"So, you say you've never had a quirk before the exam? Yet you attempted it anyways?"

"U-uh-huh."

"Such bravery and conviction! No wonder the class selected you for representative. Your difficulties have molded your personality far more than even generations of heroes could shape mine."

"I'm glad you got it in the end though. You seem better suited to it."

Iida considered, but before he could respond: Uraraka pushed into the conversation, just as bubbly as ever.

"But you're still gonna be a great hero, Deku! You don't rely on your quirk like we do, and that means you don't have any bad habits to break!"

Izuku nodded timidly, still a little nervous around the girls.

"Oh! That reminds me," Iida said, snapping his fingers as he remembered, "Your case is quite rare, correct? How did your friends and family react to its appearance?"

Uraraka layed her arms across the back of the seat, so she could stay in the conversation, earning a series of arm-slashes from Iida for improper posture while Izuku explained.

"Well… my mom thought it was really cool. She thinks it's related to her quirk of attracting small objects, but more like a repulsion to the planet. I don't really have anyone else…"

"What about Kacchan over there?" interjected Tsu, similarly leaning over her chair, "I know he's kind of a dunce, but you gave him a cute nickname."

"You say that again, froggy girl, and I'll cook you into a soup!"

"Yeah, Kacchan doesn't like that name, especially when it spreads. I don't know how he feels about it. I was planning to talk to him after class, but after the training day with All Might he's been avoiding me," Izuku mumbled.

Sero and Kaminari looked at one another, grinned, and before anyone else could say anything: started to chant "Kacchan!" The entirety of the bus was quick to follow, including the less social students. Jiro pulled out her earplugs, looked around, and half-heartedly picked up the chant as well.

It took about three seconds after Koda joined in with small pumps of his fists in beat with the two syllables for Bakugo to explode. Literally. His hand was shoved out the open window by Kirishima so the detonation merely shook their path rather than killing them all. The swerving which ensued killed the chant, but not his anger.

"I don't care that he grew a pair of balls alongside a new quirk, it's still an underdeveloped piece of garbage that'll never get him anywhere but a sidekick slot!" Bakugo screamed, slamming his fist onto his knee in one of the open seats, "I'll be the one to surpass All Might, and you can float off behind me like the dirt you are!"

Another, much more awkward silence followed, broken by Tsu.

"You've got quite the inferiority complex there, doncha?"

Aizawa's restraint bandages flew from the front seat to restrain the explosive student before he went on a killing spree, and he glared back at the group.

"Student Rep.: keep order back there. Bakugo: calm down. Asui: don't antagonize him."

The glare stopped the laughter building in the back, producing a final, lasting silence until they stopped in front of the USJ. With the students spreading out, Izuku and his little knot of friendlies struck up conversation again.

"Hey, Uraraka?"

"Yes Deku?"

"When are you free to train? Kacchan's right, I am behind, and I'm pretty sure you're one of the best teachers I could pick."

He blushed, realizing how it sounded, and turned away. Tsu looked between the flattered Uraraka and the embarrassed Izuku, and commented in her usual blunt way: "You two have a really weird relationship. Your quirks are kind of similar too. Are you related?"

Uraraka shook her head, as did Izuku.

"I don't think so."

"You must be soulmates then," Tsu remarked, walking on with Iida and saying nothing more.

The two paused in their steps, watching her go and adamantly not looking at the other. They quickly walked on to catch up to the others, placing a few students between them to make sure they didn't give Tsu anymore ammo for her crazy theories.

Entering into the structure, the class' jaws collectively dropped at the array of equipment and situation areas.

"This really is Universal Studios Japan," Kaminari gasped, looking over to what appeared to be a waterslide on steroids.

"Within these walls are every disaster and accident you can imagine," came a voice from the side of the entryway, drawing every eye to it.

"I designed it myself, and named it: The Unforeseen Simulation Joint!" said the voice, evidently coming from a helmeted and space-suit covered person, barring the bright yellow boots.

"It's the Space Hero: Thirteen!" squeaked Deku, jumping up and letting his quirk float him as Uraraka caught his fingers to keep him from floating away with an equal noise of unrestrained joy.

"I love Thirteen!" agreed Uraraka, pulling Izuku down on her other side so the two could nerd-out a bit without interrupting the class not immediately nearby to them, "She's the Gentlewomanly hero who does her best work in rescue scenarios! Just imagine the well-mannered wisdom we'll receive!"

They didn't notice Aizawa and Thirteen's muttered conversation, and by the time their attention returned to the front, it was complete.

"Now, before we start I have one or two points I'd like to cover," she said, holding up the appropriate number of fingers, "Or three… or four… maybe five?"

While the rest of the class seemed to wilt a little as the "quick briefing" started to sound like it was expanding into a lecture, Izuku and Uraraka seemed to be vibrating with anticipation at hearing the hero speak even more. Tsu glanced at them and then leaned over to Tokoyami, the nearest person she could see who seemed to have also noticed.

"Soulmates, called it," she muttered, earning a solemn nod from the bird-headed student.

"As I'm sure at least some of you are aware, my quirk is named Black Hole. It can suck in and tear anything apart."

"You've used it to save nearly ten thousand people from various disasters!" Izuku prompted, earning a head-nod from Uraraka so intense it looked like she had three heads all vibrating together.

"Indeed," Thirteen said, channeling her inner Teal'c, "However, it is only because of careful training that I could do so. My quirk is much better suited to doing harm, and could easily kill if given but a moment of misplaced timing. I don't doubt some of you have similar abilities, quirk or otherwise."

Holding up a finger, Thirteen directed their attention to the grounds, continuing to speak to the now silent and contemplative class.

"In today's superhuman society, quirks are heavily monitored and restricted to ensure safety against the uncontrollable or easily destructive abilities granted at random to various people. This is a stable system, but we must always remember: one wrong move, one misplaced quirk: and people will die."

The class collectively swallowed, and Deku looked down at his hands. He couldn't use a quirk which could harm others so easily, yet, but he was capable of hurting normal people with what he had. His physical prowess might not be able to handle One-for-All yet, but even with what he had he could probably knock someone out with a good strike. Not to mention, if he managed to get a hang of his float, he could probably drop someone, even unintentionally, and shift a heroic rescue to one of screams and very unpleasant imagery.

"You learned from Aizawa's training to begin implementing your power into your actions more seamlessly, now that you'll be expected to. From All Might, you learned to implement them against others with similar strength, and to see how deadly your own power is. But today you'll be learning the bread-and-butter of being a hero: how to save lives. I hope that by the time you leave this facility, you'll understand why you were given the gifts you have. You quirks are not meant to inflict harm, but instead: to help people around you."

The empassioned speech couldn't help but inspire some clapping, and Uraraka actually cheered a little.

"She's so awesome!" she hissed to Izuku, earning a nod of agreement and a large grin.

They were both exceptionally excited to learn how to help others with their kit.

"Right," grumbled Aizawa, "Now, first thing's-"

Deku and the two heroes tensed, all of them glancing down at the foyer in unison as some kind of dark gas began to spiral from nowhere.

"Stay close and don't move!" Eraserhead screamed, "stay with Thirteen!"

Pulling out an odd set of goggles, Eraserhead stepped towards the stairs with dark intent.

"What's going on? Some kind of robots like from the entrance exam?" someone asked, probably Kirishima.

Deku shook his head, narrowing his eyes down at the mop of unruly and unexpectedly diverse figures emerging from the gaseous portal. He couldn't see many details, but the stances they held proved one thing beyond a doubt.

"They're villains," he mumbled, feeling his body tense up alongside everyone else's.

Not one student doubted that whoever the ruffians were, they were best described as pure evil. Even Bakugo's fury seemed inadequate to resist their aura of menace.

"Villains?" Kaminari laughed, denial evident in his half-smile, "Th-there's no way. No villain would be dumb enough to invade a school for heroes. Right?"

Rather than indulge him, Yaoyorozu glanced to Thirteen with a sharp expression.

"There are sensors to detect intruders into the school, aren't there?"

"Of course," the hero said, stepping forward to hold the line between them and the stairs, "But none of them are going off. One of them must have a quirk to disable electronics or interrupt radio waves. Probably one of the first out."

"They obviously aren't so moronic as to invade without a plan then," the mix-haired boy, Todoroki, said, "They picked a time and place away from the main campus, made sure to prevent a response, and brought a force of numbers to overwhelm unknown skill."

"Doesn't matter," Eraserhead growled, gripping his scarf of capture cloth, "Thirteen: start evacuating. Kaminari: try to get a signal out with your quirk. Maybe you can punch through another quirk's jamming."

"Y-yes sir," the electric-student agreed, placing a hand to his earphone.

"B-but Sensei!" Deku protested, seeing their teacher step to the edge of the stairs, "Your style relies on hit-and-fade tactics! Erasure and quick capture! Against that many, and in the open, you can't possibly-"

"No good hero is a one-trick-pony," he said, quietly but firmly.

Deku swallowed, feeling the words settle in his stomach. It was meant to be a reassurance, but in that moment he knew it was also a lesson.

Before he could react to it though, Eraserhead leapt down the stairs, his angle and legs prepped for a second jump halfway down the stairs. The Villains at the bottom seemed to scoff and prepare to devastate him, only to appear mildly stunned as he crashed into their ranks. The first trio fell to his attacks, being smashed into one another at forces surprising for being caused by cloth and leverage. As larger and hetero-morphic quirked enemies began to swarm him, he surprised the class again by actually punching them and otherwise using basic boxing and martial arts to disable and evade them.

"Even against so many-" Deku muttered, awed.

"No time to analyze, get back to the bus!" Thirteen yelled, gesturing the group towards the doors.

Uraraka snatched Deku's hand, pulling him towards the door as his emotions began to overwhelm his better sense. He shook himself and glanced to her, nodding his thanks. She gave him a smile and released his hand, turning to face forward and hiding her cheeks from view.

"I'm afraid your escape would be against the wishes of my employers," an echoing voice came, emerging from the smoke which had brought the villains in, now appearing between the class and the doorway.

"My humblest apologies," the shadow continued, "I believe introductions are in order, and my compatriots are a bit… uncivilized, in such matters. We are the League of Villains. Please forgive our audacious intrusion, but we have come to U.A., this bastion of heroism and learning, to end the life of one All Might. You no doubt recognize him as the Symbol of Peace. We had it on good authority he would be present here today, but it seems his itinerary was… revised. Regardless, my mission today remains unchanged, and I do again apologize for this unpleasantness."

The shadow began to spike and swirl outwards, creating tendrils of darkness which spread towards the class. Before they got very far though, a pair of figures launched themselves towards it. Bakugou and Kirishima.

"Man, you just love the sound of your own autotune voice, don'cha, you discount Butler!" the former screamed, unleashing an explosive frontal attack.

At the same time, Kirishima's sharpened arms lanced out, trying to cut through the center of the fog. The two grinned in triumph as the smoke swirled away, but died away when it reformed and began to expand again.

"Quite good," the shadow praised, his voice now echoing from all around them, "Even though merely students, your skill is that of the best."

"Get back you two!" screamed Thirteen, but it was too late.

The dark smog encircled all of them, surrounding them and tearing them apart.

"Please, do writhe in torment until your very last breath, everyone," came the cackling words.

Without warning, Ochaco found herself in midair, falling towards some water. Snapping her hands together, she felt her inertia slow and then halt, anti-gravity coming into effect on her body. Her motion sickness kicked in almost immediately, but for a moment she managed to see the whole scene of the Flood Zone beneath her.

The two people closest to her had been sucked with her, namely the grape-haired Mineta and Deku. They were falling straight for the water as well, with the purple student screaming for his life. The two struck the water, and Ochaco realized there were other things in the pool with them. She almost screamed herself, seeing something very sharklike heading for the mop of familiar green hair, when he jetted past the enemy and into Mineta's body.

It was like he'd suddenly produced jet engines from his feet, soaring through the water before meeting his classmate. She watched a little longer as the two blasted free of the water, Deku using his ungainly floating to get them free, before glancing down at the ship below her. If she wasn't careful, she'd be in the same boat before long.

Releasing herself, Ochaco fell for a few seconds before reactivating her quirk and rising again at a new angle. She tried to glide down towards the deck, feeling her body fighting against her with each drop and return to floating. By the time she'd managed to hit the surface and get her feet, Deku and Mineta were already somehow on board.

Holding up a finger, she threw up a little over the side, earning a disgusted whine from one of the swirling villains. She quickly wiped her mouth on a nearby deck towel and then nodded to her friend and classmate.

"Thank you… Midoriya," Mineta grumbled, seeming similarly out of sorts.

But Deku was already distracted, his eyes darting around as he muttered.

"They know our schedule. Probably got it during the media attack… maybe they even caused it to get the distraction in place," he noted, glancing out at the swirling villains, most of them careful to remain away from the rainbow-colored refuse.

"Y-yeah, but All Might'll just come in and stop 'em," Mineta protested, sitting down by the wall, "We just have to wait for him."

Ochaco almost let herself get caught up in the optimism, but felt a thought nag at the back of her mind.

"But…" she mumbled, "If they planned this far ahead… maybe they planned on how to deal with him too?"

Deku nodded solemnly, his eyes flicking over to the distant melee between the land-based villains and Eraserhead.

"They wouldn't just come here to get beaten, not with this level of planning. You're right, Uraraka. Besides, I don't think we could hold out that long."

"What do you mean?! You can do your fly-y thing and bounce around the air, and we'll be fine!" Mineta protested.

"We can't," Deku apologized, "I only just tried that out of desperation, and I can already tell I'd get exhausted with a passenger after a few minutes. Not to mention Uraraka probably can't stay up with us."

Mineta began to protest, and Deku shifted to muttering and thinking to himself faster than Ochaco could understand, when something caught her eye. She turned and glanced at the water, and felt her blood run cold.

"D-Deku?" she asked quietly, "I think we're running out of time."

She pointed, and the two looked at the oncoming swarm of aquatic villains. They were closing in now, no longer stunned at their quick retreat.

"Then we'd better get going now," Deku decided, clenching his fists, "If there's even a slight chance- no, even if there's no way they could kill All Might, we can't afford to sit here. It's time we prove why we're here. We have to fight!"

He seemed so serious, and yet his face was still so much like a teddy bear that Ochaco had to restrain herself from laughing. Then he set his jaw, and the cuteness faded into unwavering resolve. She nodded and felt her own posture and aura shift to one of tense readiness.

Mineta began to complain and squeal in fear, but Deku ignored him. He pointed out at the swimming villains, then to Ochaco and finally to himself.

"They brought a lot of water-based villains. They had to know what environments were here. But they sent the two fliers here, in a place where we could easily escape. We have to assume they only know the terrain and a few things about us, not the details. That means we have an advantage."

He turned to Mineta.

"They don't know what your quirk is, and they probably only guessed about ours. We can surprise them, and if we use it well: we can get back to the group and fight with numbers."

"My quirk is no good here! See?" Mineta wailed, beginning to pull off bulbs and throw them into the water at an incredible speed.

They bounced and floated along in the water, and to their amazement: seemed to worry the villains, who swam back from them.

"Th-they just stick to things, or bounce off me…" he groaned, continuing to throw in a panic.

Mineta started to scream and cry about some perverted life regrets, when Ochaco noticed Deku grin.

"Uraraka? I think I have a plan. Can you float yourself and Mineta for about a minute?" he asked.

Ochaco swallowed and nodded.

"Whatever you need from me, Deku!" she promised.

"Then when I tell you to go: you go!" he yelled, bracing his foot against the railing, "Mineta, get yourself a bounce!"

Mineta seemed to dully recognize his words, and twisted around to start throwing balls at the wall beside them. They stuck to the material and began to pile up, Ochaco touched his shoulder and then held him down by his shoes as he continued to build up a bouncing surface.

A scream of rage came from behind her, and Ochaco turned to see Deku flying almost straight up and yelling in a kind of imitation of Bakugou's usual yells for death. Then he stopped, and fell. He twisted in midair, falling into a streamlined position with his fingers down, then abruptly vanished. A sonic boom echoed from where he'd been, shattering glass and making many of the aquatic enemies hold their ears.

"Go!" was the only echoing word Ochaco could make out in the din.

Ochaco spun once and threw Mineta at his makeshift trampoline, quickly floating herself as he rebounded and launched at her. She held out her hands and caught ahold of his as he rocketed by, tugging her free and towards safety.

A deafening explosion sounded behind them, and a whirlpool formed directly below where Deku had vanished, sucking in Mineta's balls and all of the villains, even tugging at the ship a little. Ochaco and Mineta's inertia began to fail, and they got a good view of the compacting mass of cursing limbs and foam.

Another blast caught their attention, and a body rocketed up into them, knocking the pair out of the sky. Ochaco screamed in pain as whatever it was hit her side, but gasped in recognition at the green-haired boy now falling beside her. She blinked at the pulverised hands he had, wondering how he'd suddenly hurt himself. Then she realized what he'd done.

Deku had somehow floated with the same force he had during the entrance exam, or at least some of it, only oriented downwards instead of up. He'd blasted straight to the floor of the pool and probably tried to brace himself as he'd hit it. Then he'd redirected and managed to hit them, giving them the last little push towards land.

Ochaco felt amazed at his ingenuity for only a moment however, before she hit the water in the shallows and suddenly her priority became swimming.

"Oh gods we're alive!" screamed Mineta, pulling himself free and trying to run towards Aizawa.

"Mineta, wait!" groaned Deku, trying to follow but wincing with each movement of his devastated hands.

The grape-haired student actually listened, his eyes slightly enamored with Deku for some reason.

"We- we'd just get in his way," he groaned, managing to get onto his stomach and lay out his arms slightly, "We need… to wait for an opening."

Ochaco grimaced at the purple and black color of his hands and looked around for something to set them with. Then her eyes alighted on Mineta.

"Mineta: can you help me? I need your quirk," she prompted him, pulling Deku up a little more.

The purple pervert nodded and offered a ball. Ochaco held up Deku's hand and eased the palm onto the sphere.

"Put his fingers down carefully. It'll help keep them in line," she mumbled, careful to keep them from touching until they were ready to be kept in place.

She might not be a tactician like Deku, or have an unexpectedly versatile quirk like Mineta's, but she knew how to handle hurt limbs. With luck, Recovery Girl could make him better when they got back.

As Izuku managed to sit up, he noticed two things immediately. The first was that his hands felt better now they were secured. The second that Uraraka was looking at him with a caring intensity he hadn't seen anyone but his mother observe him with before.

She sighed with relief as he blinked at her, but he didn't see anything else from her as some sort of dark shape came flying down the steps and bounced to the top of the pile of unconscious bodies from Eraserhead's attacks. For a moment it almost seemed like he'd won, but in that moment Izuku's eyes found Aizawa.

He was being held down by a hulking black figure, a bird-like beak but with sharpened teeth grinning above him. The other two looked over and gasped.

"I take it: one got away?" came an arrogant drawl from the hand-covered leader.

The foggy body groaned a little, and he sighed.

"In that case, let's bounce. Nomu: break his face and we'll get out of here."

The beast lifted Aizawa's head and smashed it down once more, sending a chilling sound through the cracked concrete.

"They're leaving? W-we're saved!" Mineta managed, rushing to hug Izuku out of joy, only to be intercepted by Uraraka, who quickly forced his head under.

The enemy trio glanced over at the sound, and Uraraka's attempt to silence the boy failing as the leader turned fully towards them.

"Let's leave him a few dead kids though. A thank you present for failing to show up on time and die nicely," the leader cackled.

He lunged at the group, and Izuku's heart stopped as the hand reached for Uraraka, none of them able to react before his fingers met her face. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the man grinned behind his hand and turned back to face the beast "Nomu."

"You're a pretty cool guy, Eraserhead," he praised, without almost any mocking.

Their teacher had managed to lift his head up just enough to reactivate his quirk, freezing the attack before it could hurt Ochaco.

Unable to punch, Deku brought his arms to a cross in front of his face and activated his quirk full-power, trying to blast the Villain away from his friend.

"Get off her!" he screamed, rocketing from the water for a deadly one-foot impact.

The hand-covered villain seemed to almost casually ask for his bodyguard to aid him.

Deku impacted something hard, but felt none of the intense pain he had from his bounce off the pool floor. He looked up to see the Nomu beast standing firm above him, almost completely unaffected by the impact.

"Hm, not bad kid," the leader said, peering around the monster, "Big hero energy with this one. I suppose one "true hero kid" will have to substitute three "hero-in-training kids." Either way-"

Deku realized his impact must have released a water wave or shockwave like his previous blast uses of Float, and kicked his friends back into the water. But now he was on his own.

The skeletal hand stretched towards him, seeming almost unnaturally long, when a reverberating sound shook the area. Everything seemed to pause, and a deep baritone sounded through the entire facility.

"Fear Not. I. Am. Here!"

I'm back, Ladies and Gents, and everyone else too! Please, leave a comment so I can be motivated for Vol. 3, since I run on my readers' feedback.

Love you all!