A/N: 20 chapters strong! Thanks for all the Support! Keep the reviews rolling and enjoy~

Chapter Twenty -The Rush for First!

Present Mic had announced all of the different classes, from 1-A to 1-K, with the former receiving an explosion of cheers after the attack on USJ had garnered them attention from across the country.

As everyone gathered near the center stage, everyone was shocked to see who was standing at the podium.

Crack! The sound from a small horse whip in the woman's hand resounded as she flicked it, exclaiming afterwards, "Time for the player pledge!"

The students and crowd were in awe at the sight of the R-Rated Hero, Midnight. Her questionable outfit and track record for adult mishaps made many question if she was even allowed to be at a High School.

"Shouldn't it be the Principal or something?" Ken scratched his chin, looking boredly ahead.

"He's always at the third year stage," Izuku explained. "I watch the festival every year, so I guess that's the same at least."

Shiro made a small noise of delight from nearby, exclaiming, "Midnight is so cool! She's everything I want to be!"

"A-Are you sure about that?" Izuku chucked nervously.

Mei nodded at Shiro'a exclamation. "Someone bold and out there like that deserves respect!"

"You too Mei?!"

The pink-haired girl smirked. "Yup! That's what I want to be! Loud and proud and giving my all!"

Izuku let out a sigh of relief. "Ah, I see…"

"Everyone, quiet!" Midnight cracked the whip again, the whispering starting to die down. "Representing the students is Katsuki Bakugo from Class 1-A!"

Kacchan?!

Everyone seemed surprised, watching the blonde as he slowly headed up towards the podium. Izuku could hear some of the other classes talking about him.

"He finished #1 in the Hero exam, so it makes sense—-"

"But no way that kind of guy would do good in any other exam."

Izuku gulped, watching his childhood friend take the stand, looking very nonchalant with his hands in his pocket. He wasn't sure what to expect, but he knew that it would cause a ruckus either way.

"I pledge… that I'll be #1."

There it is! Izuku gasped, and every student went into an uproar, booing and insulting him. The boy's eyes scanned the crowd, and eventually landed on Izuku with the Support classes, a hint of a smirk appearing on his face.

"Bakugo! How could you say something so disgraceful," Iida exclaimed from nearby, obviously shaken.

Bakugo turned from the mic, looking down at the bespectacled boy, then at the other students of the Hero classes behind him.

"At least become a nice bouncy step for me to jump off of."

As Bakugo headed down from the stage, everyone was still in an uproar, especially the students of 1-B who felt like they were being personally attacked. Izuku was worried for his friend, but realized that he did this all on purpose.

Kacchan wants to be driven into a corner… He wants to show he can crush anyone! Izuku sighed. Of course he's drag as many people he could into his ways…

"Alrigh! Let's get started right away," Midnight exclaimed, ignoring the students' anger. "The first event is what you'd call a Qualifier— Every year, many hopefuls drink their tears here! Now, here is the fateful first game!"

She raised a hand, and a screen popped up behind her. On screen was a slot machine that was spinning rapidly, before finally landing on a single phrase.

"This year it's… this!

An obstacle race! That's to be expected, Izuku thought, instinctively reaching to the belt of his Drift unit.

"All 11 classes will participate in this race! The course will be the outer circumference of this stadium— That's 4 kilometers!" As Midnight explained, diagrams appeared on the screen behind her, showing the classes and the outer ring of the stadium. "Our school's selling point is freedom. As long as you stay on course—" She paused to lick her lips seductively for effect,"It doesn't matter what you do! Now, take your places everyone!"

Midnight pointed to one of the large exit tunnels of the stadium where there was a red gateway with green lights on top of it. The students began to gather, breaking their neat formations as some crammed in to try and be at the front.

"Being towards the back would be advantageous," Yuki stated to them. "No reason to be first til the end."

They all agreed to this, and most of 1-H stayed near the back of the pack as well, except for a select few like Wakata, who as a sports fanatic felt the need to try as hard as possible, and Ninsei, who was absolutely determined to get a leg up on his classmates for once.

"I hope Power Loader-sensei is watching closely," Mei commented with a grin, putting her goggles on.

"He won't be disappointed. I know we'll all make it through," Izuku said confidently, looking at his friends.

Ken rubbed the back of his head and shrugged. "I'm willing to help you guys, but this isn't my thing so… Don't wait up for me."

They looked to Ken, who hadn't broug ht any inventions or anything. During preparation, they had tried to get him to utilize his swiss army knife-like quirk in order to create things to give him an edge, but he had insisted it was a pain.

"Make it as far as you can," Izuku told him with a smile. "I believe in you!"

Ken nodded and looked away. "That's pretty embarrassing man, don't just say that randomly."

There was a noise, and they looked to see that one of the green lights had gone down. Shortly after, another went out. Everyone began to tense up in preparation.

As the final light went out, Midnight exclaimed:

"Start!"

Everyone took off. It quickly became a mad house as the students all packed into the tunnel, and their first sticky situation became apparent very quickly.

The group was stuck. Everyone inside the tunnel was pushing and trying to get through all at the same time. Those at the back couldn't get through the wall of people, as very few were able to break through.

Being at the rear backfired! Izuku thought.

"Midoriya! Hurry up!"

It was Yuki's voice. Izuku looked over to see that his friends were already making their moves.

Shiro, whom had a sort of second pair of metal legs that were hanging from her back, was able to clamp to the tunnel ceiling using them, laughing maniacally as she breezed past everybody.

Yuki was hopping from person to person, his steps off of them quick and precise and he looked all around, his quirk-enhanced eyes making it an easy task for him.

Mei had taken off, leap-frogging over Ken, who seemed disgruntled by it, firing a device from her belt that sent a metal piece into the ceiling connected to her via a metal cable, letting her swing above everyone.

"Man, we already got left behind," Ken commented.

As if! I've got something to prove!

Izuku took a few steps back, then ran towards the crowd. He charged his Flow, making it so that he'd get three consecutive strong bursts, exhausting his three stored charges. As the first one fire off, he was sent over the crowd, flying through the air.

In a moment, Izuku had already caught up to the others. He smirked at them as the second shot of air came from his Flow boots, propelling him forward. The light at the end of the tunnel was approaching quickly, and he figured he had already passed a majority of the students—

However, there was a loud noise, and the air suddenly grew cold. A blast of icy wind messed with Izuku's flight path, making him slam over into the wall, nearly falling onto the other students if his last Flow charge hadn't blasted him forward and out of the tunnel.

W-What's this?!

Izuku was shocked to find a giant wall of ice covering the side of the stadium. As he tried to land on the ground, he noticed it was solid ice, and struggled and slipped trying to slide to a halt, eventually falling onto his bum.

"Damn you!"

"N-Not fair!"

The cries from behind made Izuku turn to see several students stuck in the ice, their legs frozen over. Wakata and Ninsei, who had been at the front and were now stuck, were struggling and griping.

Explosions rang out, and Izuku watched as Bakugo suddenly soared overhead, using explosions from his hands to get over the ice trap.

"I won't let you get away so easily, you half-and-half bastard!"

Other students who Izuku recognized from the Hero classes were right behind Bakugo, using their various quirks to avoid the ice.

Half and half? Izuku looked ahead of the crowd for the source of the ice. There, he could see a boy running ahead of the pack, half of his hair red while the other was white. I think I heard about him, he's…

By now, the students were starting to break through the tunnel, rushing past those stuck in ice. The short and chubby Taka jogged slowly by Ninsei and Wakata, looking up at them.

"Do you require assistance?"

"No way! I got this," Wakata exclaimed, the athletic girl struggling intensely.

Ninsei sighed and shrugged. "I already got em like I was supposed to. It's all up to you guys."

Taka took notice that Ninsei's arms were gone, his sleeves of his sports uniform empty. He nodded and pushed up on his glasses.

"Perfect. Just make sure they aren't discovered," Taka said before jogging off.

Ninsei's quirk was vital to the plan some of the

1-H students had come up with in order to help Izuku make it through. His quirk, known as "Phantom Limbs," allowed him to detach his arms and/or legs and control them from afar—

And one of his arms were clinging to Bakugo, riding the hem of his shirt, trying to remain unfelt and unseen. Luckily, the explosive boy had no clue, focused on what was ahead of him.

Izuku slowly got up to his feet, struggling on the ice. He began to let his Flow compress air, restoring the charges.

Kacchan, I won't let you get ahead for long!

"Drift Check!" Izuku grabbed a tight hold of the Drift belt.

"Drift on!" A more chipper and excited robotic voice responded, something Izuku hadn't cared for but his friends insisted.

The voice commands were still active if need be, but Izuku had worked on another way to use the device otherwise. The gloves he used to send signals into the Flow unit could emit electrical pulses, so he merely amped up the pulse a bit to where they could physically shock something. From there, it was a matter of getting the Drift device at his waist to recognize and be controlled by it.

Let's go!

He sent a pulse of electricity into the belt, which made it slam the metal rods into the ground, finally giving him a solid footing. The whirring sound of the Flow ceased, having compressed its full capacity of air.

Now with a solid footing, Izuku charged his Flow, and at the same time as it firing, had his Drift device slide the rods back into itself, letting him fire up into the air.

"Go Izuku!"

He looked back, seeing Mei waving after him as she skated over the ice using the hover boots she had created. Behind her, Shiro was slamming the robotic legs into the ice to give herself a footing, but was moving slowly due to this, and Yuki was struggling to stay upright as he shifted his way across the slippery floor.

"Deku!"

Turning his attention forward, Izuku could see Bakugo looking back at him, his face a mess of anger. Izuku clenched his fists, approaching his childhood friend and rival at a rapid pace—

However, there was no clash between them. Absolutely massive robots rose in front of the students, making them gawk and come to a halt. Izuku landed, skidding to a halt.

"Stop full!" At Izuku's command, his Drift slammed the rods into the ground to help stop his momentum so he didn't run into Bakugo ahead of him. He then looked up at the creations that were taller than the sports stadium.

T-These robots are ridiculous!

Izuku recognized them as the ones from the large hangar they had done some work in. Power Loader had explained they were a part of the Hero exam, and Izuku had been amazed at the damage the Hero students had managed to do to them.

There were a few ahead of Izuku, but he wasn't sure what to do faced with such incredibly large blockades. He knew something had to he done, or else the others would catch up quick while everyone was gawking.

The boy with the dual-colored hair at the front of the pack stood firm, gazing up at the giant robots, as one of them began to reach its large hand down towards him.

That guy, he's—

A pool of ice began to form beneath the boy's feet, and he lowered his right hand, before bringing it up hard, sending an enormous wave of ice that went across the ground and up the robot, instantly freezing it in place as an icy mist kicked up all around. Izuku remembered the name that Aizawa had mentioned before.

Todoroki! He's… the son of the #2 Hero, Endeavor!

"Hey, he stopped them! Lets go through," someone exclaimed.

Todoroki ran between the legs of the frozen robot, and looked back at them.

"I wouldn't if I were you, I froze them while they were unbalanced," he called back to them as he disappeared into the mist.

Sure enough, the giant robot began to lurch forward, the ice shattering from its body. Everyone gasped and moved back as it fell and broke apart, hitting the ground hard.

With one of the large robots having fallen, several smaller ones rolled up to take its place. While these looked more manageable, they still appeared very combat capable, with thick metal arms and single glowing red eyes that locked onto their targets.

Gotta hurry up! Can't fall behind!

It was one thing to think that, but another to apply it. There was an explosion that cleared some of the icy mist, as Bakugo ascended into the air.

Another of the giant robots intercepted the boy, bringing its large fist down to try and punch him at a speed that seemed too much for something so big. However, Bakugo dodged it with ease, explosions from his hands allowing him to move and dodge with almost no effort.

Of course, going over! Kacchan is always so resourceful— Izuku shook his head, clearing his thoughts. Now wasn't the time to watch— He needed to go.

Two figures burst out from the wreckage of the robot Todoroki had destroyed. One of them Izuku recognized as Tetsutetsu, his entire body taking on a metallic shape. The other was a red-haired boy whose body seemed to harden itself.

"Hey, someone could've died! You're lucky it was me," the red-haired one called out.

Two students leaped out from the crowd, one firing a sort of tape from his elbow while the other had a sort of shadow that emerged from his body, both of them grasping the large robot and following Bakugo. Izuku noticed Iida rushing through the robots, moving in and swiftly kicking one of the smaller ones away.

Of course the Hero class goes in first with little hesitation!

Finally steeling his nerves, Izuku ran.

Running diagonally to try and run around the large robot that was distracted by Bakugo and the others, Izuku heard a creaking noises and saw another of the large robots as it lifted its giant leg, seemingly intending on stomping on him.

As it brought its leg down, Izuku activated his Drift, the right part of the device slamming the metal rod into the ground, allowing him to pivot and quickly change directions, just as the large hunk of metal came slamming down. The tremor caused from it made Izuku stumble, just as a smaller robot targeted him and sped his way.

Oh no, I'm not ready to dodge—

Suddenly, something fired into the robot's big glowing eye, shattering it. This caused it to spin out of control a bit, moving past Izuku and running into the nearby giant robot's leg.

Looking back, Izuku saw that Yuki had his arm raised, the projectile-firing device he had created at the ready, having fired an expertly placed shot through a tiny opening. Izuku nodded his thanks and started to run forward again.

Up ahead, Izuku could see some people who had gotten ahead coming to a halt. Another of the smaller robots suddenly intercepted Izuku's path, but this time he was ready.

"Out of my way!" Izuku jumped straight for the machine, charging his Flow. As it swiped at him, his right boot shot a blast of air, which he used to go over it, landing on top of it. "Fire left!"

The Drift shot the left metal rod hard straight into the back of the robot's head. Izuku jumped off, just as the machine exploded into a small fireball, continuing his run.

I hope everyone saw that! Izuku had two backup rods just in case that fitted next to his Flow unit. He took one out and reloaded the left arm of the Drift, as he came to where everyone was stopped.

"When did they have time to build this?" It was a girl he didn't recognize that questioned it.

Izuku was shocked to see a giant chasm ahead of them, one that had pillars within it to stand on scattered throughout, and thin rope between each pillar.

U.A is so resourceful… Izuku looked above, seeing Bakugo using his explosions to merely propel himself over the chasm. It's too far for my Flow to take me all the way!

Someone tapped Izuku's shoulder before running past him. He looked and was surprised to find it was Mei, the girl smirking at him.

"See ya, Izuku!"

The girl jumped, pressing a switch that shot the same device she had used earlier, latching to the nearest pillar and allowing her to swing up into the air safely.

"Everyone check out my cool babies!"

The girl's laughter and exclamations died out as she continued to get farther and farther away quickly, swinging through the chasm with ease.

"I-I won't lose, Mei!" Izuku couldn't help but smile after her.

Some of the students began to traverse the ropes, but Izuku knew that would take too long. He ran towards the edge, closing his eyes so he wouldn't get too nervous, and jumped.

Air burst from his boots, sending him flying forward.

Again!

He fired another blast from his Flow, taking him to the first pillar. He ran on it, going straight to the edge, timing the few seconds it took before jumping off again.

Again!

His Flow fired again, propelling him upwards. However, he wasn't quite going to make it to the next pillar, misjudging the distance. His Flow was going to need a few seconds to recharge, and there wasn't enough time.

Crap! Izuku braced himself for impact, but suddenly, he felt something grabbing his shirt. He looked back and was surprised to see a severed arm there, grabbing his shirt and lifting him up.

Is that… Ninsei's?!

Back at the starting line, Ninsei had finally escaped the ice and had started jogging. His face was matted with sweat, mainly from the exertion of using his Quirk from so far away.

"Dammit Midoriya— Making me do all the work!"

The boy could sense how things were going with his phantom limbs, so he knew Izuku was falling fast. On a whim, Ninsei stopped and stood his ground as he exerted all the strength he could, lifting with his right arm that was attached to Izuku. To Ninsei, it was like he was trying to lift someone right in front of himself, but the farther away his limbs were, the tougher it was to use his full strength.

Back at the chasm, Izuku was lifted just enough to collide with the pillar near the top, grabbing the ledge and gasping as the wind was knocked out of him.

I… made it! Izuku pulled himself up, breathing heavily. He looked back at Ninsei's detached arm, which fell off him and laid limp on the ground.

"S-Sorry, that must've been difficult," Izuku said, not sure if he could somehow hear him. "I won't waste your help!"

Izuku began to charge his Flow as he looked back, seeing that he was ahead of many of his the students now.

I can't rest, I know Kacchan and Todoroki are far ahead!

Taking only a moment to steady his breathing, Izuku ran towards the edge of the pillar and leaped, seeing Mei ahead of him finishing crossing the chasm.

"Seems like your class is working together well, eh Power Loader?"

In the building that was being used as a faculty break room of sorts, Power Loader was watching on the screen as he witnessed the entire Izuku event transpire. Beside him, the one who spoke was the hero Death Arms.

"That's the kid that made me these, right?" Death Arms lifted an arm, showing the EMP bracelet that Izuku had designed, though these ones were more refined.

"Yeah, that's Midoriya," Power Loader stated. "He wants to become a Hero."

"Really? A kid with no Quirk like that?" Death Arms scratched his head. "Well, he'll need a lot of help to get there. I'm not into the idea of someone being that reckless though."

Power Loader shook his head. "I think it's recklessness and his lofty goals that keep him standing—"

He looked back to the TV screen, seeing the leaders of the pack, Todoroki and Bakugo, blazing ahead of everyone else. Meanwhile, Izuku had cleared the chasm and was running as fast as he could to catch up to Mei.

"And his rivals who keep him looking forward."

To Be Continued

Next Chapter: The Winner Is…! (SF Arc)