Izuku wiggled in his seat on the bus, tapping a pencil on his notebook as they drove closer and closer towards the coast. He shook his head and put his notebook away, letting out a sigh as he leaned back in his seat. He couldn't focus, and he couldn't sleep. He had too much energy and anticipation for what they were headed to do, unlike his seatmate. Looking to his right, he saw Uraraka with her head leaned back against a traveling pillow, one that he'd brought, peacefully sleeping and muttering in her sleep. Izuku looked back out the window, noticing dark clouds far, far away from the mainland.
'A storm would be the cherry on top of all of this. A disaster with a storm is just screaming for people to lose more hope. At least All Might is going to one of the cities hit by the tsunami, they'll be okay.' He let out a sigh and glanced up at the roof of the bus. He felt his phone buzz and pulled it out to see All Might had sent him a message. He opened it to see a file attached called "Heroics during a disaster/crisis, The dos and don'ts". Izuku smiled at the name and opened it, blinking at the size of the document: over thirty pages of advice and examples following the lessons.
'Do smile at people in danger and reassure everyone that everything will be okay. This will set people at ease in many situations. Don't use explosive attacks near civilians; use smaller, more focused attacks that couldn't possibly harm them. This too will set them at ease.' Izuku smiled wearily at the messages. He was happy that All Might had sent him advice on being a hero in a disaster, but from what Izuku was reading, it wasn't anything that he hadn't already taken down in his hero notes, aside from one or two little things. He backed out of the notes and sent All Might a thank you message before sliding his phone back into his pocket and leaning back against his seat.
"HEY RACCOON EYES, STOP BREAK DANCING ON A MOVING BUS! WE'RE HEADED TO A CRISIS, DUMBASS! HOW ARE YOU GOING TO HELP SOMEONE IF YOU BREAK A LEG?!" Izuku looked at their new class VP shouting at Mina for dancing on the bus. Izuku looked at Iida, who was talking to Todoroki as Bakugo chewed out Mina. Izuku felt his shoulders drop as he remembered, faintly due to… personal issues he was dealing with, why Iida had been dropped. The faculty had been informed of the Hosu incident, and, well, Iida had been told he was lucky he got to remain at UA at all, let alone in the Hero Course.
"Hey, what did I tell you when All Might made you VP? Treat your classmates at least civilly. You and Momo are setting the example, supposedly, for your class to follow. I would still prefer Midoriya, at least he can talk to people without shouting." Izuku looked up to see Aizawa holding a restrained Bakugo, shaking his head as he shoved the boy back into the seat with Momo. Izuku still couldn't believe that All Might had selected Bakugo of all people as the VP; not that Izuku wanted the position, just that… Well, the bombastic blond had calmed down since then, but he was still very abrasive to most of their class.
He shook his head as Mina grumbled and plopped down in the seat across from Izuku and Uraraka. Well, All Might definitely knew what he was doing, even if the advice he'd given Izuku on crisis scenarios wasn't… anything he hadn't already covered in a powerpoint. He let out a sigh as he glanced out the window again, staring at the slowly approaching coast line.
'I'm sure he'll have something else for me if something happens during the crisis, like a storm, or a villain attack, or—' Izuku felt a weight hit his shoulder and he let out a short gasp of surprise as he was yanked out of his thoughts. Swallowing hard, he slowly turned to his right. He felt his chest tighten up as Uraraka rested her head on his shoulder. As she twisted her head, he could see there was a soft smile on her face. Her cheek pressed against his shoulder, and her body shifted around a bit as she slid closer to him. Her shoulder pressed against his as her hair slid down his shoulder, several thick strands of hair pooled against his neck.
He felt his cheeks burn as he slowly leaned backwards himself, his head against the headrest of the seat as her side flushed against his. A soothing warmth started to fill his chest as he forced himself to calm down. She was just sleeping on his shoulder. Friends did that all the time, right? He glanced over the top of Uraraka's head and saw Todoroki staring at the two of them for a moment before a gentle smile appeared on his lips and he looked away from Izuku.
Izuku felt a small smile form on his own lips as he began to feel drowsy himself. He could almost feel the tension in his shoulders ease as his eyelids started to droop. He felt his hand slide off his leg onto the seat between the two of them, somehow landing with his pinky and ring finger on top of Uraraka's hand. If he hadn't been so suddenly exhausted he probably would have been embarrassed that their hands were touching, but with how close they were he couldn't bring himself to move his hand or open his eyes as they closed.
'I should probably go over the notes I took on disaster areas from All Might's classes and that message he just sent me but… I haven't felt this calm in a long time.' He felt his own head start to tilt as his breathing started to level out from the panicked huff he felt only moments ago, when her head first rested on his shoulder. He felt his cheek press against Uraraka's soft hair as unconsciousness finally took him.
Eri shook her head as she slowly opened her eyes, holding her head as a sharp pain shot through the back of her skull. Shakily raising a hand behind her head, she jerked her hand away when her fingers pressed against the sore spot, finding a lump. She must have hit the bars hard after Sango's orange light disappeared from her. Looking around, she saw Sango unconscious still… and the cage door open!
'I-I can escape… Should I?' She flinched as she heard gunshots echo through the ship they were on. Looking at Sango again, she swallowed hard and walked out of the caged door towards the bed of that scary man, Scott, and pulled the blankets off before throwing them on top of Sango. She didn't seem like a mean lady, but Eri didn't want to stick with her, especially since she'd torn through Overhaul's compound to take her.
'I still remember Overhaul's big guys laying on the ground. Even Rappa had been thrown into a wall so hard he was stuck in it.' Eri couldn't believe that the lady had somehow attacked when Overhaul had been away. She wouldn't have been able to beat both Overhaul and his followers, let alone all the other people in the compound. She shook her head as she covered Sango with the blanket before running out of the cage. Right when she was about to leave the room, she caught the weapon wall out of the corner of her eyes.
Walking up to it, she stared at the assortment of weapons that had fallen off of the wall and onto the ground. Staring at a wicked looking knife, she flinched as she heard footsteps running down the hallway. She started to panic and look around the room for another exit. Breathing harshly, she started to shake with fear as she realized there wasn't another way out of the room. The footsteps started to sound louder and she heard muffled voices through the door as she sprinted and hid underneath Scott's bed, hoping the people would go by the room she was in.
Her hopes were dashed when two sets of feet, one barefoot and the other in sandals strapped to their feet, ran into the room. Silvery feathers floated onto the ground for a moment before they defied gravity and rose back up above where Eri could see. The figure in sandals was breathing heavily while the other person seemed entirely fine.
"You good Mermaid boy? Remember, we're only stopping long enough for me to grab some gear and Scott's bug-out kit. Hopefully he hasn't come back yet to find it." Eri swallowed and covered her mouth with her hands to stifle the sound of her breathing.
"And my bag, I need it or my mom's going to kill me… Oh and my staff!" A boy said, worry tinging his voice. Eri started to scoot backwards underneath the bed as she heard a girl laugh.
"With all your magic doodads right?" She heard the boy huff and her own ears perked up at the word 'Magic'.
"Yeah, my magic doodads. I promise you'll believe me once I actually cast a spell. OH! But please don't tell anyone, Mom would kill me since we're supposed to be hiding and stuff." The lady laughed again as she walked over to the wall where the weapons had been and opened a locker.
"Here's my combat gear… your stuff might be in the safe under Scott's bed. That's where he thought he was slick when he hid his bug-out bag after one of our training sessions." Eri felt her foot slide across the safe they were talking about. She curled up into a ball as the bed seemed to raise on its own into the wall. Holding her arms around her head, she tried to make herself as small as she could when she heard a startled gasp from the lady.
"A kid? Hey—" she felt a soft hand touch her arm and flinched away instantly. She heard another sharp intake of breath from the boy this time before she almost sensed him retract his hand. "—Okay, no touching, got it. Hey, we're making a run for it, we can take you with us if you want." Eri slowly lowered her arms off the top of her head and looked up at the boy. His dirty blond hair and tan complexion accompanied by a soft smile made her relax, if only a little.
"If she comes with us, you're responsible for her. I'm already slowing myself down helping you get out of here with me." Eri turned to see the woman pulling on a tight black t-shirt. Defined arms reached down to lace up black boots, a tan vest next to her along with a backpack, though what stood out the most to Eri was a pair of silver wings tucked behind her back as she got dressed. She lifted up a set of long knives and hooked them onto her belt as she stared at the two of them.
"Seriously? I'm the one who unlocked your room door when everything went on lockdown. You're lucky I'm tougher than I look, Owl. She's like six at most, you really wanna leave her here with someone like Scott?" 'Owl' stiffened up and shook her head, looking behind her and flapping her wings a few times before sighing. Pulling on a camouflage jacket, she grabbed some more weapons, round balls and blue sticks with round pieces of metal stuck to them, off the ground and stuffed them into her jacket's pockets.
"Fine, if she wants to come she can. Combination to the safe is nine, twenty three, six. Hurry up and grab your stuff with the bug-out bag. Do you need a weapon… Max, right?" The boy, Max, shook his head and input the combination to the safe quickly. Eri looked back at Owl who was clipping the tan vest around her chest and yanking on strings to make sure it was secure. She ran a hand through her bright blonde hair before pulling her hood up. Her pale blue eyes looked at Eri, examining her closely.
"Okay! Here it is!" Max slid a duffel bag out of the safe, along with what looked like a pretty blue square satchel, designed so the entire thing looked like water rippling along the fabric. He pulled out several bracelets and placed them on his arms, some made of multicolored beads which he slid onto his wrists, and others of shiny pretty metals that made Eri's eyes sparkle as he pulled them onto his biceps. He pulled a dark brown stick out of his satchel and clicked a button, making it expand into an even longer, still dark brown, stick!
"Okay, if we run into anyone I can handle them now!" Owl nodded and slipped her backpack under her wings. Picking up a sheathed katana off the ground, she swung it side to side. Shrugging, she hooked that onto her belt as well. Eri saw Max shoot her a raised eyebrow, to which Owl shook her head and pointed at the other weapons around the floor.
"Don't get it twisted, I don't need any of this to fight. I'm taking this because these blades are Scott's favorite weapons to use. Trust me, if we run into him, you'll be glad I'm making his arsenal smaller." The door to the room burst open, and a man with a gun ran into the room, pointing it instantly at Eri and Max. Without missing a beat, the man pulled the trigger when the gun was pointed at Eri. Screaming and holding her arms up in front of her as the rifle rattled off rounds, Eri slowly opened her eyes as the gunfire ended almost immediately. Looking down at herself, she blinked in surprise before running her hands down her body.
"Don't worry, I stopped 'em." Eri looked up at Max and saw a spinning shield of ice in front of her, cracked with bullets before the boy shook his staff and the ice disappeared. The bullets hit the floor as the ice dissipated and Eri looked to see the man slumped over behind Max. Silvery feathers flew off of his clothes and back onto Owl's wings.
"Right, enough talking. We have to get moving, get on your feet… um, what do you want us to call you, little girl?" Eri looked down at her wrapped up arms and pushed herself up, staring at the floor for a moment before looking up at the two people who had just offered to save her. Swallowing hard, she started walking, her bare feet a little cold touching the bare metal floor.
Looking up at Owl for a moment before averting her eyes and holding her right arm and staring at the doorway, she nodded.
"My name is Eri." She'd get away from these two nice people so she wouldn't curse them too. She was a monster who only caused things to die, after all.
"Hey, if you're asleep, wake up. I'm going to announce the teams and give you your briefing on what we'll be doing." Izuku blinked, his fingers curling around something warm as his eyes slowly fluttered open. His cheek felt something soft and warm pressing against it as well. Slowly stretching his back out, he sat up and felt said soft thing cling slightly before pulling off his cheek. Looking to his right, he saw Uraraka slowly sitting up next to him. He felt the thing his hand was holding squeeze back and looked down to see their fingers interlocked.
"Deku?" Izuku looked back up at Uraraka and felt his cheeks burn before she looked down at their hands and her head shot back up to look at him. Her cheeks turned a light shade of red and she slowly distangled their hands, a small smile on her lips as she leaned back against her seat, the two of them listening to Aizawa yell at Kaminari to wake up. Izuku felt his heart hammering in his chest. It was hard for him to swallow as Uraraka smiled at Mina and shrugged playfully, rolling her eyes at their pink friend.
"You make a nice pillow, Deku. Thank you." Izuku felt his heart stop for a moment as she brushed her shoulder up against his. Aizawa cleared his throat as the class finally all woke up. Izuku snapped to look at him as he looked down at a clipboard.
"Okay, here are the teams. You'll all be receiving earpieces to communicate amongst your fellow teammates along with a temporary HQ we'll be operating out of while we set up for the pros." Some of the class started muttering to their seat mate before Aizawa's hair started floating upwards and everyone shut up again. Izuku swallowed as Aizawa picked up a backpack and threw it to Bakugo.
"Pass these out, Vice President. Momo, make sure everyone gets one after he's done." Izuku blinked as Bakugo handed him a plastic baggie with an ID and an earpiece. Momo walked behind him, checking each bag to make sure everyone got both the ID and the earpiece.
"The ID is a temporary license to allow you all to use your quirks to rescue and protect people while we supplement the existing Hero forces. Your team leaders will adjust the earpiece frequency to the channel you need it to be on. Make sure you don't lose either. I have extras, but I'd have to fill out paperwork if you lose either of them." Izuku stuffed his into his backpack, sitting back up attentively as Aizawa flipped through some papers on his clipboard, sighing as he read it.
"Okay, the forward rescue squads, the ones going into the most damaged and potentially dangerous areas, will be as follows. Team one will be led by, oh my god no." He let out a groan and leaned forward, holding onto one of the seats for a moment before taking in a deep breath.
"As I was saying, Team one will be led by Nejire, and her team will consist of Deku, Earphone Jack, Anima, and Astra." Izuku felt his heart rise when he heard the name Astra. Looking at Uraraka, she blushed and shrugged.
"I mean, it's latin for stars, and it's what astronauts used to call each other like a long time ago, plus… I mean it was your idea," she whispered. Izuku's cheeks hurt with how wide his smile got, his cheeks warm that she'd use the hero name he'd just casually given her during one of their brainstorming sessions.
"The second, and only other forward rescue squad from 1-A, will be composed of, why wouldn't they give me Mirio, Suneater as the team leader. Squad members will be as follows: Creati, Pinky, Tentacole, and Froppy. Momo, you'll probably have to take command more than once, I'm counting on you." Izuku noted the members of the two forward teams, writing down in his notebook and noticing a similar theme in them. While he couldn't account for the team leaders, though since they were third years and basically fully fledged heroes, they were probably amazing anyways, the teams had heavy hitters that could function as rescuers, as well as scouts to find people.
"Okay, now the rapid response team. This team is going to be composed of eight of you with two teachers leading it. It'll be tasked with providing backup to the forward rescue teams in case of an emergency or a dangerous villain appearing. I will be one of the team leaders, and the other will be Rei. If you're wondering why it's not All Might, it's because he's headed to the city closest to the coast that got hit the hardest, while we're headed to Rishi, not there's much of a difference in the cities since they're all near the beach anyways. He'll be able to respond if we need assistance, though." Izuku nodded. That made sense, since the people there would probably be in a lot more danger and a lot more susceptible to Villains taking advantage of the bad situation. He looked at Uraraka who wore a determined look on her face as she looked through her backpack.
"The team members will be Cellophane, Iida, Red Riot, Tsukuyomi, Chargebolt, Shoto, and Grape Juice. We will also be accompanied by a first year general studies student named Shinso. I'll be responsible for him. That's it for the teams. If I didn't list you as a team member, then you will be guarding headquarters and dealing with threats local to it. Every class had to volunteer at least four students as the class guard, we're just volunteering five to lessen the strain on the police assisting with headquarters security." Izuku saw Bakugo visibly vibrate, and he could swear that he saw steam come out of his ears, but he surprised Izuku by taking in a very large and obvious shaky breath before the tension in his body, that Izuku could see anyways, visibly lessened.
"The crime rate in the city we're approaching was low before the tsunami hit, and we're not expecting an extreme increase in crime even with this disaster, but, especially for the forward teams, that's not a reason to lower your guard. 1-B will also have teams out in the field, but the only members of your team able to talk to them through their earpieces will be your team leaders. If they ask for help, we will assist them. That's it for your briefing." He put his clipboard away and stared at all of them, his eyes lingering on Izuku and Uraraka for a moment before he cleared his throat.
"Right. If you have questions, ask your team leaders when we stop. There's two bathrooms in the back of the bus. Starting from the front seat, head back there and get changed into your hero uniforms; we're starting Hero work the second we get there. Good luck." Izuku looked at Uraraka and nodded, both of them staring determinedly at each other. Izuku saw Bakugo meet his gaze for a moment, his usual glare softening for a moment before he looked to the back and walked on.
Izuku stood off to the side of the bus, dropping his duffel bag onto the staging area where other heroes were stacking their stuff. He made sure his name card was showing on the front of it and walked over to join Koda and Jirou. Stretching and adjusting his gloves as he reached them, he smiled and tucked his hair into his hood while he fished out a band to put it into a ponytail.
"I'm glad we get to work together, Koda! I haven't gotten a chance to see how your quirk works in an environment like this! Oh, can you talk to fish too? I mean, I doubt that we'll see any up here, um alive anyway, but I'm curious." Jirou giggled as she messed with her jacket, a smirk on her lips as she looked at the blushing Koda. She walked over and elbowed Izuku in the ribs lightly.
"He's great with animals, but he's not so great at talking to people, Midoriya. Just give him some space and it'll all work out." Izuku blushed and nodded, sliding his hand along his sleeve and squeezing his arm. He looked back at the bus and bit his lip. Uraraka had taken so long changing that the last two seats had had to use the other free bathroom right after each other, and she still wasn't out.
"Hey, hey! Are you guys my team? Oooooh! You look like a wizard! Oh, and you look like a punk but you have a really sweet smile that makes me think you're a softie! Oh and you look adorable, big guy!" Izuku turned to see a beautiful woman with knee-length periwinkle hair floating towards them. Her costume astounded him with how wavey it was in its design. A massive smile spread across her lips as she quickly fluttered between the three of them, reminding Izuku of a hummingbird.
"Oh, oh, but isn't there a fourth person on the team? Takamaki has four other people on his team so I need four people too! Oh, are they nervous? I was nervous the first time I helped someone too and it wasn't anywhere near this big of a disaster, but it's going to be okay I promise!" Izuku couldn't help but smile as she didn't let them get a word in edgewise. Her energy was infectious, actually making Izuku excited to get to work saving people.
"Sorry! Sorry! It's a new costume and I um, accidentally shot all the grappling hooks everywhere and the instruction manual only covered like half of the functions of this thing!" Izuku turned and was left with his jaw dropping at Uraraka's new costume. She'd taken a few of his ideas but, it was almost entirely her own design.
Her visor looked similar, but with streaking stars along the back of her helmet. Her skintight costume had been mostly covered up by a coat covering her chest and going down her arms, ending in fingerless gloves underneath her gauntlets. Her gauntlets that pinched her wrists to reduce her nausa now had crescent moons on the ends. Her coat ended beneath her belt, and the pointed ends of the coat had crescent moons atop large pink stars. Her collar had two large pink stars mirroring each other, with crescent moons encircling two stars on both sides of the coat. Izuku unashamedly looked at her legs, dark navy blue stripes going down either side of her pants ending when they reached her boots, which had ditched the heels for flats. An upside down crescent moon adorned each of her knee braces with another streaking star going up the side of the boots.
"YOU LOOK AMAZING!" Izuku's hands shot over his mouth as everyone turned to stare at him after he shouted. Uraraka let out a laugh as she rubbed her hands together nervously twirling as she walked towards their group. Their team leader, Shockwave, looked at Uraraka from side to side as her smile grew even brighter.
"He's right, you look like a pretty night sky, if our night sky had a lot more moons! Are you two dating? He seemed really excited to see how great you look! Oh, oh, I'm Nejire, but I guess you guys should call me Shockwave while we're working. OH! You must be Astra then! The lady with the cool jacks on the end of her ears must be Earphone Jack! The boy with the teeth on his shirt must be Anima and that leaves the cute green haired boy as Deku! Why would you call yourself useless though? Oh I'm sure you have a good reason! I hope you're not useless though, people are counting on us!" Izuku felt his cheeks burn hot and saw Uraraka turn away from their group for a second as Nejire went on another long winded conversation pointing out who each of them were.
"Uh, we're not dating, Nejire. But um, shouldn't we focus on work i-instead of personal relationship stuff?" Izuku pulled out his earpiece and slid it into his ear while Nejire quickly nodded and pressed her finger rapidly against her earpiece till Izuku heard a beep in his ear. Uraraka turned around, composed and smiling as Nejire floated around, looking at each of them briefly.
"Yup, yup, yup! You guys should be synced up with my earpiece now. We should really get going though; we've already spent way too much time talking. We can get to know each other while we work! Let's go!" She started quickly floating away, making the four of them start jogging to keep up with her. Izuku looked at Uraraka as they ran, slowly making his way closer to her.
"I like her. She's making me feel excited about this, instead of, you know, dreading what could happen." Izuku admitted. He saw Uraraka smile at him and nodded.
"I like her too." She said simply, the four of them picking up the pace as they ran from the storm shelter where the buses had parked towards the flooded city streets. Their energetic leader was already rapidly filling their earpieces with questions. Izuku smiled as he felt hopeful about this place, despite the awful circumstances that had brought them here, though he couldn't help but acknowledge the fact that it already felt like something was off about this city.