. It wrapped around his head, trapping his left arm in place.

Izuku scooped up Kota and said, "Hang on."

"You get back here you bastard!" Muscular roared as Izuku leapt down into the forest. Kota, watching the ground rise towards them, shrieked and closed his eyes. He felt his body move upwards, and after a few seconds, he mustered the courage to look. Izuku had one arm wrapped around his waist, while the other fired a wire from branch to branch.

"I'm going to drop you off with your aunt. Stay with her and hide."

"What are you doing?" Kota screamed. "You had him, but then you ran! What kind of hero are you?"

"There's no time."

"Coward!" Kota spat.

"I'll deal with him later. Just hold on."

As Izuku swept down next to Mandalay, Tiger and Aizawa were driving two villains into the woods. Izuku passed the squirming Kota to his aunt, told the Pussycats that he would find Ragdoll, and leapt north towards the cloud of gas. They were too stunned to ask how he even knew Ragdoll was missing in the first place.

Tetsutetsu and Kendo raced against the clock as they ran through the swirling mist. Yaoyorozu had warned them that the masks they wore would only keep the gas out for ten minutes. Their breaths rasped through the filters, and each breath felt stiflingly hot.

Monoma had said that the two of them would be enough. Kendo wanted to argue against it and pool more students into taking out the gas Quirk, but when Monoma promised not to mention 1-A for the rest of the year, she found herself too stunned to speak against him.

"What's the plan?" Tetsutetsu asked as they approached the eye of the storm.

"Sneak up on them and hit them as hard as we can."

Testutetsu grinned. "I call dibs on the hitting them part."

When they broke through to the center, a short, smug-looking teenager in a gas mask with air canisters strapped to his back was facing them, gun in hand. Tetsutetsu hardened his skin and leapt in front of Kendo as the gun went off.

"I'm disappointed," Mustard said. "You're U.A., the best of the best, and yet, you're blundering through my smoke like muscle-headed idiots. Did you really think I wouldn't notice you coming? I can feel everything passing through my gas."

"Way to tell us how your Quirk works, idiot."

"Oh, it doesn't matter. You lost the moment you stepped into my Quirk's reach."

Mustard fired again. Tetsutetsu hardened his skin, but the mask on his face shattered as the bullet ripped through it. Tetsutetsu clamped both hands over his mouth.

"Why don't we see what runs out first?" Mustard asked. "Your air." One gunshot rang out. "Or your Quirk." A second bullet rammed into Tetsutetsu's gut. The metal-clad teen grimaced, but he kept his mouth shut.

Kendo expanded her hands and fanned the air, disturbing the mist. Tetsutetsu used the distraction to sneak behind Mustard. Just before he hit him, however, a Nomu sprinted out of the mist and clotheslined Tetsutetsu. As he fell, he gasped for air and hacked violently. Kendo ripped off her own and held it over his mouth.

"Looks like you're all out of tricks," Mustard said as he leveled his pistol at Kendo. The Nomu stood guard off to the side, staring blankly at the two students.

Kendo glanced back at Tetsutetsu, hoping he'd be ready to block another bullet, but he stared up, eyes unfocused, too weak from the gas to move.

"Why are you doing this?" Kendo asked, with a hand over her mouth. A stray wisp of gas burned in her throat. "What do you want?"

"Payback. U.A. thought my Quirk wasn't good enough for them. I'll show them how wrong they were. But before I do, can you tell me where Midoriya and Bakugo are? I'll make this painless if you do."

Kendo grit her teeth and shook her head. Mustard sighed theatrically and said, "Suit yourself."

With her eyes squeezed shut, she threw herself over Tetsutetsu. A second before he pulled the trigger, Mustard felt something soar through the mist. He paused, confused, then turned and fired as the unknown bogey hurtled towards him. A sharp crack rang out as Izuku's foot shattered Mustard's mask, knocking the villain out in the progress.

As the mist dispersed, the Nomu lunged at Izuku. Taking the villain's pistol, he fired once, hitting it between the eyes. Its head blew apart in a splash of gray sludge. The copy dissolved, and its remains vanished into the ground.

Izuku took three clips for the pistol from Mustard's coat. To Kendo, he pointed north and said, "Get back to Monoma."

"Wait, can you help me with - and, he's gone. Great." She slipped a hand under Tetsutetsu's back, expanded it, and dragged him after her.

"Monoma better be serious about that promise," she grumbled to herself.

Tsuyu crouched over Ochako as she tied a tourniquet over the stab wound in her thigh left by one of Himiko's syringes. One Himiko licked a bloodied knife, while two copies circled behind Tsuyu.

"Mmm… not bad, a bit sweet for my tastes. Almost tastes like mochi."

"I don't eat that much of it," Ochako muttered.

One copy darted forward. Tsuyu lashed out with her tongue, striking it hard enough to smash it into gray goop. The second swung a knife at the retreating tongue, nicking it. Tsuyu yelped and sucked on her tongue.

The real Himiko lunged, syringe aimed at Tsuyu's thigh, but Ochako grabbed Himiko's wrist and twisted, shoving her into the dirt. Tsuyu went to finish the second clone, only to turn and find Ochako in the clutches of a third clone, knife pressed against her neck.

Himiko stood and dusted herself off. "I'll have to thank Twice for all the friends. So, how about a trade? I already have her blood, so let me have some of yours, and I'll let her go. Sound fair?"

"Don't do it, just run!" Ochako shouted. She cut off as the knife dug deeper, drawing blood.

"Wait," Tsuyu said. "Let her go first."

"Mmm… nope! Come here, before I get bored."

Ochako stared at her eyes wide, blood running down her neck. Tsuyu sighed and stepped forward, hands in the air.

"Ooh, we're going to have so much fun! Roll up your sleeves."

Izuku glided overhead, over the tops of the tree branches. As he passed overhead, he tucked in his arms, aimed his pistol, and fired down on the Himiko holding Ochako. The knife fell to the dirt, covered in viscous gray goo.

While Himiko was distracted, Tsuyu kicked her in the stomach. Seeing the odds turn against her, Himiko smirked and ran off into the woods.

Tsuyu looked around for Izuku, but he was already gone. Moments later, branches shook and twigs snapped. Tsuyu crouched, tongue poised to lash out at whatever villain emerged from the shadows. She stopped short as her tongue brushed against Todoroki's cheek.

To her profound embarrassment, Todoroki blandly said, "I don't think now's a good time for French kissing, Tsu-chan."

Tokoyami shook his head and muttered about madness in the dark, Dark Shadow cooed at the sight, and Shoji politely looked away.

"Ugh, gross," Bakugo said. "Get a room you two."

In a clearing halfway through the path for the test of courage, Neito had gathered every student he came across and had them lay down fortifications. Juzo had softened the ground, and Kodai had sculpted that gelatinous mud into steep walls with her telekinesis before Juzo released his Quirk. Bondo had covered the walls in sticky glue, and Komori had covered them in noxious mushrooms.

As copied Nomu crested the hills, Tsunotori fired her horns at them, and Manga liquefied them with 'thunk' and 'boom' kanji. Sato and Kirishima punched anything that made it past their ranged defenses. The rest of the students waited at the center, acting as reserves for the students currently fighting.

"Ojiro, Shishida, scouts coming back on the south flank. Clear the way for them."

The students nodded and vaulted over the hill. Moments later, Hagakure and Jirou staggered up, with Iida and Koda leaning on their shoulders.

"Set them down over there," Neito said, pointing at the makeshift triage center Yaoyorozu had set up. "That's the last we'll find, so get some rest."

"Finally," Hagakure said as she lowered Iida onto the softened ground. "My feet are killing me."

"What about the others?" Jirou asked. "We're still missing a lot of people from 1-A."

"They're fine. Izuku knows where they are."

Izuku swooped in over the hill and fired at a cluster of Nomu that were about to overwhelm Tsunotori. Once he hit the ground, Neito wasted no time clasping hands with him to refill his Quirk and handing Izuku a bundle of items.

"Taser disc, hook blades, bandages, and a portable tracking device, with a tracker chip."

"Perfect." Izuku tore the bandage and wound it tightly over the bullet wound in his side. The hook blades, which Izuku strapped to his belt, were edged on one side, blunt on the other, ending in a hook just large enough to grip his wires. The small magnetic disc went in a pocket, along with the tracker. "Looks like everyone's here. The rest are with Aizawa-sensei."

"We'll be fine," Neito said. "Go help the others."

As quickly as he came, Izuku grappled out of the clearing. Once he was gone, Kendo asked, "Does Izuku have a Quirk? And was that blood?"

"Worry about that later. There's more Nomu coming."

True to his word, the assault continued in earnest.

"You know they're after you," Shoto said.

"Shut up," Bakugo snapped.

Shoji extended half a dozen ears, listening in all directions. "There's enemies all around us. We should regroup with the others."

Bakugo snorted. "Scarface was headed this way. We take him out, we take the fire out."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Tokoyami said. "The gas is gone, and the light from the fire is making it easier to see and keeping Dark Shadow under control."

"We can always make more light if we need it, and I'd rather not get flushed out into the open like a wild animal. Plus, Scarface is probably heading to that warp Quirk guy. Take him out, and the villains will have nowhere to run."

"We had All Might with us last time, and we still nearly died," Tsuyu countered as she lent Ochako a shoulder. "I agree that we should scout it out, but we shouldn't fight them unless we have to."

Bakugo didn't have a response to that. Shoji assumed that Tsuyu had talked sense into his explosive classmate until he noticed that he could only hear four sets of footsteps. He formed an eye behind him and saw that Bakugo and Tokoyami were gone.

A rustle in the trees warned him of the attack. He dove, knocking Todoroki aside before a gloved hand brushed past. Todoroki made a giant iceberg, but the masked villain nimbly leapt onto a tree branch.

"Well done," Compress said. "And here I thought my performance would go unnoticed."

"What did you do with Bakugo and Tokoyami?" Ochako asked.

"Oh, those were their names?" Compress held up two cyan spheres in between his fingers and made a show of tucking them in his coat pocket. "They're safe and sound, for now at least."

Tsuyu lashed out with a tongue, but Compress jumped away. "Ah ah ah!" he tutted, wagging a finger at them. "No one gets to steal the show from me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a delivery to make."

Compress leapt through the trees, far too fast for Shoji and the others to follow on foot. As they watched his yellow cloak disappear into the night, Shoji asked, "Any ideas?"

"Ocha-chan, think you can make us all weightless?"

Ochako turned green at the cheeks, but she nodded.

"Shoji-san, can you hang on to the three of us?"

Flexing his arms, Shoji answered, "When we're all weightless, I can."

"Then Shoto-san, we'll need you to launch us with your ice."

"It'll get cold."

"I'll manage. We need to hurry."

Ochako barely kept herself from spewing chunks as she made everyone weightless. Once they were all wrapped up, Todoroki launched them all with a burst of ice. Tsuyu shivered as frost from Todoroki's right side brushed against her, but as they flew, Todoroki warmed them all with his left.

"We're off course," Shoji said. "Aim us a bit to the right."

Tsuyu latched onto a tree branch with her tongue and pulled them aside. After a few more corrections, they came within reach of Compress. Tsuyu grabbed Compress with her tongue and roped everyone together. Ochako released her Quirk, and they all crashed into a pile of snow Todoroki hastily formed underneath them.

Shoji dug an arm into Compress' coat before he could get away and pulled out two spheres. "Got them!"

"Or do you?" Compress snapped his fingers, and the spheres popped into a rock and a twig. "Good magicians are masters of misdirection." He lifted his mask and stuck out his tongue, revealing two spheres stuck in his mouth. "Better luck next time!"

Todoroki tried to wall him off, but Compress made a block of ice vanish into a sphere. Tsuyu and Todoroki ran after him, while Shoji stayed behind to help Ochako with her bout of nausea.

"We're losing him," Todoroki said as Compress vanished once again.

"We have to keep trying. Whatever they wanted Bakugo-san for, we can't let them have him."

As they ran, it seemed that they had no hope of finding the villainous magician. Thinking of misdirection, Tsuyu imagined that Compress had intentionally led them this way and ran off in a different direction, but without knowing where, they had no way to find him.

As she was about to give up and head back to Ochako, a brilliant beam split the night sky off to their left. Guided by Aoyama's brilliant light, they came into a clearing just in time to see the villains retreating into Kurogiri's mist. Two Nomu roamed about, searching for Aoyama, while Dabi scattered flames over the trees, illuminating the area.

Just before Compress entered the portal, Todoroki passed Tsuyu a baseball-sized chunk of ice. The ice stung on her tongue, but she whipped it at Compress. It caught him square in the stomach, making him cough up both classmates. Tsuyu snagged one, but her numbed tongue was too slow to catch the second. The sphere burst, and Tokoyami tumbled out onto the ground.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in," Dabi said as blue flames swirled around him. He tossed the other blue marble back to Compress just before he went through. "As much fun as I would have scorching you all, we're on a bit of a tight schedule. Nomu, deal with them."

As the Nomu rushed at them, a capture scarf snapped out from the trees. Aizawa kicked one in the head, destroying the clone, while Todoroki impaled the other.

"They have Bakugo!" Tsuyu called out.

Aizawa growled and rushed after Dabi, but he smirked and walked into the smog. The capture scarf sailed after him, reaching through the portal and snagging an arm, dragging it back to their side.

The scarf was quickly severed, but it held the portal open for a few seconds longer. A green blur darted through just before it closed.

When the time ran out on his Quirk, Neito fell over, panting from over-exertion. Kendo rushed over and asked, "What happened, are you alright?"

"Ugh, that Quirk was awful."

"Midoriya-san's Quirk?"

That question drew dozens of curious eyes. Neito sighed and said, "I'll let him explain it later. Does anyone have Tylenol?"

Yaoyorozu made some along with a glass of water with the last of her fat reserves. Neito chugged it and looked around at the carnage.

"I think 1-B took down more villains, wouldn't you agree?"

"Monoma-kun, you promised."

"Promised what?"

When he finally remembered what had happened, Monoma swore never to take that Quirk again.

A/N: Yes, it's another cliffhanger. I thought about doing some cheesy cliffhanger omake to make up for it, but why do that when I can work on making sure the next chapter doesn't have a cliffhanger?

So, there were lots of comments about A: Why is nobody asking about Izuku's scars? And B: Why is there a gaping huge hole in the giant golem fight? All I can say to both of those is… oops. They're fixed now, so you're free to read and see how it changed. Thanks to jon_reeve, VoidVise, and StillHere for pointing it out.

To SandaKagami, sorry, but Muscular got a bit short-changed there. Izuku ain't got time for that. However, there's nothing saying that he might not make a repeat appearance…

And to the emotionally traumatized guest, if you're still reading, my apologies for being exceptionally grim. I do enjoy my stories with a smattering of angst and darkness in them.

That's it for this time, next week we'll see whether or not Izuku pulls himself off the cliff!