Cumulous Cloud, Thunderous Horn

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of Hailstorm Vol. 2! And for those of you who don't know, I have also posted the first side story for my new little series known as 'A New Crusade IF', so feel free to check that out as well when you get a chance. And as always a big shout out to you, my fellow readers, for your continued support of this story, it really keeps me going. Now then, we seem to have no guest reviews this week, so onto the story!

A Few Minutes Earlier: Training Field Gamma

'Alright,' thought Ojiro as he swung and jumped from one pipe to another, 'remember to keep your mouth shut. His quirk only works if you answer back.' Obviously it wasn't as simple as that given the nature of Shinso's Persona Chords, so he basically had to stay quiet the entire time. A familiar noise entered his ears then as the sound of Todoroki's ice quickly forming could be heard nearby.

'Really have gotten better at controlling that haven't you, Todoroki,' mused the tailed boy as he continued to traverse around the outside of the newly formed field of ice. And that's when he saw it, a flash of movement. 'GOT YOU!' Ojiro struck then with a high strike of his tail aimed at Shinso's head. It was only by sheer luck that the purple-haired boy happened to look up in time to dodge Ojiro's attack which dented the pipe near where he'd just been.

"Ojiro, we need help back here," said Shinso in Iida's voice in an attempt to get him to answer. 'Sorry, that won't work,' thought Ojiro with a slight smirk as he jumped and whipped his tail at the brainwasher. Shinso was quick to dodge his first few strikes before rolling out of the way and countering by throwing his scarf at his opponent. Ojiro dodged it easily, but that had only been part of Shinso's plan as the cloth wrapped around a nearby pipe which he yanked on, breaking it loose and sending it towards the tailed boy's back.

Fortunately, he caught sight of the attack coming in the corner of his eye and blocked it with his tail just in time as the scarf came unraveled around it. "I'm not done yet," declared Shinso as he grabbed two more pipes with his cloth bindings and yanked them out to throw at Ojiro. But the agile student flipped and rolled out of the way of both of them before springing back up with a tail whip at close range. Shinso ducked the first couple of attacks before holding his arms up to ward off another couple of blows.

He underestimated the power of Ojiro's tail, however, biting back his teeth against the pain as a third strike toppled him over. Shinso was quick to roll back up to his feet to dodge another attack then countered with his cloth bindings at a more medium range. The 1A student backed up and used his tail to ward off the blow, getting it wrapped up in the process. Shinso pulled with all of his might to yank his opponent over, imbalancing Ojiro for a moment before the 1A student twirled his tail like a fan, unwinding the cloth around it.

"You're not the only one who's learned under Aizawa sensei," quipped the tailed student as he launched himself at his foe. Shinso, anticipating a high attack, dodged backwards before witnessing Ojiro shift his position and jump off the ground towards him. 'A feint,' the brainwasher realized as Ojiro closed the distance between them and landed a blow to his side, receiving a grunt of pain in response as his opponent fell to the side.

"As I recall," grunted Shinso as he rolled back up while holding his side, "though the rest of your team seems to be having a bit of trouble." Ojiro almost retorted back before catching himself. 'He might be bluffing and he might not be,' thought the 1A student as he debated on whether or not to turn around. Even if Shinso wasn't trying to trick him, turning ones back on the enemy was never a good idea. "You guys might not know, but I hear Juzo's quirk can soften anything including ice. It won't melt into water but rather turn into a sludge or mudlike substance that'll be impossible for them to move around in, save for your flyer, Cero."

Ojiro was torn at this new information as Shinso started slowly moving to his left while keeping the conversation going. "Of course, if I can brainwash him, then Kaibara will take care of the rest while Tsunotori and Tetsutetsu help Juzo deal with whoever's left. But if you hurry and get to Juzo before he uses his quirk, you could possibly allow your team to win the entire match with ease. Either way, I can't do anything else here now that you've found me, so I'll be off."

Shinso turned and jumped up towards the pipes, using his cloth bindings to swing around in a similar manner to Aizawa. Ojiro nearly called out for him to stop, only catching himself at the last second before making the split second decision to follow after the General Course Student. He jumped off pipe after pipe in pursuit of him until Shinso landed in another open area. 'You won't get away from me,' thought Ojiro as he jumped off another pipe, 'you probably think you're slick, trying to get me to doubt my friends in order to let you escape. But they're way more resourceful than you think, so I'm sticking to-HUH!'

Ojiro lost his balance as the pipe he landed on, sunk inward as if he landed on mud. "Perhaps I forgot to mention," said Shinso as he leapt back up and swung on one of the few pipes that wasn't softened, "Juzo already used his quirk in a bunch of places around here, and now, you're trap-ZOOOOOOOM!" 'What in the world,' thought both Ojiro and Shinso as a figure raced out of nowhere at high speed, nabbing Shinso in midair.

"Iida," said Ojiro, recognizing his fast moving classmate in the brief instant he slowed down to grab Shinso.

"Ojiro," said Iida quickly as he ran, "I'm withdrawing briefly to put Shinso in jail. Go help the others and spread the word that we can communicate again, but be careful. Juzo is still around!"

"Got it," said Ojiro as he freed himself from the soft pipe, though by then Iida was already long gone. 'Guess even his talking gets faster while in that state,' mused the tailed student as he turned around and headed towards the area where everyone else was at.

Now

'To think Iida can move so quickly now for ten minutes,' thought Clay as he watched his friend zoom well ahead of him, 'once he masters control of it, he'll be able to end some fights in seconds.' Though the real test would be against the Mudman, Juzo. Without a solid terrain even the best speedsters would have trouble, but that's why he was tagging along. He naturally wanted to help Todoroki too, but one glimpse at the inferno he'd kicked up and the fact that he could feel the heat from a good distance away and Clay knew there wouldn't be much he could do. He'd gotten better at keeping his clouds from evaporating, but that amount of heat would still make it near impossible for him to maintain their density.

So his only choice, despite his mild frustration, was to trust that Todoroki could handle himself and focus on helping the rest of his classmates. And by the looks of things, they needed it more than he did. Upon arrival, Clay found Shoji, Pony and Ojiro all sinking into the ground courtesy of Juzo's softening quirk. Ojiro had a hold of Pony's horns and his tail wrapped around her to keep her from escaping. Despite that, he was still able to execute a signature move that he dubbed 'Fist of the Tail: Swamp Smack Spin!'

The tailed student spun around at high velocity, repelling Juzo as he attempted to free Pony from his tail. The windforce from the attack was enough to also throw Shoji out of the muck as well while Clay held back for a moment until his attack ended. 'And people keep giving him crap for being ordinary,' mused the Cloud Wielder, 'guess I'd better grab Juzo before-.' "Honenuki," said Pony suddenly as Shoji was pulling them both out of the muck, "please warn me before you do something like that."

"Shit," said Clay as four of Pony's horns emerged from the soft ground. The 1A student attempted to intercept them with some spinning blade clouds of his own but was just the slightest bit too slow as they impaled into Ojiro's tail. He grunted in pain from the impact but held strong.

"If you think this is enough to make me let g-," said Ojiro through gritted teeth.

"I don't need you to let go," said Pony as the two of them suddenly launched like a bullet out of Shoji's grasp, propelled by the 1B girl's horns, "in fact, you holding on works better as my four horns take us both straight to jail!" Clay swore again, taking off before Shoji even had time to tell him to go after Ojiro. He wove through the series of pipes, honestly amazed Pony was able to maneuver such a load so well despite going backwards. 'Need to hit this just right,' thought Clay as he guided two spinning blade clouds on either side of him.

If he struck his targets at the wrong time or angle, he could easily injure his friend further. So with that in mind, Clay attacked the moment they emerged into an open area and directed his blades to slice off three quarters of the horns in Ojiro's tail. He knew Pony couldn't control them unless they were fully intact, but it was then he discovered one detail he'd overlooked, their momentum. Even without Tsunotori's horns, the two were still headed for the jail at high speed and before Clay could get a cloud behind them, the two crashed through the door.

"Damn," cursed the Cloud Wielder as he came to hover near the jail, "I was that close."

"Sorry Clay," said Pony as she came stumbling out of the jail, "but once someone's in that cell, they're out."

"Yeah I know it," said Clay with a sigh, "but I will admit this, I'm impressed. I knew you had control of four horns but I didn't know you could move such a big load with them."

"You're not the only one who's worked hard on their quirk," said Pony as she launched two of her horns and jumped on them. They acted like a pair of skates that allowed her to fly up into the air towards Clay. "Thunder Horn!" She unloaded her horns at him in quick succession as if she was firing a fully automatic weapon from her head.

Clay countered with his clouds using the Cumulus Combat formation and spinning it around his body to deflect the horns. Pony attempted to change her angle while still firing her horns but it proved fruitless as the cloud wielder simply shifted his quirk to match whatever location she decided to attack from. 'Let's see how you like this,' thought Pony as she directed two horns to strike from Clay's blindspots. As they approached, however, the cloud wielder broke them into pieces with spinning gauntlets.

"You should know being aware of one's surroundings is part of hero training," said Clay, "'A' for effort, though. Now it's my turn!" He launched four small clouds then which reshaped themselves into the appearance of oversized hawk moths of all things before charging after Pony. The 1B student had to break off her barrage to avoid them as she spun, flipped and twisted in the air with the assistance of the horns on her feet. Every now and then she'd stop for just a moment to resume her onslaught or fire one or two controlled horns at her opponent, but Clay intentionally kept one of the cloud moths back or used the remainder of his Cumulus formation to deflect them.

It was a battle of aerial acrobatics and skill that lasted for at least a couple of minutes before they both noticed one of the giant tanks collapsing in the area where Todoroki and Tetsutetsu had been at. 'Oh no,' thought Clay, observing that something was off about the area other than the falling tank, 'the fire's out, and that tank was definitely not toppled by ice.' The 1A student weighed his options: on the one hand he could continue this fight with Pony and maybe even capture her, but on the other hand he didn't know the full situation of what was happening over there. He pondered for only a few moments before turning and heading off towards the originally burning section of the training field.

"Hey what gives?!" Exclaimed Pony in English as she gave chase, "we're not finished here yet!"

"Consider this a short pause," replied Clay with a quick glance back, "I just suddenly felt like checking on something." Pony puffed her cheeks up in annoyance as she continued trying to catch up to her opponent. But the flight wasn't long at all as the Cloud Wielder arrived and quickly took in the situation below him. 'Well that's both relieving and annoying,' he observed, 'four people down and out.'

He didn't quite know how it happened, but it looked like an injured Juzo had used his quirk on the large tank which was then pushed over by Tetsutetsu onto a fleeing Iida who'd just managed to throw Todoroki clear in time. Now Juzo, Todoroki and Tetsutetsu were unconscious while Iida himself, though conscious, was trapped in a mass of rehardened muck which was formerly the collapsed tank. 'Well you guys managed to make quite a mess,' thought Clay as he deflected another horn before turning to face his pursuer, 'but at least now I know we only have one other person to worry about.'

"You've got a lot of nerve turning your back on an opponent," said Pony as she fired more horns at Clay.

"I took a calculated risk," said Clay while avoiding and deflecting his opponent's attacks, "as much as I like the one on one battle scenarios, I can't lose sight of the objective. If we lost because I was wasting too much time trading blows, I know I'd feel like an asshole."

"You might not lose this fight," said Pony as she tried maneuvering two of her horns against Clay which were quickly swatted out of the sky, "but you won't win it either. I don't know how you beat Kaibara, but that still puts us one to one on the scoreboard."

"Guess you missed the announcement," said Clay, trying not to smirk under his mask, "Kaibara ain't the only one caught. Aren't you forgetting someone?" Pony's eyes widened upon realizing that he was right. Since he'd taken cover early on to make the most of his quirk, the 1B student had completely forgotten he was still on the field.

"Crap, you got Shinso too," she said as more of a statement than a question.

"Technically Iida grabbed him earlier using that new move of his," replied Clay, "so our score is two to one if I'm counting right." Frustration crossed Pony's features then as she tried to decide what to do. She was in the same boat as he was just a moment ago. She could continue this fight, but she wasn't confident in her ability to actually capture Clay before time ran out, which meant she only really had one option.

"THUNDER HORN!" Exclaimed the equestrian girl as she fired more horns at her enemy. Naturally, Clay blocked them but that's what she was counting on. The moment his vision was partially obstructed using his clouds to block, she dove down towards the location where Todoroki was at. Even if she couldn't win, she could still tie this whole match up. Or so she thought until Clay dropped from his clouds with a falling heel drop, timing it right as Pony was about to pass him.

Reacting on instinct, Pony turned and blocked the attack with both arms and pushed Clay back before countering with a charge. Clay demonstrated his maneuverability once again, however, by moving up and out of the way before grabbing her horns and using them as levers to swing himself around and hit her in the back with a double knee. She gasped out in pain from the sudden impact but grit her teeth against it before spinning around in the air in an effort to throw Clay off. She succeeded in doing so, but he still wound up between her and her destination.

"Out of my way!" Exclaimed Pony as she pointed her horns at the Cloud Wielder, and failed to fire them. 'Oh no,' Pony realized as she felt her horns, 'he's keeping them in place with some more clouds he produced. They're holding my horns on!'

"And that's not all," said Clay as he made a quick slicing gesture with his hand, yanking the horns off Pony's feet with some more clouds that he'd planted on her before quickly destroying them with his main cloud. As that was happening, Pony let out a yell as she began falling towards the factory style training ground below. 'Oh no, if I can't launch my horns then I can't use them to fly,' she thought frantically, 'what do I do, what do I do, WHAT DO I DO?!' In a panic, she closed her eyes as the ground rushed up to meet her.

And it did, but much sooner than she expected, and why did it feel softer and fluffier? She could tell right away this wasn't Juzo's quirk. Even if he hadn't returned something to its solid state, everything he touched would've gone back to normal the moment he lost consciousness, so that could only mean. She opened her eyes to see that she was on a floating cloud raft that was slowly lowering her to the ground with Clay alongside it.

"Now surely you didn't think I'd actually let you hit the ground," he said while riding a cloud bicycle of all things, "I can be a little ruthless at times, but I'm not going to splatter someone in a training exercise."

"But the exercise isn't over," said Pony as she took her signature stance with her horns pointed at Clay, "so let's get back too-." Her statement was cut off by the sound of the horn signaling time was up.

"TIME'S UP!" Exclaimed Vlad over the speakers, "The third match is over! Class 1A's team has two people in jail while you guys only got one! Class 1A is the winner again, AAAAAAAAARGH!"

"I know I don't need to, but I still feel like I should apologize for the crap your homeroom teacher is gonna give you guys later," said Clay as he set them both down and dissolved his clouds.

"No, it's our fault for not being good enough to take you guys on just yet," said Pony with a sigh before walking over to Clay, "but if you want to apologize." She lightly punched him in the side, getting a groan out of the Cloud Wielder, "you can apologize for scaring me like that."

"Right, sorry about that," grunted Clay as he rubbed his side, "just take it easy with the hitting right now. Your classmate, Kaibara, got some good hits in on me before I spun him into the jail. Pretty sure I got some nasty bruising."

"I guess we can at least take pride in the fact that it was close," said Pony as they started back for the entrance, "either way, good game Clay."

"Looking forward to next time," he replied, "now if you'll excuse me, I have to go see an old lady about these bruises."

A Few Minutes Later: The Nurse's Office

"Todoroki, you're awake," said Iida as the ice and fire wielder sat up quickly in his bed.

"Good to see you're up," said Recovery Girl as she produced something from her doctor's coat, "here, have a calorie bar. Ojiro already ate his and went back."

"Kind of hard to believe the guy who took four horns to his tail was the least injured out of all of us," said Clay between sips of his fifth bottle of water.

"I still can't believe we both lost consciousness!" Exclaimed Tetsutetsu with a calorie bar in his mouth as he pointed at Todoroki from the doorway, "our fight might have been a draw, Todoroki, but I still feel like I lost and not just because we lost the match! That heat was crazy, so let's do that again!"

"You're too loud," said Recovery Girl as she shooed the steel student out of the office.

"So we both lost consciousness," mused Todoroki as he tried to piece together what happened, "but we won the match?"

"It got down to just me, Pony and Shoji," explained Clay, "but thankfully Iida had thrown Shinso into the jail shortly after I got Kaibara in there, so even though Pony used her horns to throw Ojiro in their jail, we still pulled out a two to one win once the clock ran out."

"Yes, but still," said Iida who had a cast on his leg from the impact of the tank that hit him earlier, "if I'd been just a bit faster we could have achieved a perfect victory."

"You were one of the big reasons we even won in the first place," Clay pointed out, "I wouldn't go beating yourself up too badly about it. We were all caught off-guard by Honenuki's flexible style. I was only safe because I was flying."

"And besides, you saved me, didn't you Iida," said Todoroki, "I vaguely remember you rescuing me. And not to mention, I made a mistake first." He glanced down at his hand, "it's become a habit to attack first with my ice or rather I ingrained it into my body. You were plenty fast, Iida, I was just too slow and because of that I made you and everyone else worry. I need to become a hero who can bring peace of mind."

"No, I'd never say that you were unrelia-OUCH!" Grunted Iida as his animated movements aggravated his leg injury. He spoke his next words with a more serious face, "I will run anywhere, to anyone. That is my convinction as the successor to the name of Ingenium."

"You guys aren't the only ones who have work to do," said Juzo as he suddenly pulled back the curtain to reveal he'd gotten up from his own bed, "those flames were pretty intense and I couldn't do anything against that Recipro move. So would you guys be willing to fight me again?" Everyone nodded or replied with 'of course' to his question.

"If you boys are all feeling better then hurry up and get back there before you miss the remaining matches!" Exclaimed Recovery Girl. "This isn't a place for chitchat!" The students were hurried out the door then as they gave a quick apology.

A Short Walk Later: Training Ground Beta

'This match is gonna suck,' thought Jirou as she was reminded who one of her particular teammates was. 'I know the other guys are reliable, but all it takes is one bad egg to ruin the whole bunch. Especially when it's the kind that doesn't know how to be a team player.' "Hey Jirou," said a voice that lifted the rocker girl's spirits up, "looks like I made it in time."

"Oh hey Clay," Jiro said back happily, "how are feel-." She was unfortunately cut off by the loudest student in class.

"HEY STORMY!" Exclaimed Bakugou as he stomped over to his classmate, "about time you got back!"

"I'm sorry I wasn't aware you'd been put in charge of the schedule," said Clay, "tell me, the cannonball clown and the rest of the one man circus isn't about to start next, is it?"

"Still think you're funny after a lackluster performance like that," said Bakugou as he pointed a finger at Clay, "I've already told this to damn Deku and Baldy, but you just watch and learn! I'll show you how a real pro hero gets things done!"

"First time for everything I guess," said Clay with a shrug, "I'll be more impressed if you avoid embarrassing yourself again." Bakugou simply growled in response to that as he walked past the Cloud Wielder. "One more thing, don't drag the rest of the team down." Whether or not the explosion boy heard it, he didn't give an answer back.

"Guess that's about all we can really expect from him," said Jirou with a sigh, "wish me luck?" Clay's response to that was to quickly peck her on the cheek, turning the rocker girl's face red rather quickly.

"Good luck out there," said Clay with a smile, "and whether Bakugou helps the team or not, just remember to watch each other's backs."

"Got it," said Jirou with a smile as she headed into the training field. Clay waved as she went before developing a mild frown the moment she was out of sight. 'I just hope that'll be enough to win the upcoming match. Because working with Bakugou, has not proven easy up to this point.' And he'd find that Jirou's team was about to have a most interesting time working with the explosion quirk user, far more interesting than any of them might have suspected.

And with that, the third match has drawn to a close, and even though Class 1A might be in the clear, that doesn't guarantee the rest of their matches will go smoothly! But we'll get to that next time, so while we're waiting on that, feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as Jirou's team attempts to work with the eternal hothead that is Bakugou! 'Til then.