This document beta'd by kylekatarn77
10. Odd Man In
The main way to keep from losing is to win.
-Yogi Berra
"Hey. Nice to see some students outside of the hero course here. You two must be pretty strong."
Izuku looked up from working on the Power Suit to see a boy with tall, fluffy blue hair and dark circles under his eyes. He opened his mouth to answer, only to have Mei put a hand over his mouth.
"Izuku! Don't you remember who that is?" she demanded.
Izuku hesitated for a moment, then his eyes went wide. He nodded quickly, and Mei removed her hand.
"We don't have anything to say to anyone that could mind control us," Mei said, turning her back to continue her work. "We've got more important things to do, right Izuku?"
"R-r-right," Izuku muttered, turning back to work on the suit, but his eyes nervously slid to the boy, whom he now recognized as Hitoshi Shinso. His quirk allowed him to mind control anyone who answered a question of his, and Izuku had nearly fallen into his trap.
"Relax. I'm not here to steal your headbands before we even start," Shinso said, giving Izuku a wan smile. "So, you know about my quirk? Wonder how that happened. Anyway, that's not important, or why I'm here. I want to team up."
"What?" Izuku turned around, shocked. "Why would you want to team up with us?"
"Izuku!" Mei snapped, smacking him upside the back of his head. "You're going to end up mind controlled!"
"Only if I wanted to. Which I don't," Shinso said casually. "No, I'm here to offer a team up, because you two are the only other students not from the Hero Course to make it to the semi-finals. And, well, I respect that." Shinso looked down at his hands, which he tightened into fists. "They wouldn't let me in, no matter how strong my Quirk is, because it doesn't fit their definition of a hero. You two don't fit the bill either. So, they're keeping you out as well. Let's work together to change that. At least for now. All bets are off in the finals."
Izuku looked to Mei, who was frowning at Shinso. "How do we know you won't just betray us and take our headband?" he asked.
Shinso shrugged. "You can choose not to trust me. If you do that, I'll just find someone else. But I think the two of you could really use my help. Sure, you're strong and fast, and that suit you've built is downright amazing. But do you honestly think just the two of you can go up against the entire Hero Course and win? You need allies."
"Ha! Izuku and I have gotten this far with just the two of us and our babies! We don't need anyone else!" Mei bragged.
"Wait, Mei," Izuku said, putting a hand on her shoulder. He studied Shinso. "Your quirk is strong, perhaps one of the most powerful ones here. And you're right. We are up against the entire Hero Course. I'm willing to partner up for this round, to prove that anyone can become a Hero. So what do you say, Mei?"
"Hmm. Well, if you think it's a good idea," Mei said with a shrug. "Just make sure he treats our babies right!"
Shinso chuckled and nodded. "Oh, I'll be sure to do that. Now, I think I'd be the best rider. Agreed?"
"Yes. I'm the horse, obviously," Izuku said, patting the Power Suit. "You and Mei can ride on top. Mei, watch our backs and look for openings. Shinso, how many people can you control with your quirk at a time?"
"It depends, but no more than four or five. So you can forget us just brainwashing the whole field," Shinso answered.
"No, but maybe getting one team to back off or hand over their head band at one time would be helpful," Izuku said. "I'll leave that part up to you. I think our best bet though is to try to stay away from other teams for as long as we can. We've already got a huge lead in points. How many do you have, Shinso?"
"Personally, 80, but those won't really matter compared to what you have."
"Agreed. So for now, we play defense," Izuku said, slapping his fist into his palm. "Let's get loaded up and ready, it starts in just a few minutes."
Soon, Izuku was back in the Power Suit, warming up the systems and waiting for the signal. Shinso and Mei were strapped in up top, with Shinso wearing the 10,000,000 and 80 point headband. Once more, Izuku felt the eyes of everyone on him, ready to take him down. He could see Bakugo glaring at him with a manic grin, riding atop Mina Ashido, Fumikage Tokoyami, and Eijiro Kirishima.
"Bakugo's team is going to be heard to beat," Izuku muttered. "Bakugo is pure offense, but he's got a nearly unbeatable defense too, between Ashido's acid, Tokoyami's Dark Shadow, and Kirishima's hardening."
"We'd best stay away from them," Shinso agreed. "He seems to have a chip on his shoulder regarding you. He's got the sort of arrogance and flashy quirk I can't stand."
"He also has no social skills!" Mei chimmined in.
Izuku could almost hear Shinso rolling his eyes, but there was no time to think. "Begin!" Ms. Midnight shouted, and Izuku leapt into the air, igniting his jet pack and hoverboots to leap across the field, away from the other teams that had immediately made straight for him.
"Who's coming after us besides Bakugo?" Isuku asked as he looked for a good landing spot.
"Actually, Bakugo seems to be targeting Monoma from 1B. He's getting really angry, Monoma stole his headband in the rush to get to you. Monoma seems to be showboating, and apparently Bakugo can't stand another diva," Shinso relayed.
"He doesn't like it when someone else tries to surpass him," Izuku agreed. "Jetpack needs to recharge! Landing!"
Izuku landed, but no sooner did he touch the ground than a wall of thorny vines rose up around him. "Shiozaki!" Her quirk made her hair into living plants, which she could control.
"Don't run away, face us head on, like men!" Tetsutesu of Class 1B roared as his team barreled towards Izuku, his metallic skin gleaming in the sunlight.
"I'm not a man, dummy!" Mei called back. "And don't you dare hurt my babies!"
"Laser cutter!" Izuku cried, activating the tool to quickly scythe away the clinging vines. He tried to jump away, but the ground beneath him turned to slurry, causing his legs to sink down as he became stuck in a mire. "Crap, that's Honeuki's softening!"
"Hey, Tetsutetsu, are you harder than Kirishima?" Shinso called.
"Of course I am, you idiot!" Tetsutetsu laughed. "Metal is harder than-"
Shinso showed his teeth. He had him. "Maybe you should go after Bakugo's team. A head on fight like that would prove you're far more manly."
Tetsutetsu's face suddenly went slack, and he turned away from Isuku, pointing towards Bakugo
"What? Tetsutetsu, we were going to get the 10,000,000 point headband!" Awase, one of his riders, protested.
Tetsutestu shook his head, and pointed again.
The distraction lasted just long enough for Izuku to pull himself out of the mud, but he had to immediately dodge out of the way as a sheet of ice tried to envelop him.
"Nothing personal, Midoriya, but we'll be taking that headband," Iida called as he led team Todoroki towards them. They also had Yaoyorozu on their team, who had made roller skates for herself and Uraraka while they supported Todoroki.
"They can fly too with Uraraka's anti-gravity on their team," Izuku muttered, activating his heat shield and dashing through the ice, breaking through it and running away as fast as he could.
"Look out!" Mei called, just in time for Shinso to dodge the long tongue of the frog like Asui. She was hiding behind the tentacled arms of Shoji, along with the purple haired Mineta.
"Don't let those sticky balls touch you!" Mei warned Izuku as a few popped out from within his hiding place.
"On it! Jetpack re-charged! Engaging!" Izuku once more took to the air, but as he had predicted, this time team Todoroki followed, with Uraraka using her Zero Gravity to provide lift while Iida used his engines to give them a boost. Quickly, Izuku used his grappling hook to latch on to the far side of the arena, disengaging the jetpack and yanking himself out of the way. He slammed into the wall, gritting his teeth at the impact.
"You two OK?" Izuku asked as he pulled out the grapple and reloaded it, running along the base of the arena wall.
"Fine, worry about yourself. We've got team Hagakure and team Kendo after us!" Shinso told Izuku.
"That headband is ours, Midoriya!" Hagakure cried, the only visible part of her head band as she was carried into battle by Kamanari, Oijiro, and Sato.
"Doesn't it feel weird, carrying a naked girl into battle?" Shinso called to the three boys carrying Hagakure.
"What? No, I mean yes, I mean, she asked us to!" Sato stammered.
Kamanari laughed. "It feels great! Mineta is going to be so jealous!"
"It's not really like that…" Oijiro sighed.
"Don't be a perv!" Hagakure lectured, her headband shaking wildly with her head.
"Well, don't you think Kendo and her team would be an easier target? Why don't you go after them?" Shinso called.
Immediately, Team Hagakure stopped chasing after Izuku, moving towards team Kendo who had been trying to cut him off. Kendo soon had to fend off Hagakure's clumsy attempts to snatch her headband, and Izuku saw from the corner of his eye she actually managed to take Hagaurke's with her Big Hand quirk, then her team spirited away, Hagakure's team clumsily going after them.
"Good work, Shinso! Your Quirk is amazing!" Izuku panted. Despite the cooling unit and his training, he was starting to tire after 10 minutes of constant exertion to keep away from the other teams.
"I was born with it. It's more impressive what you two have accomplished. Don't worry, Midoriya. We'll both prove that we're worthy of being heroes," Shinso said.
"Everyone has their eyes on us and our babies, Izuku!" Mei cheered. "I can see all the support companies taking note! Make sure you use the laser a few more times, and find a way to use some missiles! They'll love those! Our babies are the best!"
Izuku winced slightly "She means the-"
"Forget it! Here comes Todoroki again!" Shinso warned
Izuku barely managed to dodge out of the way of a wall of ice, only to have to raise his left arm to hold off Dark Shadow, Tokoyomi's quirk.
"Rawwwr! That headband is ours!" the black bird crowed.
"Not today!" Mei cried. She threw a canister into the air from her backpack, then put a hand over Shinso's eyes.
Izuku's faceplate automatically darkened as the flare went off, filling the stadium with sudden brilliance.
"Noooo!" Dark Shadow moaned, shrinking back to hide under Tokoyami.
"Ha! Weak to light, just like I hypothesized!" Mei laughed, then let out a woop as Izuku had to jump high into the air with the hoverboots to avoid more of Todoroki's ice.
"Must be nice to have so many flashy quirks!" Shinso called to the other team. "How does it make you feel to pick on a team that barely has a quirk among them?"
Todoroki stayed silent, but Uraraka replied, "We're not trying to bully you! It's just part of the game! Sorry!"
Suddenly, Todoroki's team floated off the ground, spinning out of control as Todoroki fired off another blast of ice at the exact wrong moment. Uraraka suddenly vomited, and they fell back to the ground.
"Damn, she broke my control when she did that," Shinso muttered.
"It's alright, we got away!" Izuku called back. He fired his grappling hook at the center stage, realing himself in and leaping up. He was forced to leave behind the hook though, as the ground started to soften and vines sprung out of the ground.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME, YOU COWARDLY FREAKS?!" Tetsutetsu demanded as his team ran forward. "WE LOST OUR HEADBAND TO BAKUGO AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"
"COME BACK HERE YOU B CLASS EXTRAS!" Bakugo screamed, still in hot pursuit of Momona. "I'M GOING TO STOMP YOU ALL INTO THE GROUND!"
"Relax, maybe you should help Bakugo out," Shinso answered.
"Why would we do that?!" Tetsutetsu demanded.
"You repent of your sins!" Shiozaki added, and her team vocally agreed.
Immediately, they veered off, vines sprouting up around Momona's team.
"What?! Shiozaki, why?" Momona wailed.
"SCREW YOU, THAT'S WHY! DON'T HELP ME, EXTRAS!" Bakugo ranted, seizing Momona's headband as his team wallowed in mud and vines.
Once more, Izuku made good his escape. Mei handed him another grappling hook, which he quickly loaded into the module. For a few minutes, they simply dodged and ran, the other teams either having decided he was too hard a nut to crack for the moment, or busily engaged in a melee.
All of class B had ganged up on Bakugo, save for Kendo's team, who was playing keep away with Mineta's group. They had somehow gotten Mineta's headband, probably by trapping them in Bondo's glue and turning Mineta's own strategy on its head. Still, with Bakugo fending off three teams he was far too busy to go after Izuku. The brash boy seemed to actually be enjoying himself, using his explosions to keep away any attackers, though few could get past the quirks of his horses.
"Here comes Todoroki's team again," Shinso warned. "They just don't give up."
This time, Iida was moving much faster than before, a determined expression on his face, blue flames leaving heat waves in the air behind him as Todoroki's ice coated Iida's legs. Izuku leapt into the air again, but an ice wall blocked his path.
"That trick won't work again!" Todoroki shouted.
"Shame, it did so well on you the first two times. How does it feel, not to live up to your father?" Shinso shouted back.
Todoroki narrowed his eyes. Uraraka opened her mouth, but Yoayarozu elbowed her teammate, and Uraraka's teeth clacked she clammed up so quickly.
"They have us figured out!" Izuku gasped, punching the ice to try to break through. He activated his heat shield, but he couldn't melt the ice fast enough. It crept up around him, threatening to encase the lower half of the power suit.
"DON'T YOU DARE HURT MY BABIES!" Mei screamed.
She threw out several canisters, causing Dark Shadow to squawk in panic. However, instead of a flashbang, a fountain of smoke erupted, rapidly obscuring their corner of the battlefield. Shinso, Mei, and team Todoroki began to cough, tears streaming down their faces. Mei had apparently gotten the smoke mix wrong, and it was somewhat noxious. Izuku, however, was fine, his mask sealing and going to internal air supply. He managed to finally get out of the ice, and switched to thermal vision.
"I'm going to stay in the smoke," he told Mei and Shinso. "Try to be quiet!"
"Ok," Shinso said, his voice muffled. "Mei had face masks. We'll pop off a few more."
"It's no good, my engines have seized up! And I can't find them in this smoke," Iida's voice gasped, his voice sounding strangled.
"Here, put on these gas masks," Yaoyorozu called.
Sweating, Izuku watched as team Todoroki refitted. The other teams were staying well away from the smoke, apparently thinking it was too risky to go where they couldn't see clearly. Mei had popped off a few more smoke bombs, and the air was now thick and black. Izuku moved as quietly as he could, though with the roar of the crowd and the sounds of Bakugo's explosions, it wasn't hard. He glanced at the timer he'd put on his HUD. Less than five minutes to go.
Still, Team Todoroki regrouped, Yaoyorozu making heat vision goggles for her own team.
"You're better off just waiting," Shinso called to them. "You're in fourth place. You'll still make it to the finals."
The other team didn't respond, but they could only stumble forward in the smoke. Iida had overloaded his engines, and was nearly crippled. It wasn't very satisfying, dodging through the smoke to run out the time, but it worked. At last, the horn sounded.
"And that's the end of the Cavalry Battle!" Present Mic announced. "What a display, folks! Team Shinso, against all odds, has held on to the 10,000,000 point headband! Team Bakugo is now in second place, having captured three teams headbands in addition to keeping their own! Team Kendo is in third place, with three headbands! And fourth but certainly not least, our former second place condenders, Team Todoroki, who also kept their own headbands for a satisfying finish! What a display!"
Izuku squared his shoulders and strode out of the smoke, trying to project an air of confidence he didn't really feel.
"That was a mistake," Mei groaned. "No one could see our babies through all that smoke!"
"It doesn't matter, we won," Shinso said. He unstrapped himself and hopped off, gazing up at Izuku with a determined expression. "From here on out, we're rivals again. I hope we don't face each other for the finals, since you know my quirk."
Izuku nodded, not daring to speak. He reached out, extending his hand to Shinso. The other boy took it and shook silently. WIth a final nod, he departed.
"He's weird," Mei commented. "I like him!"
"He's got the same dream I do," Izuku said. "In some ways, he's actually got it harder. Sure, I don't have a quirk, but that means I had to find a completely new way to become a hero. For Shinso, his quirk is weird, and makes him seem villainous. People won't trust him, and it's not flashy enough to get him fans. But it's very strong. He could save a lot of people, if only anyone would give him a chance."
"We'll just have to make him some super cute babies to help him out!" Mei vowed. "I can think of a dozen ways to improve his quirk! It doesn't work amplified, but I bet we could get him a voice modulator to disguise it so people wouldn't know it was him!"
"That is a good idea," Izuku agreed. "But we should focus on what comes next."
Grinning widely, Mei spun in a circle in excitement. "Yes! We'll be up on the stage, showing off our Super Cute babies!"
"Yeah, um, about that, do you want to wear the Power Suit?" Izuku asked, rubbing the back of his head and glancing up at their creation.
"Nah, I'll be fine! We've got other babies too! Besides, I'm not going to win. I'll just show off for the judges for a bit. It will be your job to prove to the world that I'm the world's greatest inventor, and you're the world's greatest hero, Izuku! So don't let me or our babies down!"
"Right! Don't worry Mei, this is our chance! The whole world is watching, and I can't let them down now!" Izuku agreed.
"Finalists! Please proceed to your preparation chambers. The first round pairings will be announced shortly!" Present Mic said. "And while we're waiting on that, it's time for a few games for the rest of our students!"
"Come on," Mei said, poking Izuku. "Let's get this baby back to the shop and do some minor repairs. Then it's on to the stage! I just know all the support companies will be watching us, and every pro hero in Japan!"
"Yeah. Let's not disappoint them!"
Authors Note:
Yogi Berra didn't say the title quote. Unless he did, in which case, he actually said it. But if he did not say something like that, it sounds like something he would have said if we quoted him on it.