"Alright, you charged back up?" Gwen asked Izuku, who nodded having turned back a few minutes ago. She smiled, "Perfect, you can round up the last of the plumbers, and then I can use the reality stone to take them back to my dimension to be tried properly for their crimes."
"Huh? Aren't most of them from this dimension thought?" Izuku checked, tilting his head confused. The redhead chuckled and waved her hand casually, as if literally waving his concern away.
"Don't worry. Dimension travel, where I'm from, isn't the hardest thing to pull off, especially when you have a cousin with an Omnitrix and connections." Gwen assured with a kind chuckle. "We can have them tried under a system that will recognize their crimes, and delivered back to serve an appropriate punishment here. I'll get in touch if I can to let you know what happens. Now, I just need you to get the reality stone for me and we can get this show on the road."
Izuku nodded and pushed down the selection, a green flash engulfing him before Blink stood in his place, his visor coming down as he rushed off in a blue and black blur. Rapidly the room began to fill with more and more unconscious and tied up plumbers and after a few seconds the pile up eventually stopped with Izuku standing in front of them, turning back to normal. "That's all the ones I could find. And here, one reality stone present and accounted for."
He handed over the large stone orb, which had several carvings and embossings in it. It was about the size of a dodgeball and was a completely washed out grey color. Gwen nodded approvingly as she backed off while Izuku and Todoroki moved a little bit away from her. "Good. Now both of you be safe, alright?"
"I'll try but he's gonna break that promise." Todoroki said in his usual monotone but with an almost friendly teasing hint to it, surprising Izuku who pouted for a moment before chuckling.
"I wanna be mad but he's not wrong."
Gwen rolled her eyes good-naturedly and let out a sigh, that almost seemed to be fond.
"Just like Ben." She muttered more to herself than anyone before looking up and giving him a serious look. "One thing though, Midoriya. We'll meet again, I'm sure, and in the meantime, you better take good care of Yaoyo and treat her right. I may not have known her for as long as I'd like but I know she's a nice girl who deserves to be treated well. If I find out you didn't, I'll have an energy disc with your name on it waiting for you."
"R-Right!" Izuku gulped at her tone, giving a mock salute. "I'll make sure to treat her a-amazing!"
"Good. Make that date a good one." Her serious expression faded to amusement and she began to lift the stone up, before pausing in thought. "Actually, before I go, could you do something for me?"
"Huh? What is it?" He blinked confused and she put the stone down for a moment, walking over to him.
"Would you mind going into your feedback form?" She asked, before giving a sheepish laugh at his blank look. "Sorry, forgot you wouldn't have necessarily called it that. The conductoid form you got from Tessa."
"Oh right! Can do!" He nodded, quickly scrolling through his forms and landing on the one Gwen had asked for, pushing in the watch. A moment later, said alien was now standing before her with a grin, his voice sounding as though it had an electrical charge to it. "I was personally thinking of calling it Voltaic."
"Voltaic? That's a good name." The redhead laughed before tilting her head. "And what exactly was that whole blue coat thing earlier when you helped us at street level then? Cause my cousin's never done that before."
"Oh! That's a new thing I've learnt how to do." He laughed, focusing as said blue coat started to appear and his single green eye glowed brightly. 'One For All: Plus Ultra!' "I'm calling it Plus Ultra forms, it makes each of my forms stronger."
"Interesting." Gwen hummed, seemingly scanning him over with her powers. "My cousin used to be able to do something similar but this seems like a far more humane version of it. How'd you do it?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure yet. Must be something the Omnitrix I have just has available in this universe." He covered quickly, hoping that would satisfy Todoroki as well regarding what he'd done earlier. Gwen hummed, seeming to accept it and went to say something else but before she could…
"LOOK OUT!" Todoroki's voice came along with a barrage of ice suddenly ripping across the room that was blown up, allowing Gwen and Izuku to see a plumber had woken up and slipped out of the ropes, rushing for the reality stone.
"NO!" Gwen let out a panicked cry lifting her hands to throw an energy disc but Izuku was faster, raising both hands and firing off a One For All energy blast right at the plumber who was mere inches from the reality stone, which part of the blast hit.
There was a sudden eruption and a shockwave that threw him backwards into the wall. He dropped and groaned, looking up and seeing that the plumber was knocked out. Gwen checked the orb quick before sighing in relief.
"Oh thank god." She sighed, before turning to him. "I appreciate the reasoning but be more careful next time! You could have blown it up."
"You're right, you're right." Izuku pushed himself up, stretching and waving his arms around, letting himself loosen up. "I'm sorry. I'll be more careful next time."
"Well hopefully the next time won't come." Gwen sighs, before tilting her head at him confused. He tilted his head back.
"Something wrong?"
"Nothing, just… you seem more comfortable now somehow." She hummed and he laughed, shrugging.
"Guess shockwaves are good for helping you loosen up." He joked, only to get unimpressed stares from both of them. He shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry. So, you'll have everything under control from here on out?"
"Yes, I think everything will be just fine." Gwen nodded as she used her magic to more thoroughly lock all the plumbers in place, picking up the orb and turning around. "All jokes and threats aside, it really was nice getting to know you. Until next time."
He smiled and waved while Todoroki nodded as her eyes turned pure pink and the stone glowed green, before a sudden white flash overtook the room making both teens close their eyes. When they opened them again, the room was empty save for the two of them.
"It's finally over." Todoroki observed and Izuku nodded with a relieved sigh. "Now what?"
"Huh?"
"Well, what we did was morally right, I believe that. But legally, I'm not sure we'd have as much as a case especially with all the witnesses gone. If anyone comes in here and finds security footage, or a villain finds this tech…"
"…I got an idea." Izuku assured, before absorbing all the electricity from the air around him in arc, his fingers charging up. "Come on, there's only one exit so let's get out of here.
"Right. And your idea?"
"I'll blow up the elevator shaft when we're near the top and we'll get out of there. Maybe you can freeze it over as well to be safe, so that anyone who arrives here won't be able to get inside. If anyone finds us leaving and tries to question us, we can just claim we heard explosions and stuff, which would roughly be corroborated with any witnesses, and tried to check it out in case something was amiss." Izuku explained. "It's not perfect but it should work fine enough until we can talk to Nezu about this."
"Works for me." Todoroki shrugged as they took an elevator up to the top floor in silence, waiting. Once they reached the main room they walked out to the platform and began rising. "Say the word and I'll make the ice.
"Alright." He nodded, aiming. "In five… Four… Three… Two... One…"
He fired off the blast he'd been charging the whole way up.
BOOM!
The shaft beneath exploded, stopped only by Todoroki's ice which barely contained the blast and sent it backwards into the actual complex which caused them to nearly lose their balance from the rumbling, the destruction of the area ringing in their ears.
Of course, only the main room and the first few floors would be destroyed, nothing down lower but still, the way in had been closed off and once the platform finally reached the street outside and two teens stepped off, they could be certain no one would accidentally stumble upon the base again.
"Right." Todoroki nodded, satisfied. "Come on, there's a bag with hospital gowns nearby. We'll get changed and get back to the hospital before anyone knows we've done anything other than wander about."
"Right!"
"YOUNG MIDORIYA AND TODOROKI ARE HERE!" All Might yelled as the boys stepped into hospital, both jumping in surprise.
"A-All Might?!" Izuku asked in surprise, looking around to see both Iida and Momo awake and curious, although for some reason Momo was blushing and looked sheepish.
"Indeed it is I! Here to take you and young Yaoyorozu home once you're discharged!" He laughed, before calming down. "But seeing as it's only us, tell me, how did it go?"
"Gwen took the plumbers back to her universe with her, they're going to face trial under people who actually care about aliens and crimes against them, then be returned here while being dealt whatever punishment is decided." Todoroki answered first, going to sit down on his bed to rest. Izuku just took a chair nearby and sighed.
"I helped free all the aliens, got a few new forms, and destroyed the entrance to the base so no one is using it any time soon." Izuku confirmed, making everyone sigh in relief.
"It's troubling to think such a thing would be happening under the heroes' noses." Iida frowned and Izuku nodded.
"Very. I don't know if there's more out there somewhere though so we should be on the lookout for anything like that in the future."
"I'll be sure to spread the word, my boy." All Might nodded, before sighing. "Now I do not wish to upset anyone or upset Yaoyorozu again-"
Izuku blinked in confusion at that one as Momo seemed to become even more sheepish.
"-but as your teacher I do have to express concern over this. I do wish you had tried to contact me first. You could have gotten in so much trouble if you were caught."
"There wasn't any time." Izuku frowned, looking up with a conviction the others didn't expect him to use on All Might. "I couldn't just sit here and wait while there were that many people in need of help, and a lack of a hero license makes no difference. Innocent lives are saved, and that's all I care about."
Iida and Todoroki both looked at him with mixtures of surprise and… maybe admiration? While Momo definitely had admiration as she beamed at him, but also relief for some reason. All Might paused for a moment before surprising them all by chuckling.
"You really do have a hero's heart, young Midoriya. Very well, that is an argument I cannot argue with, and apparently it seems you're rubbing off on young Yaoyorozu as well!" He laughed, causing the girl to immediately go back to blushing. "I can't imagine she would have yelled at the chief of police otherwise."
"Y-You what?!" Izuku turned to Momo, shocked and even Todoroki's eyes widened in surprise slightly.
"He… wouldn't stop going on about punishments and laws and all I could think about was the idea of the two of you out there risking your lives to do the right thing only to come back to someone going to try to punish us all for a situation that was beyond most of our control-" Iida winced at the word 'most'. "And I… may have lost my temper a tad. I just couldn't stand it."
"…" Izuku blinked before standing up and walking over to her, hugging her. She blinked in surprise before returning the embrace. "Thank you, but you didn't need to risk getting yourself in trouble like that."
"It wasn't just that… seeing you and Todoroki do the right thing, I guess… It just led me to realize why I like you and like All Might said, what gives you your heroic heart." Momo rambled a tad. "The fact that you'd do the right thing, regardless of whether it was the lawful thing. I've never thought like that before but…"
Izuku just hugged her tighter. There was a tender silence for a moment until Todoroki deadpanned at them. "If you're going to get mushy at least close the curtains so we don't have to see you kiss."
They both went nuclear as Iida whipped around, ignoring All Might's boisterous laughter. "TODOROKI! THAT IS INCREDIBLY INAPPROPRIATE!"
"You want to watch them suck faces?"
"N-NO!"
"Then I stand by my original statement." Todoroki shrugged, making Iida sputter.
"Now now my boy, I'm sure they're not at that stage yet." All Might laughed, throwing in a wink that made both Izuku and Momo want to melt from embarrassment. "In all seriousness though, you should be discharged in about an hour. I am here to take young Midoriya and Yaoyoruzu back to U.A. to sort out their internship situations. Endeavour will both be in touch soon to take both young Todoroki back to his agency and young Iida will remain here to heal."
They all nodded in understanding.
"Aside from that, it was decided that so long as you do not publicize the fight with Stain, it will be accredited solely to Miss Tennyson and Endeavour. I would also recommend not bringing up the plumbers with anyone you don't need to, as if the information regarding that is leaked I have no idea what the results might be. Hopefully it would be brushed off as some conspiracy with no basis but…" All Might trailed off, as they could all fill in the blanks themselves. "That is everything, I believe! I will be back with a car in an hour for both Midoriya and Yaoyorozu. Any questions?"
"I have one." Todoroki piped up, drawing everyone's attention as he turned to Izuku. "In the hangar, what was with the green-"
Izuku went wide eyed and quickly shook his head. "Not right now! I'll explain when we're back at U.A. with everyone, but I want it to be a surprise, okay?"
"…Fine." Todoroki shrugged while both Iida and Momo looked at Izuku curious, who just shook his head. Iida tried to use a stern face and Momo a pout to get him to crack but neither succeeded.
"Well, I will see you all soon! Now! JUSTICE AWAITS!"
With that, All Might took off into a sprint, only for shouting to suddenly ring out down the halls a minute later from a nurse reprimanding the man for shouting and risking running into a patient, making the students laugh. Izuku moved to get up, only to be tugged back down and feel Momo's hug tighten.
"Y-Yaomomo?" He asked, confused.
"S-Sorry, just let me have this for a minute." She said quietly, holding on. "We could hear the explosions from here, I was really worried…"
He frowned and returned the hug, ignoring the heat in his cheeks. "I'm okay…"
He'd planned to get up once she felt better, but instead they stayed like that for the whole hour, just comforting each other and eventually smiling, Iida ignoring the scene respectfully while Todoroki occasionally surprised them with his ability to make them laugh by pretending to be grossed out by their PDA.
If Izuku could, he'd happily live in this moment forever.