Midoriya had not expected Alexis to pass him in the air. He had expected a lot of things out of her throughout the entirety of the Sports Festival, but getting passed by her was not one of them. That was the power of whatever picotech was supposed to be, he supposed, and he didn't like it in the slightest, nor did he like the satisfied expression on Alexis' face as she ever so slightly beat him outside of the stadium.
"And look at that, folks! Just when we were all thinking that Midoriya would be the first one out, Alexis Luthor beats him to the front line! You better not let that girl get the best of you, Midoriya!" Present Mic shouted for all to hear.
"At least make an effort to be objective," Aizawa said.
"Hey, am I crazy, or does the Luthor girl have something wrapped around her?" Shazam asked. The comment made Midoriya take a closer look at Alexis, and there was something blue and elongated wrapped around Alexis. Something that was clearly less of a something and more of a someone.
"Mercy-san?" Mercy Graves just nodded in response to Midoriya.
"And in an unexpected turn of events, Mercy Graves of the Business Course has attached herself to Alexis!" Present Mic said.
"Is it really unexpected? I am her assistant, after all," Mercy said.
"And a pretty good one, at that," Alexis said. Midoriya didn't know a lot about Mercy, but the simple act was still enough to be troubling in his book. He did his best to ignore it, of course. There would be time to focus on it later in the day, but for now, there were far more direct matters that required his attention.
"Oh, and just when you think we're done with the surprises, Todoroki's shooting up towards Midoriya on a giant tower of ice!" Midoriya hadn't needed Present Mic's commentary for that one; he could feel the sudden drop in temperature run across the hairs on the back of his neck, and turning around only further confirmed the situation. Todoroki looked like he was ready to punch him the second he was close enough to do so, and even though Midoriya knew that that wouldn't have hurt him, he still didn't want Todoroki anywhere near him.
It was that sentiment that led to Midoriya shaving off the top part of his ice with his heat vision and sending both it and Todoroki falling toward the ground.
Sorry! You should be tough enough to deal with that, but still, sorry! Midoriya thought. If that was the end of it, Midoriya figured it would be easy enough to just keep going forward and try to outpace Alexis.
"Get back here you fucking bitch!" As if the universe was calling Midoriya an idiot for thinking he was allowed to want things to progress the easy way, it was now Bakugou who was shooting himself up into the air in his direction. General direction, anyway, as it appeared that Bakugou's target wasn't Midoriya, but Alexis.
"Oh? Ignoring Izuku to try and play with little ol' me? Katsuki, I'm flattered, I truly am," Alexis said as she turned around to face Bakugou, her flight now being supported by jets being fired out of the feet of the Upper Echelon; the wings clearly weren't necessary for flying, but knowing Alexis, she defaulted to them because they looked cooler.
"Shut your trap and die!" Katsuki kept to his charge and got within striking distance of Alexis. Mercy's body gave a small twitch, but Alexis waved a finger in front of her and she went stiff. An explosion was fired off at Alexis, but before it could reach her, she put out a hand, and from it came a large recreation of the LexCorp logo made of purple light.
"Oh, what's this? Alexis has some sort of defense ready for Bakugou!" Present Mic said. "I don't know what that is, but Bakugou, who I've always believed in, will definitely be able to break through it and do something about that arrogant little—And there's not even a scratch in it! Come on! Wait, hold on. Is that thing solid?"
"This is a little thing called hard light; the particles of a normal laser attack are hardened to give them solid mass and more power than a regular laser beam," Alexis said, amplifying her voice once more. "Honestly, it's nothing that special, just a natural evolution of the laser technology my grandfather liked to use in his own Warsuits. Ringing any bells for you, Wonder Woman?"
"Don't you think you have other things to worry about, Ms. Luthor?" Wonder Woman asked, the aforementioned "other things" being how Bakugou was still wailing away at Alexis' shield.
"Eh. Not really." The bottom end of the shield flipped up and smacked the underside of Bakugou's chin with enough force to send him into a spin. As the shield vanished into nothingness, Alexis pointed an arm at Bakugou and fired something from her wrist that hit him without fail.
It was a parachute. Alexis had shot a parachute onto Bakugou's person, and with a snap of her fingers, the parachute was deployed and sent him flying higher into the air. A camera captured an image of the top of the parachute and revealed that, unsurprisingly, the LexCorp logo was plastered on it.
"Available in your local army surplus store this summer! The strings are sturdy enough to hold massive amounts of weight, and the chute, itself, has programming installed to protect itself from damage, so once it's deployed, all that's left to do is gently float down to the ground. Thank you so much for helping with my demonstration, Katsuki!"
"Fuck you, Baldy!" Bakugou flipped Alexis off while trying to destroy the parachute she had forced upon him, but as she said, any and all attempts at destroying it failed completely.
"Well, that was fun. Let's get back to this, now." Alexis deactivated her jets and, with a single flap of her wings, passed Midoriya once more. Midoriya couldn't have that keep happening, so he pushed his body further than before until his flight was even with Alexis'. With Bakugou still in freefall and Todoroki doing whatever it was he was doing, Midoriya hoped even more so that he had nothing to worry about.
"And third time's the charm here, folks! Coming up behind Midoriya and Alexis this time is Class B's Pony Tsunotori!" Present Mic said. Midoriya turned his head to see Tsunotori flying in the air behind him and Alexis with four horns bunched together underneath her feet. Unlike with Todoroki and Bakugou, however, Tsunotori wasn't anywhere near them, so it appeared that he had little to worry about.
"I think we should pick up the pace a little, don't you?" Alexis asked him.
"Watashi wo mushi shina—Don't ignore me!" Tsunotori said.
"What was that, Pony? You'll have to speak louder! I can't hear you from all the way over there!"
"Kono—Well! You two won't be laughing at me for long,—"
"Why am I being roped into this?" Midoriya asked.
"—not when I shift into Maximum Overdrive! Ike!" The jets shooting out of Tsunotori's horns intensified and propelled her about a meter forward, still nowhere close to Midoriya and Alexis.
"Well, this is just embarrassing," Endeavor said.
"Agreed. Sure, she'll most likely finish with a high placement at this rate, but the fact that she's gone out of her way to try and compete with those two makes it rather bittersweet," Edgeshot said.
"The poor thing," Wonder Woman said with a bit of sadness in her voice.
"I knew I should have perfected the turbo," Tsunotori said with her own brand of sadness. With that, Alexis waved at Tsunotori before further increasing her speed and Midoriya went faster, as well, in an attempt to keep pace with her.
Okay, now that should really, really be it! Midoriya thought. As far as he was aware, no one else in his grade had means of getting up to his altitude, so there was no reason for everything to not be relatively smooth sailing from there.
No reason at all, save for the laser beam he suddenly found himself dodging. The laser was far too familiar for Midoriya's liking, and it barely took a second for him to confirm that it was indeed fired from one of the mini Starro robots controlled by the giant Starro robot he faced off against in the entrance exam. Along with another set on its left, a set on its right, and several more approaching behind it. Those were as annoying a sight as they were during the exam, and slightly less annoying was the sight of the normal robots down below on the ground.
"And here we are at the first obstacle: Alien Hominid! Coming off the heels of the entrance exam, we've got not only the regular ol' robots, but our big bad Starro bots, too! Sure, they're not as impressive as usual because the handsome devil who did their voiceover work is busy, but they'll still pack a punch!" Present Mic said.
"Hey, shouldn't you wait until there are more people over there than just the three of them?" Ryukyu asked.
"He would if he could, but he can't! You've gotta announce things as soon as someone gets to them, no matter how lame it is! I used to be a radio host, so I know all about that stuff," Shazam said.
"You certainly have a face made for radio, my man," Plastic Man said, Flexi transforming into a copy of Shazam's face.
"Haha, yeah! If you think this is bad," Shazam pointed at the trademark scars on his face, "you should have seen me when I was still a spry enough lad for the sock hop! Golly!" Midoriya could see Aizawa and Wonder Woman shaking their heads in near-unison as he dodged the laser attacks of the Starro robots. He knew that he couldn't afford to let the Starro robots slow him down, a sentiment that would be true even if the robots weren't designed in such an annoying fashion, so he threw his arms out and flew out ahead as fast as he could in order to hit the nearest robot as hard as he could, all of which was fortunately enough to tear through it like paper. The main robot fell to the ground in an explosion and its smaller drones were absorbed into it after powering down and going into a freefall.
"Not bad, not bad at all! I suppose someone of your caliber should be capable of at least that much!" Alexis said. "However, such a flimsy show of strength won't impress anyone worth impressing." A Starro robot had its drones fire on Alexis, but she flew around every beam that came toward her, the beams never getting anywhere near her. When she returned to unoccupied air, she threw an arm out and made five elongated blades of hard light appear out of it, each one as long as her. "This is how you get their blood pumping!" Before a Starro robot could get another shot off, all of the blades were fired off of her arm and hit the eyes of five different Starro robots, dead center. The ends of the blades shot out spindly lines of energy into the backs of the Starro robots; the lines spread around their bodies like veins and covered them in a matter of seconds, and once that happened, an explosion of purple light captured each of the Starro robots and their surrounding drones, the drones being completely destroyed and the Starro robots having varying percentages of themselves destroyed.
Much to Midoriya's chagrin, he could hear large portions of the crowd going wild.
"Aw, I wish they would have controlled themselves a little. Not even at the best part yet." Alexis flew past the Starro robots she had destroyed and fired large threads of hard light from the ends of her wings that tied themselves around the Starro robots in the midst of their freefall. With a flap of her wings, the Starro robots were swung upward for a moment before being flung into the ground below, directly in the path of the two-hundred or so people who were only just getting to the beginning of Alien Hominid.
As the robots exploded into smithereens, the crowd went wild once more, and Alexis smiled as she ate it all up.
"And boom! We were not looking for this! That little rapscallion Alexis just threw those Starro robots onto the other racers! What a rascal!" Present Mic said.
"I wish I never bought you that word-a-day calendar," Aizawa said.
"See, this is why we don't use giant robots to test applicants at Gotham Academy. Just regular-sized robots based off of the D.A.V.E. program to see how they deal with real crimes, nothing too fancy," Tim said.
"Hey, they're okay, right? I don't remember how good kids are at surviving explosions," Shazam said.
"If they've truly earned their place here, then they'll be plenty good at something as trivial as that," Endeavor said. Sure enough, a large number of people were able to brush off Alexis' attack at best and stumble through the destruction at worst.
"They're really letting something like that bother them? Bah! This whole generation makes me sick with their fragility," Ultimon spat. Midoriya did his best to ignore him before putting his all into keeping pace with Alexis, once more.
"And just like a central character in an action flick, not unlike the newest Big Science Action movie, coming this summer, Midoriya takes off without giving the explosion a single glance!" Present Mic said. "He pushes his ridiculous speed to the limit to try and keep up with Alexis' ridiculous speed, but—Wait, look! He's ahead by a head! His little spit curl is carving his path to victory! Alexis is gaining on him, so he better keep that pedal glued to the metal if he knows what's good for him! Oh! And just as I say that, they're at the second obstacle: The Fall!"
"A giant chasm students have to try and not fall into. Neat," Edgeshot said.
"Not really, considering that they're just flying over the whole thing," Tim said. "We did one of these at a Gotham Academy Sports Festival, but we also had pillars of fire shooting up at random intervals."
"The pillars of fire were vetoed mid-development. Not like it would have mattered with those two being able to fly the way they do," Aizawa said. Tim let out a sigh and sunk a bit into his seat.
"And going along with that whole general atmosphere, Midoriya and Alexis clear The Fall without even giving the obstacle we worked so hard on so much as a passing glance! And just as I say that, the two of them are barreling towards the final obstacle: Minefield! It's exactly as the name implies, and with them being able to just fly over it, it's completely useless! Thanks for making those late nights of planning completely worthless, kids! I really appreciate it!"
"Hizashi, please. It's not their fault, and you know it," Wonder Woman said in the motherly tone she was known to use with most Heroes.
"Yeah, yeah, but still—Wait, Alexis just took back the lead! That little—Nope, Midoriya's got it back! Now it's Alexis! Now it's Midoriya! Alexis! Midoriya! They're so neck and neck that you'd think they were joined at the hip, but no! It's two people giving all they've got to win, and that's what the Sports Festival is all about, folks! They're about to cross the finish line, and I'm getting excited, even if all of our stuff did go to waste, and—There it is! They crossed the finish line, and finishing in first place by a spit curl is—YES! It's Izuku Midoriya! Second place is Alexis Lois Luthor and third place Mercy Graves, but who cares? Midoriya won, everybody!"
And that was that.
"He did it! Our boy did it!" Rikiya spun around in his chair and laughed like a small child given their first Beebo doll. "I knew he'd do us proud, and the fact that he did it while overcoming a Luthor is just the icing on the cake!"
"Oh, speaking of cake—" Rikiya interrupted Geten by pointing him in the direction of the cakes, and he moved to grab three pieces for himself; Rikiya was glad he remembered to double down on the sweets. He'd probably go for some when he finished basking in his own happiness, but considering the size of it all, he started to think that it'd be better to just go for it now rather than wait who knew how long for his high to die down.
As such, Rikiya helped himself to a piece of cake while thinking about how happy he was to get a taste of what Izuku Midoriya could do.
"See? I told you that kid was something else, and there's the proof!" Rappa said, laughing as he pointed dramatically at the TV in front of him and the rest of the group.
"This is what you're using to defend your claim? He barely even beat that Luthor girl, so how good can he be?" Overhaul asked while delicately chewing a piece of rum ham.
"I believe it says more about the ingenuity of the Luthor girl than it does the lack of ability of the boy. Rappa does claim to have been bested in strength by him, after all," Tengai said.
"And it's not like we shouldn't have expected a Luthor to have a crazy-ass suit of armor for beating up the supes," Katsukame said.
"So long as we get to that part, this'll be a good day, the curly-haired boy's performance notwithstanding," Overhaul said, still nibbling on his rum ham. Rappa just shook his head and took a sip of his beer. He just didn't get it, but he couldn't blame him for that. Overhaul wasn't in the right place at the right time like he was, after all.
They'd all come around by the end of the day, though.
Big Brother had been shamed on live television. Sure, it wasn't the interloper who had done it, but the bald lady with a full head of hair who Big Brother often talked about, but the interloper did nothing to prevent it from happening; the only good thing about it was it being further proof of the interloper being a plague on society, but he still didn't enjoy it. He still didn't enjoy seeing Big Brother be made a fool of, and it was because of that that he wailed as loud as his tiny body would allow him to.
The Ace in the Hole found himself smiling. The others in his unit might not enjoy it, but seeing Izuku perform in such a way was an honest sight to behold. It would have been better for everyone if he was just a perpetual weakling, sure, but seeing him actually able to perform with a semblance of ability meant that there was an actual point to all of the effort they were going through.
It also meant that the Ace in the Hole might have a real fight if it ever came down to it, but personal reasons like that were best kept to himself.
"Ha ha, yeah! That's my boy!" Hisashi had long since given up on controlling his optimism. He wanted to save his excitement until the very end of it all, but seeing Izuku take first place was just too much to allow for that.
"And he did it by beating a Luthor, no less!" Stein said with a bit of a laugh.
"I know, right? I mean, we both know the statistics of Izuku's abilities, but it's not like the Luthor girl wasn't giving him a run for his money. Just from a cursory glance, it looks like the Upper Echelon is at least as powerful as the War Suit Lex Luthor used in World War III, probably even more so. She's clearly able to keep up with Izuku's top speeds to a degree that only has a negligible difference in velocity, so you know that she earned that near victory and it wasn't just my boy holding back out of kindness. That hard light energy of hers is an unknown variable, though. How does it compare to some of the lasers Lex Luthor could use, or Izuku's own heat vision? If only I could have some of these picomachines she says she invented so I could study their full capabilities and get a better understanding of what we're looking at, but there's obviously no way of making that happen. Ah, what I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall in LexCorp Japan and know everything she did to make something like—"
"Hisashi, I love your thought process, but you have to shut up," Stein interjected. Hisashi caught what he was doing and laughed at his own embarrassing state. Honestly, he wished that his son had inherited a less embarrassing trait of his than that, but all things considered, he should be happy that they had anything in common, it all.
It was a good thought, all things considered.
"You see that? I told you he was gonna win! I told you!" The girl shook the cloaked gentleman as she tried to pass on her feelings of excitement into him.
"It was a fifty-fifty chance that either he or Alexis would win, and you just happened to pick the winning one. Congratulations," said the cloaked gentleman, not even bothering to look at the girl.
"You're just mad that you called it wrong, you big ol' grumpy gus. No need to be a sore loser about it," the girl said, biting into another piece of headless mochi.
"Just because I would have preferred for Alexis to win doesn't mean that I expected her to. I know enough about Luthors to know that they aren't in the habit of winning when it counts."
"Is that right?" The girl raised an eyebrow at his comment. She wasn't exactly a history buff, not in regards to human history, at least, but she knew that after Lex Luthor decided to become a Hero, he and the rest of the Luthor family had a long history of success up until present day. To think that someone needed to do their homework even more than her. "So, Mister Totally Not Drowning In The Stench Of Defeat, why even bother watching the race if you already knew you were betting on the wrong horse?"
"To observe, you annoying little thing, you. The main objective here was to see just what kind of Luthor this Alexis girl is. So far, all I'm getting out of her is that she's an arrogant brat always looking for a chance to loudly stroke her ego in public and make sure everyone watches."
"Yeah, pretty much." The cloaked gentleman then had a smile poking through his hood as he said, "That's exactly what I was hoping for." The two of them clearly had opposite investments in the Sports Festival, but she was well aware of what people said about opposites, so they'd probably have fun together.
If not, she could always stab his carotid, so at the very least, she would be having fun in some way.
With Midoriya making his way back to the stadium after an arduous three minutes, he flew down to the ground and took a long sigh. Years of watching the Sports Festival on TV meant that he already knew the first event would most likely be some form of physical activity, so he figured that there would be little reason to stress out over it, yet here he was, doing just that. And standing just a few meters away from him was the source of his stress, giving him a sarcastic slow clap to make it all sink in.
"I swear, Izuku, this clapping is far less sarcastic than it sounds," Alexis said, moments before her clapping came to an end. "I expected something like this to happen, so I can't be too upset over it, but—Mercy, feel free to get off of me at any time."
"Right," Mercy said, doing just that.
"Where was I? Right, I expected something like this to happen, so I can't be too upset over it, but I must say, it was a closer match than I thought it would be. If this is what I have to look forward to going forward, I don't think I will be all too disappointed."
"Glad to be of service, I guess," Midoriya said, not exactly sure what else he could say on the matter.
"Come on, you can at least try to sound more excited about it. This is high praise coming from me, you know." That was hardly the issue at hand, as far as Midoriya was concerned.
"By the way, what are we supposed to do now?" Mercy asked Midnight.
"I guess you just stand here until the race is finished," Midnight said, triggering an exaggerated eye roll from Mercy. "I'm so sorry we don't have any games for you all to play while you wait. Really, it's our fault for not expecting anyone to finish within the first five minutes."
"Well, you've owned up to your mistakes, and that's always the first step." Midnight lifted her wand as if she were about to cast a spell, but then she lowered it and walked back to the center of the arena, muttering something about there being too many witnesses under her breath.
"Well, it looks like it's going to be a while, so we might as well get cozy," Alexis said. The back of the Upper Echelon opened up and out flew a blanket decorated with Madoka Magica illustrations that landed on the ground perfectly straight. "Mercy, snacks."
"Right away." Mercy nodded and took off out of the stadium; Midnight started yelling at her not to leave, but either because there was no rule about her leaving or she just didn't care about it, Mercy made her way out.
"Did you want anything? Should I text Mercy to get you something?" Midoriya shook his head. "If you say so. Still, come on and pop a squat, as they say."
"I don't think that's something people still—Forget it." Midoriya, sensing that it would be a losing battle, sat down on the blanket as far away from Alexis as he could without being completely rude.
"That's a good boy," Alexis said with a smile. "Who do you think is gonna claw their way up to fourth place?"
"I don't know, probably Kacchan or Todoroki-kun."
"Oh, such bias. I'm almost glad you're sitting so far away from me." Midoriya could almost feel how hard Alexis was rolling her eyes. "Katsuki and Shouto certainly have ability, but I feel that there are people who just might be more equipped to handle this event than them. Not necessarily because they're more powerful or competent, just that they lucked into means and methods that would allow them to finish faster than others."
"And just like that, folks, we have our fourth place winner! She's not finishing nearly as fast or as flashy as Midoriya and Alexis, but here's Pony Tsunotori, everyone!" Present Mic's announcement told Midoriya that he had apparently been ignoring more of the competition than he had thought, and both on the jumbotron and in the actual air was Tsunotori, coming in for a landing on a pair of her horns.
"Yatta ne, watashi. Not like anyone cares," Tsunotori said as her horns vanished beneath her feet. Tsunotori didn't appear happy at all to have finished the race, and as one of the people responsible for souring her performance, he couldn't blame her for it.
"Tsunotori-san, I know it might sound kind of cheap, but congra—" Midoriya abruptly stopped talking when he saw the back of Tsunotori's uniform bulging out like a giant pimple of some sort.
"Eh? Nani? Nanda kore? Senaka ga!" A slew of random English of that nature kept flying out of Tsunotori's mouth as she wrestled with whatever it was that was inside of her jersey. The weird whatever it was eventually made its way upward through the neck hole of Tsunotori's shirt and revealed itself to be, of all things, the floating face of a sharp-toothed girl.
"Oh yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" the floating face said with a cheer.
"See, this? This is what I'm talking about with power and competence not being a deal-breaker," Alexis said in a whisper.
"Tokage-san, why were you in my shirt? And where's the rest of your body?" Tsunotori asked as she fixed her clothes.
"Hey, it was the easiest way to finish the race without having to put in a lot of work; horses are supposed to give people rides, so don't get mad at me," Tokage said. "As for my body, I don't know where exactly it is, but we can probably find that out. Midnight, can we find the rest of me on the jumbotron?"
"Probably," Midnight said. The jumbotron bounced around from various images until it stopped on that of a faceless girl running through the obstacle course. The sight of her was freaking out other competitors, and Midoriya perfectly understood that.
"Does that even count?" Midoriya asked.
"Of course, it does!" Tokage said. "Wait, shit, I don't actually know. Does it count?"
"Well, the rule is that you have to cross the finish line to complete the race, but we never said how much of you has to cross it, so this is a legal move. Fifth place goes to Setsuna Tokage of Class B!"
"Booyah!" Tokage's cheering was in tandem with the rest of the crowd. "In your face, you showboating punk!"
"I-I wasn't—" Tokage's face flew off and kept singing her own praises before Midoriya could get a word in edgewise.
"Don't be too upset with Setsuna's behavior; she's just excited to have something she can tell herself is proof that she's earned her place here," Alexis said, still sitting on her blanket. "Want to know what I mean?"
"I don't think that's any of my—"
"Setsuna Tokage is one of the students who got in on recommendation, but she only scored fifth place, and the only reason she managed to get in is that one of the four people above her withdrew their application. Pretty clear that she's developed a bit of an inferiority complex over the whole thing. Pretty clear, and pretty sad." Alexis stopped talking after that and Midoriya was left alone with his thoughts. Hearing that Tokage had gotten in on recommendation was a bit surprising to hear, considering how her power didn't seem anywhere near the same level as Yaoyorozu and Todoroki's Quirks, but he knew better than to judge a book by its cover.
"Wait, how do you even know all of—" Before Midoriya could finish, Mercy had returned with a large assortment of food in styrofoam containers, several being balanced atop her head, and Alexis started digging into it all with a jovial expression on her face. That appeared to be the end of the conversation, and as much as he wanted an answer, he wasn't willing to go looking for it.
Several minutes before Izuku Midoriya was startled by a floating face, Bakugou screamed to high heaven as he untangled himself from Alexis' parachute. It wasn't nearly the worst humiliation he had suffered in his life, but the fact that it was the most recent, and was initiated by someone he couldn't stand for the life of him, was what made it so unbearable.
"That fucking bald bitch, and that fucking Deku, too! They're not getting away with this!" Bakugou said before tossing the parachute into the face of a random passerby.
"Let it go, man, it's too late!" Kirishima said, annoyingly stopping to chat with him. "You can't catch them, they have the high ground!"
"Fuck the high ground!"
"Just pay attention to the low ground; that's what I'm gonna do to beat you both!" That was said by Ashido, who was using her acid powers to skate past them and through the rest of the crowd.
"Okay, I gotta keep going, you do what you want!" Kirishima said before taking off after Ashido. Idiots, the both of them. Worse than them, but still not as bad as Midoriya and Alexis, was Todoroki's quick recovery from his own humiliation as he raced through the course.
"Losing to Deku and Baldy is one thing, but like hell, I'm letting Two-Face get the jump on me!" Bakugou said, the sight and thought of it all making him sick. He didn't need to be sick, he just needed to win, and with explosions shooting out of his hands, win he would.
The announcement of Midoriya, Alexis, and Alexis' butler or whatever she was finishing the race deterred him for a bit, but he would overcome it all in the end.
The competition had not gone the way Tokoyami had predicted it would go in the slightest. He hadn't expected to win, mostly because he didn't want to win with how much it would cost him, but he didn't expect the competition to be so one-sided in the favor of others. Midoriya taking first was obvious, as was Alexis taking second the instant she showed up in that suit of armor, but now the Tsunotori girl was on her way to taking fourth. Add in the return of the Starro bots, Alexis even throwing one on top of all of them, and it was all devolving into a horrid mess.
As Tokoyami crawled out of the wreckage of the Starro bot Alexis threw on top of them all and caught sight of the chaos that had erupted from people coming into Alien Hominid, it had become clear that he was going to need to try harder to make an impact on anything, which meant he had to do something he was hoping to do as little as possible that day.
"Imykst!" With a mighty shout, Dark Shadow was summoned from the confines of his world through Tokoyami's stomach, signaling his arrival with the trumpeting of a bugle horn. He did not approve of that.
"Not too shabby, eh? I can play other stuff, if you want," Dark Shadow said. The bugle transformed into a series of different instruments such as a saxophone, an oboe, a theremin, and even a blade of grass pressed against his beak and blown like a whistle.
"Knock it off, you," Tokoyami said. Dark Shadow threw the blade of grass aside and let it be carried in the wind, eventually slicing through several robots as if it were a powerful sword.
"So, what do you need, Fumi? Gonna take the easy route and just wish yourself to the finish line? You could also just make yourself the winner. Have to mess around with time a bit to make that work, but that always goes well, right?"
"No, don't even think about it!" Tokoyami's shout made Dark Shadow summon a wig to his head just so it could be blown off in comedic fashion. "Do not even joke about messing with the fabric of time when we both know what sort of price I would have to pay for that!"
"Meh." If only it were possible to hurt this thing.
"As for going straight to the finish line, I don't wish to do that, either. I don't believe that there would be any merit in winning without having to put in any effort."
"So you're gonna be lame about everything. Got it." Oh, how he wished he could hurt this thing. "What are we doing, then?"
"I simply wish for the means to get to the finish line faster than other people."
"Righty-o, bossman!" Dark Shadow flew off into the distance, leaving behind only a cloud of smoke in his silhouette. Tokoyami just stood there for about a minute, Tsunotori and some other girl taking fourth and fifth place in the meanwhile, and there was no sign of Dark Shadow anywhere. Some robots were surrounding him, ready to attack him in his defenseless state, but he could accept that under the perceived notion that he was finally free of that fool.
Tokoyami should have known better than to dream a fool's dream, for at that moment, Dark Shadow reappeared in a red convertible and ran over all of the robots surrounding Tokoyami. Music was blaring out of the speakers, and when Dark Shadow honked the horn, La Cucaracha was what played.
Once again, Tokoyami wanted to strike him.
"Get in, loser, we're racing," Dark Shadow said, honking the horn again for another round of La Cucaracha.
"If I must," Tokoyami said. He got in the car next to Dark Shadow, and with that, Dark Shadow drove off down the course, every robot they encountered, even a Starro bot or two, exploding upon contact.
"And with the help of his Genie pal, Tokoyami's making his way through the course with style!" Present Mic said for all to hear.
"Huh. I can't remember the last time I saw a Genie; most of them went back to their own world after the Heroes Association was fully established, saying that we were making everything boring," Wonder Woman said. "This Fumikage kid, he's not like Johnny, right? Not that there was anything wrong with Johnny, he was a great kid, valued member of the Justice Society, but still—"
"Tokoyami's not an idiot if that's what you're asking," Aizawa said.
"Your words, not mine. Then again, it's going to take some major brain power to get a car over a giant chasm."
"What is she—" Tokoyami stopped talking as The Fall came into view. He had forgotten that the second obstacle was crossing a giant pit, and the thin tightropes stretching out from one end to another would do nothing to support a car. He didn't think he would fall into the pit, that was the furthest thing from his mind, but what concerned him was what sort of ridiculous thing Dark Shadow would do to keep him from dying. He'd probably summon a giant trampoline to bounce him over the pit, put a face on a cloud to make it blow a gust of wind to propel them over it, summon a giant-sized Wayne Gretzky to slap them across with a giant hockey stick, the stupider an idea it was, the likelier it was that Dark Shadow would go with it.
Much to Tokoyami's surprise, however, all that happened was that the car floated over the pit, and it stayed afloat as they entered the Minefield. That was fine on the surface, but it brought its own set of issues with it.
"Dark Shadow, was this vehicle always capable of flight?" Tokoyami asked.
"Yeah, probably. Why do you ask?" Dark Shadow asked.
"Why do I—Bakugou and Todoroki are very close to us! Either one of them could have easily passed us, but that would not have been an issue if we were flying the entire time, so why weren't we? Explain yourself!"
"You didn't ask if the car could fly."
"Why would I assume that it could?" Dark Shadow simply shrugged, but credit where credit was due, Tokoyami should have known better than to not assume anything after everything they had been through. "By the way, this music—"
"It's Britney, bitch." It was not Britney.
And with that, Fumikage Tokoyami took sixth place.
While not everyone was able to have a tremendous finish like the first six finishers, everyone made their own efforts to complete the race that took full advantage of their own abilities. Ochaco Uraraka, for example, used her Metahuman abilities to make robots float into the air before dropping them, and even to make herself float up to dodge attacks; at one point, she overexerted herself and went into freefall; she was caught by Itsuka Kendou, but she was then thrown back aways because their friendship did not take priority over the race.
Momo Yaoyorozu used her Quirk to create things such as cannons, cannons, and even bigger cannons to destroy robots as she made her way along the course.
Kinoko Komori summoned giant mushrooms for her to bounce across while making sure the cameras always got a good look at her face. That ended up working against her when she became too distracted to properly angle herself and flung herself face-first into the dirt. At that point, she called forth a Mega Shroom Buddy to carry her through the rest of the course.
Mei Hatsume, once she arrived at The Fall, took advantage of the perks of being in the Support Department to fire a grappling hook from her belt across the pit. When that ended up being too slow to accomplish anything, a pair of rockets popped out of her back and she was propelled forward at a far faster speed; she went so fast that she fell into a landmine, but she survived the explosion with minimal wear and tear, so it was fine.
And then there were Katsuki Bakugou and Shouto Todoroki, getting by through no tricks, no fancy moves, just using their abilities to their fullest to bring themselves through the course.
"Bakugou and Todoroki lead the charge of the ninety-nine percent finally entering the Minefield! They've been neck and neck ever since Midoriya and Alexis left them in the dust, and at the final obstacle, it's still either one of their games! Oh, but what's this? Todoroki looks like he's—Yes, he's taking the lead!"
Bakugou hated every single word coming out of Present Mic's mouth. He hated every single word because he couldn't stand how he was right about everything. The two of them had been dead even for most of the race, but now, at the last obstacle, Todoroki suddenly gained a second or third wind and kept pulling ahead of him. No matter how much he went at him, he'd always retake the lead. He didn't understand where the energy and ferocity were coming from, almost as if something completely new was driving him that day compared to the other times he'd seen him fight.
Can't let Two-Face get the best of me, not after all of this! Bakugou thought. Todoroki dodged one of Bakugou's explosions, and Bakugou, in turn, jumped out of the way of his ice. There are mines everywhere, bet I can use them like my Die Die Discuses to shoot myself past him and get done with this.
"Having trouble keeping up?" Todoroki asked, sending out another wave of ice that Bakugou dodged. "I guess you're not as great as you think you are when you don't have your little toys helping you."
Well, fuck that idea, then. It would have been easy enough to use the mines in the same manner as the Die Die Discuses, but then Todoroki had to open his mouth. He just had to make what he thought was a smart remark and act like Bakugou couldn't beat him under his own power. The nerve of him. The nerve of him to act like he wasn't good enough as he was. No one had the right to say that, and there was nothing to even hint at him being an exception. He was better than him, better than everyone around him, and if there was ever a time to prove that, now was the time.
"Eat shit, Two-Face!" With as eloquent a reply as he could muster, Bakugou jumped ahead of Todoroki as he had done multiple times throughout the race, but he didn't even give him a chance to take the lead back. Instead, he reached down into all of the energy he was conserving for later in the day and pulled out just enough of it to blast himself far away from Todoroki. He was so caught off guard that he didn't have time to throw out any ice before Bakugou was too far away for it to matter, and before Bakugou knew it, he had flown clear past the finish line and skidded across the dirt, face-first.
"Not the most graceful finish, but he's done it! Katsuki Bakugou earns seventh place!" Present Mic shouted. "He finished in the top ten to get into U.A., and he finishes in the top ten, here! You gotta respect the consistency here, folks!"
Fuck off, Bakugou thought. A mouthful of dirt was spat out as he got back on his feet, and more dirt was brushed off of his face in a single swipe of the hand. It wasn't what he wanted, but it was his victory, nonetheless. Out ahead of him, Midoriya had an unnecessarily happy look on his face, and Alexis was applauding him as she gave him a fake smile, so it went without saying that he flipped them off.
Bakugou hoped that Dexter was watching and feeling proud of him, for that would surely make his day.
After Bakugou completed the course, Shouto Todoroki soon made his way past the finish line to earn himself eighth place. Not long after him, Ibara Shiozaki and Juzo Honenuki of Class B claimed ninth and tenth place, respectively. The following is the rest of the rankings for the first event of the Sports Festival:
Tenya Iida
Mina Ashido
Eijiro Kirishima
Sero Hanta
Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu
Mashirao Ojiro
Kinoko Komori
Yosetsu Awase
Tsuyu Asui
Shouji Mezou
Itsuka Kendou
Momo Yaoyorozu
Minoru Mineta
Koji Koda
Kyoka Jirou
Sen Kaibara
Kosei Tsuburaba
Denki Kaminari
Kojiro Bondo
Ochaco Uraraka
Reiko Yanagi
Hitoshi Shinsou
Rikido Sato
Jurota Shishida
Shihai Kuroiro
Yui Kodai
Hiryu Rin
Nirengeki Shoda
Togaru Kamakiri
Neito Monoma
Manga Fukidashi
Mei Hatsume
With the obstacle course finished, everyone fell into a bit of reverie as they were given a small reprieve before the second event was set to begin. Midoriya watched his friends, associates, and people he didn't know very well milling about in various ways: Kirishima and Ashido were congratulating each other about how well the other person performed and Bakugou, who just happened to be standing nearby, was yelling at them to stop talking; Iida and Komori were having a bombastic conversation debating how well Komori may or may not have shone in front of the audience; Jirou was consoling an assumingly tearful Hagakure as she vented about her and Aoyama being the only ones in their class to not make it to the second event; Tokage was reattaching her face to her body to the disgust of many; and Mineta was being glared at by Yaoyorozu for reasons that were probably justified.
"Like I keep saying, it was nothing personal! I just needed someone, anyone to latch onto so things would be easier for me! Did I enjoy being pressed against your back? Yes, obviously, but that's not the point!"
"Then why even bring it up?" Yaoyorozu asked.
"As a compliment?" Tsuyu wrapped her tongue around Mineta and slammed him into the ground.
"Yaoyorozu-san, Asui-san, please, he was really just trying to finish the race. Mostly. You've already hit him, so maybe we just move on and forget about it." Midoriya was doing his best to diffuse the situation Mineta had gotten himself into, and when Tsuyu released him from her grasp, he saw himself as successful.
"I'm at least willing to drop the issue. For now. Do not give me a reason to bring it back up, Mineta-san," Yaoyorozu said. Mineta seemed more than pleased with it all.
"Hey, Midoriya, if you're on a peacekeeping binge right now, try and work that magic with me and Ochaco," Kendou said.
"You threw me into a pack of robots that tried to destroy me!" Uraraka said with a pout.
"It wasn't personal. Besides, I caught you when you were falling, remember?"
"Yes, and then you threw me to the mechanical wolves!"
"Look, I'm sorry, okay? You want me to buy you something to eat later?" Midoriya tried to jump in with a comment, but Kendou beat him to it.
"I want ramen. And natto. And a carton of eggs. And some bacon. And a box of Wonder O's." Uraraka listed all of that off as she moved her fingers about in a count.
"Are you just asking me to buy you groceries?"
"And some toilet paper, too." Kendou rolled her eyes, but not in a way that suggested she wasn't going to just go along with it all, and it appeared that Midoriya's services weren't needed, after all.
"Gomen ne—Sorry, guys!" Midoriya turned his attention a bit to Tsunotori addressing her classmates. "I tried super hard to win, but even Maximum Overdrive was no match for those two monsters!"
"Don't feel bad, Tsunotori-san. You may be the class president, but that doesn't mean you need a complete victory to make us appear strong," said a blonde-haired boy in an arrogant tone who Midoriya recognized from the commentary as Neito Monoma. "Besides, we should just be happy that our entire class managed to make it through. I can't even begin to imagine how embarrassing it would be if even one of our classmates didn't make it through. Good thing we'll never know what that's like, but Class A, do you think you could enlighten us?" It was then that Midoriya remembered some of the less than flattering things Tsunotori and Kodai had told them about Monoma in class; seeing and hearing it was a different story, of course.
"I'll enlighten your ass if you don't shut up!" Bakugou shouted.
"By all means, go ahead. I'm not stopping you," Jirou said with a scowl.
"What, you're that upset over me just laying out the truth? You people must have a lot of fun on the internet." Monoma punctuated his statement with a bit of laughter. Jirou muttered obscenities under her breath and Bakugou had to be held back by Kirishima and Ashido to keep him from charging over to Monoma.
"What a jerk. Someone oughta smack some sense into him," Kendou said.
"What a jerk. Someone oughta smack some sense into him." That was the conclusion Stephanie came to as she, Cassandra, and the rest of her friends observed the behavior of one of Pony's classmates from the stands.
"What a lamebrain, right? Can't believe our poor Pony's had to put up with someone like that all by herself," Maps said.
"Reminds me of Lydecker, and we all know nothing good came out of that. ...Yes, you're the exception, that goes without saying," Olive said, her last statement directed to the ghost of Amity Arkham whom only she could see.
"Well, at least the rest of her class only seem intense, at worst. She's also friends with Midoriya and that super schway chicken legs Ashido, so that's good," Stephanie said.
"Yes, very good," Cassandra said between bites of a large serving of cotton candy in the shape of All Might. "The rest of their class is nice, too."
"Except that sparkly kid, Aoyama or whatever. Guy's a total weirdo," Pomeline said.
"Everyone here is a weirdo, Pom-Pom, and you only don't like him because he pretends to be French," Maps said.
"And as someone who actually is French, I have every right to feel that way."
"You're barely even French, though," Olive said.
"French enough to know a faker when I see one. Not like that's the only thing that makes him a weirdo, anyway." After having met him and compared him to the rest of the class, Stephanie couldn't argue with that.
"Well, let's just hope Pony has a better time in the second event," Stephanie said. The statement hung in the air for a moment before Stephanie turned to Cassandra and asked, "Hey, isn't your brother in charge of the second event?"
"Yep," Cassandra said.
"Oh, they're so dusted." Cassandra nodded as she tossed a cotton candy bicep into her mouth. With that, Stephanie more or less stopped thinking about whatever sort of torment everyone was in for.
"The first event took a little while to get going, but I think we can all agree that it picked up steam as things kept going! I'm still getting shivers and quivers just thinking about it, how about all of you?" Midnight held her microphone out toward the crowd, and they all cheered in response to her largely inappropriate commentary. "Now, let's see what the second event will be! I already know it, but I bet the suspense is killing all of you!" All eyes fell on one of the jumbotrons, the virtual roulette spinning around once more. Words kept moving around at rapid speed, but soon enough, it all slowed down until only a single phrase was being displayed. "And here it is: bo-taoshi!"
"Bo-taoshi? Nani sore—I mean, what's that?" Tsunotori asked, Midoriya noting her as being the only one of the forty-two contestants to be confused.
"Bo-taoshi is a sport traditionally reserved for the National Defense Academy of Japan," said Alexis, of all people. "Each team has one of their players clinging to a large pole, and you win if you manage to bring the pole down to the ground."
Wow, I'm surprised she knows something like that, Midoriya thought.
"It was featured in a pretty exciting arc of Assassination Classroom, in case you didn't know."
And there it is.
"How is this going to work, though? Are we being split into two teams of twenty-one?" Midoriya asked.
"The game is traditionally played with seventy-five people per team, so that's a rather large discrepancy, right there," Iida said.
"There's no need to worry about the team divisions." Tim Drake's voice echoing through the loudspeakers cut through the numerous discussions being had. "I assume that you're all doing that; I'm all the way up here, so I can't actually hear what you're talking about. Anyway, for the Bo-Taoshi event, all forty-two of you shall be playing on a single team against a team of individuals specially prepared for the event by me, and assuming that you are all victorious, only ten people will be eliminated in this event." With that, everyone fell into an uproar.
"Thirty-two people are going to the third event? Oh my God, what a relief!" Uraraka said with a smile.
"Right? We can probably pass just by doing nothing!" Ashido said.
"No way, it can't be that easy," Midoriya said. "Besides, who are we supposed to be fighting? Students from Gotham Academy? That could be why Cassandra-san and her friends are here, but I don't think they'd be sitting in the stand if that were the case? Some of his staff, or even other Heroes from the states? No, even with these circumstances, that doesn't seem like something that would be done."
As Midoriya kept pondering who was going to be their opponents, music started playing throughout the stadium, silencing everyone with how unusually upbeat and festive it was for the circumstances at hand. Underneath the music was what sounded like rhythmic clapping and stomping that kept getting louder and louder, which told Midoriya one utterly ridiculous thing: people were dancing towards them.
No, it wasn't people, that much was evident when they finally came into view from the opposite entrance of the stadium. It was robots. Blue robots, each standing at two meters in height with large fins on their heads and a single red eye in the center of their faces, were making their way into the stadium single-file via an elaborate dance routine. Once in full view, they all scattered about and went into far more elaborate choreography, jumping about and bending their bodies as if they were in one of the Music Meister's productions.
"Big Finish!" One of the robots shouted that—lack of mouth aside—as loud as it could, and all of the other robots got together in a line. The metal on their backs shifted around to resemble cannons, and from them, fireworks were launched into the air that exploded into a massive array of color and sound.
"Interesting," Alexis said, smirking as she held a can of Congorilla Cola in one hand. She decided to finally stand up, so she must have been telling the truth.
"We did it!"
"Yay us!"
"Happy day for all!" All of the robots kept patting themselves on the back like that, even as Midoriya and everyone else just stood there, dumbfounded.
"Hey. All of you. Be happy for us, too. Now." One of the robots dropped the goofy tone they all spoke with to address the contestants in a chilling monotone that nearly made Midoriya take a step back.
"Y-Yeah! Bravo! Good job!" Mineta said, offering an awkward cheer and applause as dressing. Other people followed suit, creating an atmosphere that was outright offensive with how fake it was.
"Yay! Thank you! Thank you!" The robots didn't seem to notice, though, for they all cheered for it in the same jolly tone they all spoke in.
"Wowzers, Mr. Drake, where'd you get these guys from? Some kinda robot circus?" Shazam asked.
"Would have been a lot less hours away from Tamara if I did," Tim said. "No, these are the kids' opponents for the Bo-Taoshi. The latest in nanotechnology, the adaptability of the D.A.V.E. program being pushed to its absolute limits, a unified artificial intelligence that allows for maximum efficiency, I present to you all the Omni Mind and Community! Or 'O.M.A.C.', for short."
"We are O.M.A.C.! We are everyone's buddy!" The O.M.A.C.s all shouted that one by one, all of them sounding like children. Like giant, metal children that could turn their bodies into cannons, which was more common than one might think.
"So why, exactly, do these things exist?" Endeavor asked.
"For the sake of the community, of course," Tim said. "Even with the world being in a state of relative peace, there are still many areas around the world where people suffer from crime and natural disasters and the like. All of this could easily be prevented, but the areas these people live in are small and low profile, so only Heroes who aren't the most capable get posted to them, if a Hero even gets sent there, at all. The O.M.A.C.s will be sent to these underprivileged areas to provide the support that these people need, but otherwise aren't being provided."
"Hey, not a bad idea. Can I get one of those just for being lazy?" Plastic Man asked. Flexi morphed into a large "X" and let out a buzzing sound.
"So, what, are you using the kids as guinea pigs, then? Not that I'm complaining; it makes sense to me," Aizawa said.
"That's exactly right. Their AI still has some kinks to work out, you see; I did not tell them to dance like that, for example," Tim said. "The O.M.A.C.s are all linked together across a single network, so there's always a risk of their thought processes getting overloaded. Maybe I could use a satellite to take some of the stress off of them? I don't know, but I want to test how well they're able to perform in a combat scenario as they are now, and that's where the proud student body of U.A. comes in."
"You're welcome!" The O.M.A.C.s all shouted that one by one. Midoriya was feeling a lot of things at the moment, but pride wasn't one of them.
"So our kids against a bunch of crazy robots, eh? As much as I love a good robot rumble, what happens if they lose?" Present Mic asked. At last, someone was asking the important question. Tim Drake was saying that all forty-two of them would go up against his O.M.A.C.s, but considering that they were inventions of Tim Drake, it wasn't a stretch to think that they could lose, but the point of the Sports Festival was for the students to show off, not some random machines. The entire thing could be a simple judgment of their overall abilities, but he couldn't imagine what sort of penalty they would get if they lost.
"If they lose to my O.M.A.C.s? Well, if that happens, then I guess we all get to go home early." The words rolled out of Tim Drake's mouth like the dice of a seasoned gambler and hung in the air with an unamused loftiness. It was all so sudden that it took Midoriya a moment and a half to process it all, and by the time he did, everyone was already screaming.
"Ha! Didn't know you yanks were even capable of being so bold! Almost makes you even a little bit tolerable!" Ultimon said, sounding happy for the first time that day. No one appeared happy to hear that, however.
"Tim, don't you think that might be just a little extreme?" Wonder Woman asked, a sense of concern present in her tone.
"Why would I? This is supposed to be the best school in the world, so they should be able to handle it," Tim said.
"They're still just children! You don't need to go so hard on them!" At that, Tim glared, of all things, at Wonder Woman, of all people, before turning back to the stadium and sighing.
"This is what bothers me so much about this generation. Everyone acts like things are so much better than they were back in my day, but that's only because it's become so commonplace to not allow anyone to take any risks. You all act like my generation was this utterly rotten time to live in and that the current one is so much more capable, but so many of you are unwilling to let them take on even a fraction of the dangers I felt. Why? Because they're all children? Give me a break. They're not training to become bakers or accountants or anything else like that. They're training to become Heroes, the most dangerous job this world's known for over a century, and you can't be good at that if you spend your entire life being coddled, yet here we are. Even my own city isn't safe from this, with people still acting like Batman is recruiting child soldiers and forcing them to do things they don't want to do just because Batgirl and Spoiler started off so young. It's certifiably insane, is what it is. What's worse is that I'm always brought up in defense of this attitude, but you think being babied would have made that day not happen?"
At some point, Tim had started scratching the back of his neck, and he only stopped when Wonder Woman grabbed his wrist.
"Sorry, sorry everyone. I got a little lost in my head there." Wonder Woman let him go, and Ultimon laughed at the entire exchange. "The point here is that if the children of today are as capable as people make them out to be, then they should have no problem dealing with the toys of a child of yesterday, like myself. Well, what do you kids say?"
"What do you say?" All of the O.M.A.C.s asked that in a lifeless monotone, as if they needed to sell the rhetorical nature of the question even further. Their singular red eyes had a dark shine to them, a whirring sound emanated from their bodies, and in the middle of all of that, Midoriya watched Alexis close her eyes for a few seconds, open them up again, snap her fingers and point ahead of herself with a smile on her face.
It was clear that nothing good was going to come of any of this, and there was nothing any of them could do about it.
Alexis Lois Luthor's Statistics on U.A. High School's Students, Part 3
Minoru Mineta
(Self-Prescribed) Theme Song: "Chichi wo Moge" by Hiroki Takashi
Power: ⅖
Speed: ⅖
Technique: ⅘
Intelligence: 5/5
Cooperativeness: ⅘
Wisdom: ⅕
Wonder: ⅖
Mystery: ⅕
Entropy: ⅕
—The self-proclaimed unofficial sixth member of the Monstars, but he's really Izuku's glorified hype man.
—Has been involved with the Body Improvement Club since the beginning of the semester with minimal results.
—If he put half as much effort into his training that he did into his perversions, he'd be invincible.
Denki Kaminari
(Self-Proclaimed) Theme Song: "BRAVING!" by KANAN
Power: 3/5
Speed: 3/5
Technique: ⅘
Intelligence: 1/5
Cooperativeness: 5/5
Wisdom: 2/5
Wonder: ⅖
Mystery: ⅕
Entropy: ⅗
—Surprisingly competent, considering his lack of intelligence.
—The lesser of two perverts compared to Minoru, so I'm least likely to have Mercy assault him.
—Wants to emulate Static, but he's a long way away from that.
Tsuyu Asui
(Self-Proclaimed) Theme Song: "Baton Road" by Kana-Boon
Power: 1/5
Speed: 3/5
Technique: ⅘
Intelligence: 4/5
Cooperativeness: 5/5
Wisdom: 3/5
Wonder: ⅖
Mystery: 4/5
Entropy: ⅖
—Her friends get to call her by her first name. She doesn't like it when I do it. Shame.
—By some strange coincidence, Tsuyu is a Metahuman with frog-based powers in a family of people with scorpion-based Quirks and is best friends with a girl named Mongoose who's half-Naga. Life is strange like that.
—Some frogs can do things like glide or break their bones to make claws. It'd be neat if she could do that, one day.
Fumikage Tokoyami
(Self-Proclaimed) Theme Song: "CROW's SKY" by Shuhei Kita
Power: 6/5
Speed: 3/5
Technique: 2/5
Intelligence: 3/5
Cooperativeness: 4/5
Wisdom: 3/5
Wonder: 4/5
Mystery: 5/5
Entropy: 6/5
—Part chuuni, part genie master, all weirdo.
—Might be the strongest kid in school thanks to Dark Shadow/Tskymi, but he doesn't want anything to do with him. The Badhnisia Incident nearly a decade prior likely has something to do with that.
—The references Dark Shadow makes are always hilarious.