The Man Out of Time

by Ultimate10

After a 150 years in ice, Izuku Midoriya finds himself in a new world where meta-abilities or "Quirks" are the norm. His journey to becoming a modern Pro Hero will have its challenges keeping his old identity a secret, facing old and new foes, and learning to let go of the past. Does the world even need Captain America anymore? Or is he just too old-fashioned? Marvel/MHA AU World.

11. Chapter 10: USJ Part 1

The Man Out of Time

Chapter 10

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"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

---

Musutafu, Japan - April 2197

Captain Midoriya scanned the crowd stepping through the black portal in the USJ courtyard below. All of them were vaguely human, but no two alike. Some clutched weapons while others were weapons.

His verdant gaze immediately fell on the man with shaggy teal hair, his covered obscured by a severed human hand with more attached to his arms. Lastly, stepping out besides the Hand Man was a hulking black monstrosity that rivaled All Might in size adorning only brown cargo pants, with a beak full of sharp teeth and… an exposed brain.

The look in that man's scarlet eye, clearly visible through his hand-mask, and the black beast's dead gaze told the super-soldier everything he needed to know.

This was not a test!

In one fluid motion fully ingrained in muscle memory, the war veteran pulled his shield off his back and placed his left forearm through its straps.

"Uh… this isn't part of the class, is it?" Kirishima asked, the nervousness in his tone evident.

"No." The Captain responded, his expression and tone both serious. "Those are Villains."

The rest of the class silently gasped in stunned disbelief at that statement; even Tokage was starting to look uneasy.

'An attack just after the incident last week. The ten seconds of reported missing footage. No way this is all a coincidence, and they showed up just as class was starting.' The verdette mused. 'This attack of theirs has been carefully planned. So they must have some sort of goal in mind.'

Aizawa frowned as he too was surveying the courtyard below, and had reached the same conclusion.

"Hold on! How do you know that?!" Mineta cried out, and then looked at Aizawa and Thirteen. "Senseis, those aren't really Villains, right? Is this part of a test!?"

"They're the real deal!" Aizawa confirmed. "Everyone stay back!"

Most of the class did as they were instructed with varying amounts of shocked apprehension.

"Wait… seriously?" Tsunotori said shakily, slipping into English.

"Tch. What Villains would be stupid enough to sneak into UA?" Tokage frowned.

Captain Midoriya looked around the massive facility. "Aizawa-sensei, shouldn't there be alarms going off?"

"Yes, there should be. All campus facilities have them." Aizawa answered, and then added, "We'd be able to hear the other facilities if they were also under attack. More than likely they chose to attack this building since it's isolated."

The Captain's eyes narrowed. "So they're bold enough to attack a school of Heroes and smart enough to do it with a plan. This isn't good…"

Aizawa glanced to look at the verdette. While the other students were doing their best not to break into panic, Midoriya had walked away from the class and was analyzing the situation like he was. His military experience–though limited by three years–was certainly coming through.

"Midoriya, go back with the class. You'll be evacuating with the rest of them."

The soldier turned to him with a steely-eyed gaze.

Meeting his gaze was the eyes of a veteran soldier ready to march into battle. Though Aizawa was curious to see how he would fare against a group of Villains with his military training, Midoriya was still his student… and Aizawa was going to protect him.

"You were a soldier in America, yes? Then follow my orders, and protect your classmates." Aizawa demanded in English. "That's your mission."

The Captain considered his instructor's words and nodded in acknowledgment, falling back with the rest of his peers.

"Uraraka-chan. Yaomomo," he stepped in front of them protectively. "I want you to stay close to me until we get outside. Alright?"

Both girls nodded in understanding, noting his switch to his nonsense soldier demeanor.

"What the f**k?!" Bakugo snarled, gritting his teeth and tightly balling his fists. "How in the hell could Villains break into a school full of heroes!?"

"Thirteen-sensei! Why aren't the alarms going off?" Yaoyorozu asked shakily as she watched the Villains start to scatter across the plaza.

"They are! The systems aren't lying! They're all green." Thirteen confirmed, looking at her watch. "Which means..."

"Someone's jamming the signal," Captain Midoriya quickly deduced. "They either have a device that's doing it or one of them has an electromagnetic wave type Quirk."

Todoroki stepped up, intently watching the Villains' every movement. "We are far from the main campus, and there's only two Heroes here. They came in with a plan and a clear objective of some kind."

"It's a little over the top for just us, isn't it?" Kirishima asked. "I mean, we're just freshmen…"

"Be that as it may," Yaoyorozu said, "This is too coordinated to be an ordinary sneak-attack."

"You'd be right." Captain Midoriya confirmed. "And like Todoroki-san said, they have a clear goal in mind here. Whatever that may be…"

Aizawa stepped forward toward the edge, only stopping to turn to his fellow instructor. "Thirteen, our first priority is getting the students out of here. Start the evacuation, and try getting in contact with the school once you are out of the building. Kaminari!"

Upon hearing his name, the electric boy perked up. "Y-Yes sir!?"

"I want you to try contacting the school with your Quirk too. See if you can break through whatever is blocking our communications by boosting the charge in your head set."

"R-Right!" Kaminari stammered, nervous.

Seeing the students converging on Thirteen, Aizawa turned and slid his yellow goggles on. The super-soldier recognized what his instructor was preparing to do, and immediately grew concerned.

"Eraserhead, wait!" He called out. "You're not planning on fighting them yourself, are you?"

Aizawa perked up, realizing something. 'I never told the class my Hero name…'

The soldier went on. "Even if you erase their Quirks, there's still way too many Villains down there for you to fight on your own. Isn't your fighting style more of a surprise and capture kind? Prolonged front assaults aren't your strong–"

"Midoriya," Aizawa cut him off, "I'm sure you've done your homework on combat abilities. But, as a soldier, you should already know: you don't survive long with one trick."

He wasn't sure how Midoriya knew his Hero name and fighting style when he made efforts to keep that information on the down low, but now wasn't the time nor place to worry about it.

Taking one last look at his class, Aizawa turned back to the courtyard. "Thirteen, I'm leaving it to you. Get them out of here!"

With a running start, Aizawa launched himself down the steps and into the melee.

The 21st Century soldier watched as the haggard man held his own against the horde of Villains below. He had to admit that Eraserhead was impressive. Most of his opponents couldn't get close, and those that did were either punched, kicked, or wrapped up and tossed aside by his Capture Scarf.

What a useful piece of Support Gear, he thought.

But not even a minute into the melee, dozens–maybe over fifty–were surrounding Aizawa. Though the Underground Hero was holding his own, the super-soldier was concerned over how long he could keep it up.

Captain Midoriya clenched his fists. 'Aizawa is a skilled fighter, but sooner or later, he'll need backup. He can't keep fighting like this.' His gaze shifted to the teal-haired man, the humanoid black mist, and the robust black bird-monster. '...especially if those three enter into the fray…'

Yaoyorozu placed a hand on his shoulder, snapping the verdette out of his thoughts. "Midori-kun we have to leave!"

"I know… but–"

"Aizawa-sensei can handle himself." Yaoyorozu said sternly. "Please, we need to go now!"

Despite his reservations, he couldn't argue with her. Aizawa was a Pro Hero and technically had been fighting Villains longer than he himself had. Surely he could handle himself long enough until help arrived, right?

Maybe…but experience told that likely wasn't the case. Still, Aizawa had made a point that the students' safety took priority at the moment, and he couldn't disagree.

He let out a heavy sigh. "Alright, let's get moving." He took off alongside Yaoyorozu with the sounds of battle waning behind him.

'Priority One, get everyone outside and call for help like Aizawa said. When everyone's safe, I'll go back for him.' The soldier internally decided. 'Aizawa won't like it… but I won't let him or anyone else die today!'

---

Meanwhile, in the Hero Department's teachers' lounge, All Might sat alone on a couch in his shrunken form. He frowned and hung up his cellphone; his attempts to contact Aizawa and Thirteen both went straight to voicemail.

'The class must already be in full swing by now. It's not surprising they aren't picking up then.' He thought.

He glanced at the clock on the wall, groaning in annoyance. This morning he had gotten caught up in heroics and pushed himself to use up nearly all of his time. Now he was forced to wait in the lounge and hoped he'd recover enough to catch the tail end of the class.

'I can't believe I made such an amateur move.' Yagi berated himself. 'Regardless of the reason, because of my off-hour activities, I'm forced to neglect my duties as a teacher.'

He had hoped that his time spent with Captain America would prepare him for his teaching role at UA. At the very least it would give him an idea of how to manage his teaching and Heroic duties. Clearly that didn't happen.

'The Captain's probably disappointed in me. I can't say I blame him though. I'm not taking my duties as an instructor as seriously as I should be.' He inwardly lamented.

Sighing deeply, All Might leaned back, "I have to do better. I can't keep making foolish decisions. They deserve better. He deserves better."

"I agree wholeheartedly. I'm pleased to see you've come to that realization on your own."

Yagi jolted up. At the door, Nezu smiled as he walked inside. His smile was a bit too bright if Yagi were being honest. "Perhaps there's hope for you after all."

'I know that look. It's his 'I know you screwed up and am now going to lecture you' face. I'm in trouble…' All Might internally groaned.

"Uh, good afternoon, Dean Nezu." Yagi stammered nervously.

"Yes, that's me. I could be a mouse, a dog, or a bear but the most important thing is… I'm the Dean of Heroics!" Nezu declared with a bright expression.

"Your coat is looking extra glossy today, sir." He commented.

"The secret is keratin. It helps me get a color and luster no human could ever hope to achieve." Nezu proclaimed. "But we can talk about grooming later. There's something else I'd rather talk with you about."

Pulling out a tablet, Nezu scrolled through recent news articles before stopping at a picture of All Might after stopping a crime.

"All Might Resolves Three Incidents in Only One Hour!" Nezu read the title. "You really outdid yourself."

Yagi lowered his head. "I have no excuse…"

Nezu took a seat on the adjacent couch across from Yagi. "Musutafu has many agencies that can handle things like this. You have to learn not to react every time you hear of an incident." He stated. "Yes, you've always been proactive over these things, but your heroism must be limited due to your injuries. Don't you think your time could be spent much better? For a real emergency, or your students?"

Yagi winced.

"Or searching for your successor?"

Yagi winced harder. 'Right… I haven't told anyone yet.'

Nezu continued. "Despite your injuries, you still want to remain as the Symbol of Peace, but doing so is becoming much harder for you. You becoming a teacher and slowly fading from the public eye was the best course, I thought. If it suddenly got out that you were weakened, it would be very bad."

Yagi didn't want to think about that. He had spent so much time as a pillar for society, and the thought of what would happen if that pillar was removed was not a pleasant one. Working as an Heroics instructor was the best way for him to take a step back in a manner the public would accept.

"Though it may just be a cover for you, you still must take your teaching responsibilities seriously. As you said, those students deserve better. They should be taught by the best."

"Yes, you're right." All Might agreed.

Dean Nezu proceeded to fix himself and Yagi a cup of tea. "Tell me, when I first came in I overheard you say 'He deserves better'."

Yagi's eyes slowly widened. 'Dammit!'

The chimera smiled knowingly. "Judging by your expression, I'm to presume you've already selected One For All's next wielder."

"Uh… well, I have someone in mind." Yagi truthfully admitted.

All Might had briefly considered trying to play it off and say he was referring to something else, but he dismissed that idea–knowing Nezu wouldn't believe it at this point. The cat was out of the bag.

"Someone in mind? So, you haven't told him anything yet?" Nezu questioned.

He shook his head. "No, I haven't."

"Hmm… Is it one of the candidates we showed you when you first arrived here? Are they even a student here?" He inquired further.

"No, it's none of the ones on that list. N-not that there's anything wrong with them." He quickly clarified. "As for your second question, yes… he is a new student here."

"One of the male freshmen then. Let me think," he leaned his head back in contemplation. Yagi could practically see the calculations in the chimera's beady eyes. After a brief moment, he looked back to the Number One Pro with a knowing smile.

"It's the young man who scored first in the practical exam. Midoriya, correct?"

"What?! How did you… Nevermind." All Might slumped his shoulders. 'Shouldn't be surprised that Nezu was able to figure it out already…'

"Yes, it's young Midoriya." Yagi confirmed. "But how did you guess him right off the bat?"

"Well, it certainly wasn't difficult to piece together." He paused to drink from his cup, "For instance, you were practically gushing over the young man during the practical portion of the entrance exam."

All Might sheepishly rubbed his neck. 'Crap! Was I that obvious then!?'

Nezu went on. "I myself have been impressed so far. He's shown a lot of potential in only his first week; both academically and in the heroic exercises from what I've heard. Furthermore, his augmentation Quirk would complement One For All quite well. Wouldn't you agree?"

Though physicality wasn't the main reason Yagi was considering Midoriya as his successor, he'd be lying if he said it wasn't a factor at all. After the Takoba Beach cleanup project and one-on-one combat training with Midoriya, Yagi was admittedly curious how Midoriya's super-soldier physiology could handle One For All's stockpiled energy. Especially now that his body was much stronger than it was last year.

"Physically speaking, yes, Midoriya would make a very ideal vessel for One For All." All Might agreed.

"Then tell me, why have you not reached out to him about One For All yet?" Finishing his tea, he went to pour himself another cup.

Lowering his head, All Might sighed heavily. "I… have my reasons."

Nezu tilted his head, bemused. "Is there something about the young man that concerns you?"

"What? Oh, no. Nothing like that." Yagi immediately dismissed that notion. "Young Midoriya is a fine young man with the heart of a Hero. It's just that… he's gone through a lot in the past few years. I didn't want him to be overwhelmed with something as huge as One For All while he was still readjusting to things…"

He was careful to keep things vague as he didn't want to risk the Captain's secret.

Nezu frowned at that response. "Oh…? And how long do you believe before he's ready?"

Yagi didn't immediately respond. He recognized that Nezu was trying to convince him that he should select a successor sooner rather than later.

"I don't know." The blonde paused, taking a breath, "But I'm not going to rush things with young Midoriya just because of some arbitrary time table. Until he's ready, One For All is my responsibility, Nezu."

Nezu shook his head. "All Might, Toshinori… You can't afford to wait around like this. Finding a worthy successor to One For All is paramount with your time shrinking by the day." He gently chided. "If you don't believe Midoriya can mentally handle the burden that comes with your Quirk, I suggest you move onto other candidates. You can't wait for someone to be ready when there's still the chance that they may not even want to accept your power once you tell them."

Yagi stopped to consider the chimera's words. He didn't doubt the Captain's mental strength as he was confident that he could handle One For All's burden if it were placed on him; however, that doesn't mean that he should do it when he still currently had his own hurdles to overcome. Nevertheless, Nezu made a good point in that he couldn't continue to wait for Midoriya when he hadn't even told him about One For All yet.

There was still the possibility he would refuse to inherit his Quirk.

Sighing, All Might bent over while resting his arms on his knees. Nezu (and Coulson, too) was right. If he was serious about wanting Midoriya to be his successor, then he needed to take the first step and at least tell him about One For All.

All Might knew he couldn't continue to push this discussion off any longer.

"Yeah… you're right." He relented. "I'll… talk to him about it soon."

Nezu nodded and took another sip from his cup. "Forgive me for being nosy, but how soon?"

All Might paused and held his chin to think. "Let's see… I suppose I could talk to him about it after the internships? If he accepts, I can pass One For All onto him right before summer break. That way it'll give us time to train him in preparation for the next semester."

Nezu frowned, looking at his reflection in his cup. "Yes, at this point, I do agree the summer break would be the best time to pass on One For All to the young man. The boost in power he would gain from accepting your Quirk could be explained away via the training camp and/or a Quirk Awakening. But none of this matters unless Midoriya chooses to accept One For All. Something that should be addressed soon…"

The Pro Heroes sat in silence; both thinking the same thing.

"You think I should ask him today?" All Might questioned.

"Better to get an answer now rather than later, don't you think?"

"I… I guess you're right." Yagi relented, but still sounded unsure. 'But still… is it really fair of me to ask young Midoriya? Especially after everything he's done for the world? After everything he's already sacrificed?'

Nezu stopped to analyze the Number One Hero's expression. "You care for this young man quite a deal, All Might. So much so that you're even willing to wait before sharing the secrets of your power with him despite your limited time."

"I… uh…well…" The blonde stammered, unsure of how to respond.

'If only you knew who he was, then you'd understand...' All Might inwardly sighed. 'You'd get why I want to wait for Midoriya to be ready.' But he couldn't tell him or anyone else. It wasn't his place.

Nezu smiled, taking another sip of tea. "Whatever your relationship is with him though is none of my business. However, I am curious about something… Why are you willing to wait for Midoriya when there are potential candidates now? Like the ones we showed you?"

"Well," recalling the students he was shown when first coming to UA last year, All Might replied, "those candidates were all fine young men and women. They'll become good Pro Heroes; of that I have no doubts. But I was looking at something more than just skill and drive. I needed to see...a spark. Something that can't be measured… or described very well I'm afraid."

"And you believe Midoriya has this spark?" Nezu asked.

'You have no idea.' All Might mused, trying to suppress a smirk.

"Yes. Very much so." He resolutely replied.

"Then did Togata Mirio not have this spark?" Dean Nezu asked.

That name made All Might flinch.

"If I recall, you were very impressed with the young man back in his third year."

"That's true, he was… is very impressive." Yagi truthfully admitted.

Nezu took a sip of his tea, "You've been keeping track of the young man?"

"I have, yes."

"Because you are impressed with his progress, or because of who has been training him?"

The "who" hung in the air as both heroes sat in silence. Sir Nighteye: All Might's estranged former Sidekick. Yagi had been shocked when he discovered that Sasaki had helped train Togata and pushed for him as the top candidate to receive One For All.

"Toshinori, I understand that whoever you pass One For All to next is ultimately your decision. While I don't think you would do this, I have to ask… Did your decision to pass over Togata for Midoriya have anything to do with the troubled past you have with Mirai?"

"No, not at all," was Yagi's instant response. "Young Togata has a good head on shoulders, and he's developing instincts that will serve him well into his future. He's also turned his Quirk into something truly amazing."

"And he has that spark," Nezu mentioned.

All Might nodded. "Yes."

"Then, Midoriya… What made you want to pick him?"

Stopping, Yagi leaned back into the sofa to carefully consider his reply. "When I first met him, I truthfully didn't think much of him outside of his broken Japanese. On the surface, he seemed kind of average and plain; even his Quirk, Augment, didn't appear all that special. Simple strength-enhancer powers are a dime a dozen, after all. If you put the two side-by-side, everyone would agree young Togata would be the superior candidate."

For the sake of the Captain's secret, All Might kept out the part of Midoriya claiming he was Quirkless when they first met… but he wasn't lying about initially believing the verdette to be plain.

"Young Midoriya asked me something that caught my attention though… What makes a hero: power or heart?"

"Power or heart, hmm?" Nezu leaned into the sofa, drinking his tea. "Aren't both equally necessary?"

"Well, I had told him power was more important… and that he couldn't be a Hero." Yagi felt the shame swell up inside him. After his injury, he had grown disheartened and temporarily forgotten what true heroism was all about. "But not even an hour later, that young man showed me something spectacular."

"His spark." Nezu caught on.

"Yes. Despite what me and likely many others throughout his life had told him, this average and seemingly powerless young man saw someone in danger and didn't hesitate to rush in to help; even when the Pros stood by helpless. It was inspiring. Young Midoriya's spark blazed just as brightly if not brighter than young Togata's. Afterwards, I sought him out and discovered something else about him."

"Something else?" Nezu cocked a brow.

"I… won't get into it. It's not my place to say." All Might said. "But the point is that after witnessing all that, I knew he was the one."

"I see. You have a lot of faith in this young man."

"I do."

"Then I believe it's time for you to put that faith into practice. Isn't it?"

Sighing, Yagi lowered his head. "Yes… I suppose it is." He relented.

"I'll leave it to you then." Finishing his second cup of tea, Nezu glanced at the clock on the wall. "You should be able to make it to the end of Class 101-A's rescue exercise if you rest up a little longer. However, after today, I really do hope you take the students' needs into account before you rush off again."

"Of course."

Dean Nezu got up and was about to leave, but stopped momentarily, "Did you ever end up calling Sir Nighteye to let him know you're considering someone else for One For All?"

All Might shook his head. "No, I haven't."

"If Midoriya does accept your power, then I suggest you let him know soon."

Yagi winced at that suggestion. He didn't want to talk to his former Sidekick if he didn't have to, but he knew Nezu was right on this one. If Midoriya did accept One For All, he'd have to tell Sasaki eventually. All Might already knew Sasaki likely wouldn't be pleased with the choice… unless, of course, he knew Midoriya's true identity.

He knew then he'd concede.

However, it wasn't All Might's secret to share, and he wouldn't even dream of telling another soul without Midoriya's approval. If Sir Nighteye couldn't approve of Midoriya without knowing his true identity, then that was his problem.

"Yeah… I will."

Nodding, Nezu soon left the room to leave All Might alone with his musings. Glancing back over at the clock, he poured himself another cup of tea.

'If I wait a few more minutes, I should be able to squeeze some time out of my buff form. I can be there around the end of the class period. Hopefully Aizawa and Thirteen have everything under control.'

---

Shigaraki Tomura sighed in exasperation.

He hated Pro Heroes with every fiber of his being. However, even he could appreciate a good smackdown–whether it be in a video game or in real life–when he saw one; even though he was technically on the losing side.

"Eraserhead's not bad at all." Shigaraki commented while observing the Underground Hero manhandle his goons. "He's skilled in hand-to-hand combat, and since he's hiding his eyes with goggles, you can't tell whose Quirk he's erasing. When he fights against a group, that makes it harder for them to work together."

Quality over quantity was truly being personified in this melee. Shigaraki understood that the large group of low-tier thugs he brought along were no match against a seasoned Pro like Eraserhead.

"He's also keeping you in his field of vision to prevent you from warping, Kurogiri." Shigaraki sounded irritated as he scratched his neck. "If there's one thing I hate it's Pros that actually live up to their hype."

"True, Shigaraki. However…" Kurogiri trailed off when he felt it. For the briefest instance, the suppression on his Quirk vanished. "No one is perfect."

Kurogiri's body twisted and vanished, leaving only a few puffs of black smoke behind.

"Dammit!" Aizawa cursed, scanning the courtyard in alarm. "The moment I blink, the guy who looked like the most trouble got away…" He wanted to search for him, but was quickly surrounded by another mob of Villains that prevented him from going anywhere anytime soon.

---

Meanwhile, Class 101-A was running back to the main entrance over 200 meters (~656 feet) away down the pathway. With Thirteen in front, Captain Midoriya stayed back to guard the group's six in case any Villains got past Aizawa. It didn't matter though as the one Villain that did manage to get by the Erasure Hero didn't need to chase after them.

"There is no escape." A deep, wispy voice declared.

The group stopped when a pillar of black miasma suddenly spewed out from the ground and blocked off the path to the door. It grew and spread out as twin glowing golden eyes stared down at the students and Rescue Hero.

'The warp guy!' The soldier instantly got into a defensive position. 'He must've slipped past Aizawa when he blinked.'

While most of the class was apprehensive, they each had adopted their own defensive stances in case of an attack.

"But where are my manners? It is a pleasure to meet all of you. I am Kurogiri, and we are the League of Villains." The black mist introduced.

The Captain resisted the urge to roll his eyes. 'Seriously…The League of Villains? Did a child come up with that name?'

Kurogiri continued. "It may be presumptuous of us, but we have invited ourselves into this bastion of Justice in order to put All Might, the Symbol of Peace, to rest. A fitting place, wouldn't you agree?"

The Captain's eyes narrowed. 'So they're here to kill Toshinori… but how? No! One thing at a time. Find a weak point while he's talking.'

His green eyes carefully analyzed the miasma for any weak points. Surely this Kurogiri guy wasn't made completely out of gas, right? Well, so far all he was seeing was black gas… Wait, he perked up when he noticed something. Around Kurogiri's neck area, there was a piece of metal that was partially hidden by the gas.

Perhaps that was a weak point?

"Though I must say that I find myself deeply disappointed," Kurogiri stated. "Our intel said that All Might was supposed to be here. Was there some kind of change we could not have foreseen?" He huffed, spreading out its thick gas-like tentacles towards them. "Well, it matters not, I still have a role to play."

Meanwhile, Thirteen's eyes narrowed as the cap on her gloved finger popped off in preparation to use Black Hole to create an opening for her students. However, she never got the opportunity.

'Now!' Captain Midoriya sprang into action, but, unbeknownst to the war veteran, he wasn't the only one. Rushing behind him was Bakugo, Kirishima, and Iida.

The Captain flung his shield toward the center of the mass while Iida swung a kick at Kurogiri's left. Kirishima followed up with a swing to the right and Bakugo came down to unleash an explosion from above that choked the area in smoke.

"You moron!" Bakugo arrogantly smirked. "Did you really think we'd let you carry out your plan?"

"Dudes that stand around monologuing are just lame." Kirishima added.

The verdette soldier agreed but didn't verbally comment. Expecting his shield to ricochet back to him, he extended his right arm out to grab it… but it never returned.

"What?" He looked around, confused. "Where'd it–" Unfortunately, he was left with no chance to search for his trusty weapon.

Black misty wisps broke through the smoke cloud of Bakugo's explosion as Kurogiri reformed in front of everyone with a grunt of frustration but was otherwise unharmed. However, there was one sign of damage that went mostly unnoticed.

'That disk… it dented my brace!?' Kurogiri was alarmed. How was this possible? His bracer was made of special alloys that were very strong.

What was that disk made of?

Iida frowned at the fact Kurogiri was unharmed. "If his body is made of mist, can he even be hurt?"

"Yes, he can!" Captain Midoriya exclaimed, pointing toward the humanoid gas. "Look, my shield damaged the bracer on his neck. That has to be a weak point of some kind!"

Bakugo grinned as a few explosions popped in his palms from anticipation. 'I'm betting his real body is in that thing!'

"My, my… how foolish of me to forget. Though you may be students, you are still the golden eggs of Hero society." Kurogiri complimented them. "I mustn't underestimate any of you."

The soldier tensed up, feeling in his gut something bad was about to happen. 'This isn't good. What's he planning?'

"All of you, move out of the way now!" Thirteen shouted.

But it was too late.

"It's time for all of you to meet my comrades, and your demise... now..."

Kurogiri's body surged forward, spreading the miasma and covering the group. Shoji leapt to the side, wrapping his six arms around the nearest students he could and pulled them away.

Tokage disconnected her torso, arms, and legs and flew out of the mist; both of her arms managing to grab onto Thirteen—the closest one to her—and pulled her out.

With black enveloping his vision, the Captain tried to reach out to his friends or any classmates that were close to him.

"Yaomomo! Uraraka-chan! Take my hand—WOAH!" He then suddenly felt the ground disappear beneath his feet and descended into the abyss with many of his classmates, who all cried out in surprise.

"BEGONE!"

---

Captain Midoriya fell through a black portal and into a dark room. Slamming into a desk, he grunted from the sudden impact while objects clattered to the floor. Ignoring the pain, he quickly rolled off from the desk and stood up. His verdette eyes darted back-and-forth as he expertly scanned his surroundings; his hands clenched and ready to fight.

He was in an office space of some kind, alone. A maze of cubicles filled the room with various office supplies and equipment scattered around. He then noticed he had landed in one of the cubicles in the center.

Through the windows on the far wall, he could see other buildings outside through a blanket of pouring rain and howling wind.

It was as if a typhoon was happening outside. Odd. April wasn't Japan's typhoon season.

The Captain cocked a brow. 'Where did Warp Guy teleport me? Am I even still in the USJ?' He was quite concerned by that possibility.

Stepping out of the cubicle, he carefully proceeded down a path towards the windows. Looking out, he was able to see he was in an urban setting of some kind in the middle of a storm. But that wasn't the strangest thing. Through the dark rain clouds in the sky, there was a gray-tinted dome.

'A dome? Strong winds and rain…' His eyes widened. 'This must be one of the simulation zones. Okay, so I'm still in the USJ.' He was relieved by that fact.

'Alright, assess the situation. The class is under attack by a group called the League of Villains who are here to kill All Might. One of their members, Kurogiri, has a teleportation-warping ability that he used on the whole class. That means I wasn't the only one who was teleported…' He didn't see anyone else in the room, so perhaps his classmates were warped to different areas of the facility.

The green-clad super-soldier looked around the room searching for a door, spotting one on the adjacent side.

'Need to regroup with everyone else… get them to safety. After that…' His thoughts shifted to Aizawa and the Villains he was fighting, the Hand Man, and the black Bird Monster. '... I gotta give Eraserhead support before it's too late.'

Nodding to himself, the Captain started heading toward the door.

"Hey, did you hear that?"

He stopped and went still.

"I could've sworn I heard something. Buu Buu." The same voice said.

"It must've been one of the students." Another voice said. "Let's check in here."

As the door opened, the verdette ducked into the closest cubicle and steadied his breathing. He then carefully peaked his head out.

Two Villains walked in.

One was a short, bearded-lizard man standing at 134 cm (4'5") hunched over. He wore a pair of tan shorts and brown buttoned-up shirt that matched his scaly brownish-gold skin color.

The second was a large boar man standing at 203 cm (6'8"), with black messy hair covering his entire body. The only clothing he wore was a pair of jean shorts held up by a belt with various objects tied to it, and a denim vest that did little to conceal his robust upper body.

"Want to get my hands on one of 'em fancy pancy UA brats. Buu Buu." the hog-man snorted. "They wanna become heroes and make my life miserable… I'll teach them a thing or two. Buu Buu."

The lizard-man rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You're just a lazy a** that'd rather steal than work."

"Buu Buu… Maybe."

Captain Midoriya narrowed his verdant gaze, recalling what Kurogiri said before warping everyone. 'Time to meet my comrades and your demise, huh?'

The bearded-lizard man groaned. "Just spread out. If there are students hiding in here, we'll find them."

With that, the pair split up and proceeded to check every cubicle they crossed. The Pogona-looking man merely walked down the aisle, his beady eyes giving him an excellent field of vision on both sides–allowing him to see into each cubicle without turning his head. Meanwhile, the boar-looking thug was recklessly smashing all the thin cubicle dividers in his path, tossing the debris aside.

Two vastly different approaches, he thought.

'Two Mutant Types. One is based on a Pogona and the other a boar of some kind; both likely share many characteristics with those respective animals.' Captain Midoriya internally analyzed. 'I could probably sneak out unnoticed if it were just Hog Man, but with Lizard Face here that'll be next to impossible. His field of vision is too good.'

He realized if he was going to escape, he would have to take down these two thugs first. On the plus side, the Pogona Man was heading in his direction. On the downside, he was without his most trusty Support Item at the moment. That may pose a slight problem if he encountered foes with special abilities.

'Oh well… I've fought without it before…' the Captain mused.

Leaning back into the cubicle, the super-soldier stayed low and silently counting the Pogona Man's steps until he was within reach.

"Tsk," the bearded lizard clicked his tongue, "why'd I have to get sent to the f**king squall zone of all places?" he murmured under his breath. "Couldn't that warp bastard have sent me literally anywhere else–AWK!"

All he saw next was a dark green blur coming from his left before pulling him into a cubicle. An incredibly strong pressure was then applied around his neck. It took the Pogona Villain a few seconds to realize that someone was choking him out. He tried to resist and squirm his way out, but the person holding him was very strong and didn't budge an inch.

With his airway cut off, the lizard-man couldn't call out to his compatriot–who was still causing a ruckus throwing things across the room; unaware of what was happening to his ally. Seconds later, white spots filled his vision as his black eyes rolled into the back of his head with his body going limp.

Captain Midoriya then carefully laid his body down; not that the other Villain would've noticed. Speaking of which, he peeked his head outside the cubicle once more.

"RAAGHHH!" The boar-man tossed a desk across the room and kicked more divider walls down. "Where're you f**king brats hiding?! I know you're here! I can smell someone else in here! Buu Buu!" He emphasized by snorting loudly through his pig nose.

"I'm not hiding."

He turned around and suddenly felt an intense pain in his gut, making him hunch forward.

"What the-AWW!" Something hooked around his left leg, forcing him to fall on his back. Before the Boar Villain could hope to regain his bearings, a red-gloved fist slammed into his temple–instantly knocking him out cold.

Captain Midoriya stepped away, keeping his eyes on his opponent in case of a quick recovery. Confirming the Villain was still down, he turned away.

"That'll do pig…"

'Alright, better get out while I still can.' He proceeded to the door and before stepping out, he scanned the hallway and listened for any sign of commotion.

Nothing.

With the coast clear, he carefully went down the hallway. He did his best to keep quiet as he navigated the halls via following the signs pointing to the exit and stairs. It looked like he had been warped to the fifth floor.

As he reached a turn, the super-soldier stopped when his keen hearing picked up on something. Voices were carrying down the corridor.

'Of course there'd be more in here…' He frowned, becoming annoyed. 'I'll backtrack. There should be another exit to the lower floors. Just need to find it.'

Captain Midoriya was about to start moving back until he overheard what the Villains were saying.

"Any word from the pig and lizard guy? They went to check this floor, right? Kokekokko!"

"Nothing. Radioed them a few times now. Nothing but static." a female voice replied.

"That seems fishy. Maybe we should go check on them?" Another feminine voice suggested.

"Eh, probably. Might as well." A lax male said unenthusiastically.

The verdette nodded to himself. 'Good. While they head there, I'll slip by and make a run for it.'

"Did you guys hear?" Another voice said. "Some groups radioed in earlier that they found a couple students in the street nearby. Was requesting back up so they could outnumber 'em."

"Yeah, but that was several minutes ago. If they needed help, they would've called for it by now."

"Probably just taking their time killing 'em."

The Captain paused, furrowing his brows. 'I'm not the only one in this zone then. Who else could be here?'

"Heh-heh," another chortled snidely, "well, I heard one of 'em was a real cutie. Maybe they're just playing with her, eh?"

Captain Midoriya froze.

"Kokekokko! Makes sense why they haven't called in yet. They say what she looks like?"

"Nothing specific. Just that she was fine as hell apparently!"

"Man… would love a chance with her then. These college girls are something else."

"You can probably have what's left of her."

"Tsk…" the super-soldier could practically hear the owner of the voice roll their eyes, "... you guys are sick f**ks. You know that?" She was female by the sound of it.

"You're just jealous cause you can't get laid with that poisonous hair of yours."

"Watch it!" she growled.

"Speaking of getting laid, maybe if we're quiet enough, we'll hear that girl's cries pretty soon!"

Most of the group proceeded to laugh.

Captain Midoriya clenched his teeth and tightened his fists, feeling his ire grow by the second. He then realized something. 'Wait… If she's outside and they could hear her from here, then she would have to be close by.'

She's close… and these Villains were in his way.

The war veteran immediately knew he couldn't waste any more time looking for an alternate route. Not when one of his female classmates was presumably in trouble. The possibility that it could be Yaoyorozu or Uraraka made his blood boil even hotter.

One of the Villains, a large, muscular, yellow-skinned man with a blocky head, wiped at his eyes as he proceeded to laugh so hard that he was crying. He took a second to catch his breath. "Man… that's funny. Wonder how long it'll take to go from pain to ple–Uh?"

He trailed off when he noticed a tall, muscular man clad in a dark green militaristic uniform come around the corner, walking directly towards them.

"Uh… what's that?"

Another villain, a white-feathered rooster-man, cocked his head to the side. "Kokekokko. It's one of the students, numbnuts!"

A woman with grey barbed tendrils for hair grinned lecherously. "He's looking pretty thicccck! Wonder how much he's hiding under that uniform…"

"Heh," another woman with short brown hair snickered, "Let's cut it off and find out!" Her hands suddenly enlarged with her fingers turning into razor sharp talons.

"I call first dibs on this hunk!" The tendril-haired Villainess exclaimed.

At the back was a tall, lanky woman with long orange hair adorning a black bunny suit. She wordlessly smiled at the sight of the young man.

"Seriously!? What the hell!" A Villain, who was wielding a caveman-looking club in his left hand while his right arm was transformed into a spike, yelled out of frustration. "They wanna f**k this guy just like that!?"

"Kokekokko!" the rooster-man shook his head, exasperated. "And they call us sick f**ks…"

"First attractive guy with muscles shows up and they already wanna jump him." Another Villain, in a black jogger's suit wielding a pair of machetes, remarked. "Pathetic."

Captain Midoriya paid no mind to his enemies' conversation, nor the twisted lustful looks the female members directed at him.

He stopped a few meters from the group, directing a serious, steely-eyed stare at them.

The Villains then went silent. For some reason, they felt a chill go up their spines. The effect of some Quirk perhaps? Or… was it just the intensity in the soldier guy's stare?

His verdant gaze scrutinized the group as he advanced.

The closest Villain was a large, yellow-skinned man with red eyes and a blocky head, adorning only a pair of blue pants. Another Villain to his side was a white-feathered rooster man wearing tan pants and a green vest. On the other side was an athletic man wearing red pants and a red tank top with a tan vest over it–wielding a caveman-like club in his left hand while his right arm was a long, sharp spike.

Further down, a woman with shoulder-length brown hair and enlarged hand with talon-like fingers sporting a green sleeveless vest and white shorts. Next to her was a lanky man in a black jogger's suit sporting a pair of ski goggles, gray gloves that stretched to his elbows, and a machete in each hand. A lanky, unimpressive grey-skinned man with a single large eye and a large mouth, adorning a brown shirt and a pair of blue pants.

Beside them was a woman with shoulder-length grey, barbed tendrils for hair wearing a black vest over a purple shirt and black pants. A large man wielding a pair of knives wearing brown pants with white bandages wrapped around his torso and head like a half-mummy. Finally, at the back was a tall, lanky woman with long orange hair adorning a sexy black bunny suit… for some reason.

He stopped a few meters from the group.

Nine Villains.

Nine Villains stood between him and the door to the stairway. Nine Villains with unique appearances and unknown abilities. Nine Villains that had no quarrel with killing him or any of his classmates–doing all sorts of horrible things to them. Their perverse, callous words toward his female classmate ringing in his ears.

A potential nine-to-one battle without his trusty shield. He recognized this could be trouble despite his fighting prowess.

"Izuku, my brother, listen…having an indestructible shield is great and all. But that shield doesn't make you great, you make it great. Never forget that." The words of Bucky, his brother, suddenly came to mind.

He clenched his fists, resolving himself. He would win. Shield or no shield. Because he knew who he was.

A brief yet tense moment later, the Captain finally spoke. "Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?"

The Villains remained silent; unsure of how to respond. This was supposed to be a college kid, right?

The blockhead, yellow-skinned Villain was the first to snap out of his stupor. "Heh, gotta admit that was a bada** line, kid. Let's see if you can back it up!" With that, he charged forward with his arms extended out–planning to wrap his foe in a bear hug.

Captain Midoriya didn't flinch. At the right moment, he crouched down to avoid the lunge. Then, he used the forward momentum to toss his opponent behind him and out through a window. The glass shattered as the Villain plummeted a few stories, screaming until he crashed into the street–shattering the asphalt. He wasn't dead… but he wouldn't be getting back up for a while.

The Captain turned back to the group as rain and wind entered the hallway through the broken window. "That's one."

The corridor went dead silent as each Villain looked from the broken window back toward the super-soldier; each with varying levels of shock.

"Anyone else?"

The shock faded as the spike-armed, club-wielding Villain charged forward. "Cocky bastard! I'll pummel and skewer you!"

The trained soldier firmly grabbed the spiked-arm and pushed it away while simultaneously grabbing hold of his attacker's left wrist. Squeezing a pressure point, he forced the tank top Villain to drop the club. He followed it up with a powerful knee into the gut, making the thug spit up saliva mixed with blood. While his opponent was reeling, the Captain let go of the left wrist to deliver a sharp punch into the temple. The red-clad Villain collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

"Two."

While Captain Midoriya was focused on the spiked-arm Villain, the half-mummy man stepped forward and extended out his bandages from his torso to wrap around the verdette, securing him in place. "Quick! Someone kill this guy!"

"Sorry, hunk!" The brunette shot past her allies with her large, talon hands ready to strike. "But this is the end of the line–OOF!"

Even with his arms restrained, the Captain pivoted on his left leg to deliver a powerful roundhouse kick into her head–simultaneously knocking her out and smashing her head into the adjacent wall, leaving cracks in it.

"Three."

"Weak a** b**ch. I'll handle this!" The woman with grey tendrils on her head charged ahead. The barbed tendrils suddenly flared to life and grew several meters in length, taking on the appearance of squid tentacles. "One swipe of these and you'll be writhing on the floor as you slowly die!" She cackled madly.

Captain Midoriya narrowed his gaze. 'Wait for the right moment…'

As the wriggling tentacles encroached, the super-soldier crouched low and leapt over the poison-barbed mass. He somersaulted and delivered a powerful kick into the Villainess's face. Her head snapped back as she went crashing into the wall, promptly collapsing to the floor, her tentacles going limp.

The verdette landed on both feet, still restrained by the bandages. "Four."

The mummy man growled under his face's wrappings. "Dammit! Fine, I'll do it myself!" He reeled the Captain closer and swiped his knives out to slash at his neck, which the verdette narrowly avoided.

With the heel of his boot, Captain Midoriya kicked above the mummy man's right knee cap. An audible snap was heard as the mummy man collapsed to the floor face-first, crying out in agony.

"AHHHHH! MOTHER F**KER, MY KNEE! MY F**KING KN–" Distracted, the super-soldier swiftly chopped him in the back of the skull–knocking him out.

"Language." Now loosened, he pulled the wrappings off. He then directed a serious glare at the remaining group. "Five."

"Kokekokko!" The rooster Villain clucked. "KILL HIM!"

With that, the rooster-man, the black joggers suit Villain with machetes, and the lanky cyclops charged at the super-soldier.

Captain Midoriya widened his stance and prepared to counter. The first was the Villain with machetes. The guy clearly had no idea how to use them as he swung them wildly. Using his left forearm, he blocked a strike from the right and kneed him in the side–causing the thug to hunch over and drop his other weapon. He grabbed the machete before it hit the ground and slammed the base of the hilt into the top of the man's skull–knocking him out.

"Six." He tossed the machete down the hall behind him.

Meanwhile, the rooster-man had extended his taloned feet to strike the Captain in the chest, sending him crashing into the adjacent wall with a thud. Though his advanced suit protected him from the talons, he still felt the force behind the strong kick.

"Kokekokko! Stop counting you son of a–AAWWKK!"

Suddenly, the Captain rushed forward in a burst of speed to kick the rooster-man in the head, giving him whiplash.

"Don't finish that sentence." He growled, jumping up to use both legs to kick his opponent in the chest.

The rooster-man smashed through another window. Squawking, he comically flapped his arms as if he was trying to fly and crashed into the street below. He groaned painfully before passing out.

The verdette hopped back to his feet. 'Namor would've been disappointed to meet that guy. Knowing him, he'd call fowl play.' He internally mused.

Captain Midoriya then focused on the two remaining Villains. The lanky cyclops and the orange-haired bunny girl in the back. "That's seven."

The cyclops snarled, baring his sharp teeth. "Think you're so damn tough, huh? Let's see yah dodge this!" He suddenly pulled out a handgun from under his shirt and took aim.

With enhanced reflexes that were honed by experience, the Captain rushed forward.

BAAM!

The gun fired.

The cyclops grinned sinisterly, believing it was over. No one–aside from All Might, maybe–could dodge a bullet at such close range.

His single eye then widened in shocked horror as the Captain had lunged to the side at the last second, avoiding the bullet by mere centimeters. How in the hell did he do that?!

The Villain had no time to react as the Captain reached out to grab the hand holding the gun and twisted his wrist.

"AWWW!" Forcing the cyclops to drop the gun, the verdette struck his long-exposed neck. Choking up spit mixed with blood, the blow brought the Villain to his knees. Captain Midoriya finished him off with a swipe to the back of the head. His one-eyed foe fell face-first to the hard floor, unconscious.

"Eight."

The green-clad soldier turned his sights on the last Villain: the bunny girl.

The Villainess stared at him with wide eyes of disbelief.

He narrowed his gaze at the orangette. "Do yourself a favor and surrender."

She was momentarily speechless. Then, unexpectedly, she closed her eyes and started to chuckle in amusement.

The Captain's eyes widened. 'That laugh… Why does it sound so… familiar?'

The woman opened her eyes and looked at him with a seductive smirk. The verdette gasped as he suddenly felt a warm powerful feeling overcome him.

What's going on…? Hold on… did she always have Heterochromia? Indeed, her right pupil was grey while the left pupil was a warm brown.

Two eye colors he was very familiar with.

"My, my… aren't you just a treat." The woman walked forward, putting an extra sway in her hips.

Captain Midoriya's face flushed as he involuntarily focused his gaze on her. Why… Why couldn't he look away from her?

"You took down all my friends so easily." Her voice sounded angelic and so familiar, but he couldn't pin it down to one person though. It was like a harmonic fusion of not one, not two… but three voices. "You're no average student, are you, stud?"

Looking up from her swaying hips, he felt his cheek burn hotter at the sight of her impressive cleavage that was barely contained by thin black fabric.

Wait… they weren't that big before… were they? No, they weren't.

"Color me impressed," Stepping up to him, she ran her finger down his chest to his torso. Even though the suit's tough material, she couldn't suppress a pur, licking her lips in anticipation. "I wonder… do we really have to be enemies?"

'What… What's happening to me? Why… am I letting her get this close?' His mind was hazy. He could barely think straight.

The Captain's eyes then widened. Her face… her hair… it had all changed!

Gone was her auburn hair and replaced by two colors! The right half was a glossy black with a long strand hanging on the right side of her face. The left half was chestnut-brown with short bangs on her forehead with a long, curved strand framing the left side of her face. Speaking of which, her face was smooth and elegant, including pronounced pink blush marks on each cheek.

"You know, handsome, there's plenty of rooms in this building." She looked up with an alluring smile. "Why don't we go find one… Mhmm?" She cutely tilted her head to the side.

That's when it finally occurred to him. The fog began to lift in the Living Legend's mind.

The bunny girl sinisterly smirked. It was too easy sometimes. With her prey entranced, she sneakily pulled out a small dagger hidden behind her ear.

A shame she would have to kill such a fine specimen, she thought, but she had a job to do.

She thrust out her blade to slash at his exposed neck. All that strength. All that power. All that skill. Yet none of it mattered when a man was hypnotized with their own lu–WHAT?!

Without warning, Captain Midoriya reached up to grab her wrist, the dagger a mere inch away from his neck. An eerie shadow cast over the upper half of his face.

The Villainess gasped. "W-what the…?" Now, she was genuinely shocked.

"I get it now."

She gasped and looked up in shocked disbelief. Instead of seeing a spellbound man burning with desire, she was met with the hardened gaze of a veteran soldier.

"Your Quirk… you can charm someone by transforming your body–taking the form of someone that person is strongly attracted to, or holds dear to their heart. Copying everything from their appearance and voice." He squeezed on her wrist, forcing her to cry out and drop the dagger to the floor. "You can even adjust if they're attracted to more than one person."

Growling, the bunny girl frustratingly lashed out with her free hand to try and punch the soldier in the face. Keyword: try. He easily caught it. Now both arms were trapped in the green-clad man's vice grip.

'Their faces… their voices… their likeness… How dare she disrespect those three; especially her memory.' He internally snarled.

At that moment, the woman's triple-fusion disguise quickly faded as she transformed back to her normal appearance.

She looked up at him through enraged emerald eyes, messy strands of orange hair framing her face. "HOW?! How'd you snap out of it!? No man's ever been able to resist!" she angrily yelled.

The Captain maintained his hard glare. "I may not be an expert with women…but I know when I'm being conned."

The bunny girl snarled at that. "Bastard! Who the hell do you think you—AAWWKK!"

The super-soldier sharply kneed her in the gut–forcing her to hunch over in pain and spit up saliva.

"I'm a Captain." He coolly replied.

Letting go of her arms, he swiftly chopped her in the neck. She dropped to the hard floor, unconscious.

"Nine."

He looked around the corridor. The group was defeated and likely wouldn't be getting back up soon.

Nodding, he proceeded to the door at the end of the hall and pulled it open. He stepped into a large stairwell and began running down the stairs as fast as he could.

Hopefully he wasn't too late.

---

As the Captain ran down the stairs, a sudden scream from outside made him run even faster. Upon reaching the ground floor, he kicked the stairwell door off its hinges and ran into the building's main lobby.

He only made it halfway before he realized something. 'Wait… That didn't sound like a girl…'

The glass-paned door burst open as a man stumbled into the building, clutching his face and screaming, "AHHH! MY EYES! B**CH GOT ME IN THE EY–!"

His screams were cut off as Ashido ran in and kicked him in the back, sending him tumbling across the floor in a heap.

Ashido glared down at the man. "That's what you get when you try to mess with me!"

"Ashido?"

The pink girl turned to Midoriya, and her anger immediately turned to joy. "Oh, Midoriya! Thank goodness it's you!" She smiled brightly.

She walked up to him and looked around as if she were searching for someone. "Hey… is Eijiro with you? I didn't see him anywhere outside."

Captain Midoriya shook his head. "No, I haven't. He must be in a different zone."

Ashido sighed and slumped her shoulders. "Yeah, I figured that's what happened." Her smile soon returned though. "But I know he can hold his own out there. I know he'll be fine."

He wordlessly nodded in agreement. 'If the Villains in the other zones are un-trained thugs, then yeah… the rest of our classmates should be able to handle them.'

The Captain took a moment to closely inspect Ashido's state, seeing that she had gone through a tough time of her own. Obviously, she was soaked to the bone after being outside in the elements. Her tan jacket's fluffy collar was nearly torn off. Her cheek was bruised and magenta colored. Her knuckles and knees were scraped up as tears were littered across her skintight Costume.

Overall, she looked okay; physically, at least.

"Are you alright, Ashido?" He asked, concerned. "That guy… he didn't…"

He trailed off, not wanting to entertain that unpleasant thought.

Catching onto what the verdette was implying, Ashido shook her head. "Nah… though, he and the other douchebags outside certainly tried. Buuut," a smirk formed on her face, "I sprayed them with a ton of acid. It won't kill them… and the rain outside will nullify it… but they're definitely gonna have some scars."

"Hopefully no more girls will have to worry about them ever again." He then looked at her, concerned. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Ashido nodded, albeit hesitantly. "Y-yeah. I think the shock hasn't worn off yet though. Not looking forward to when it does, but I have to make sure I live long enough to deal with it." She frowned.

Midoriya nodded. He could relate very much to that; more than she or anyone else could. "I was going to find a way out of this zone and regroup with everyone outside; preferably near the exit."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good plan." Ashido agreed.

"But I overheard there's another student in this zone. They may be in trouble."

Ashido's expression hardened. "We have to find them then. Any clue where they could be?"

"They'd have to be outside somewhere…" Midoriya trailed off; unsure of where to check first.

"HEY! We need assistance here!" The verdette and pinkette both froze. "Does anyone copy?!"

Their gazes shifted to the unconscious Villain on the floor. Midoriya cautiously approached him and discovered the source of the commotion in the man's jacket.

A walkie-talkie.

"We're getting captured left and right by a student. We're down 2nd street! If anyone can help out, that'd be appreciated!"

The voice cut out.

"Well, that's convenient." Ashido remarked, smirking.

"C'mon! Let's get going!"

Nodding, both students headed out the building and into the raging typhoon outside. As they ran down the wet sidewalk, Ashido noticed a couple Villains, a large, yellow-skinned man and a giant rooster–lying in the street, unconscious.

She blinked twice, not recalling facing either of those two.

"Hey, you know where that big yellow guy and giant chicken came from?" Ashido questioned, pointing at the unconscious Villains. "I didn't fight them."

Midoriya nodded. "I threw those two out the window. Had to fight a group of Villains of my own on the fifth floor."

Ashido looked at her classmate, feeling impressed. Though she knew Midoriya was a skilled fighter, as he had demonstrated in the combat exercises, it was still a surprise to hear him talk so casually about fighting actual Villains for the first time.

Unless this wasn't his first-time fighting Villains? He was in the military, after all. That was something to think on.

"Let's see," Midoriya came to a stop at an intersection, reading the street signs. "We're on 4th Street. So, 2nd Street should be down that way." He pointed left and proceeded to run with Ashido tailing behind.

As she was following him, the pink girl noticed something was missing from her friend's person.

"Hang on…where's your shield, Midoriya?"

It wasn't on his back, nor did he have it on his arm.

"Not sure, exactly. It must've gotten left at the entrance somewhere." He replied, sounding unconcerned about it.

"Wait…" Her eyes widened in surprise, "you mean fought off an entire group of dangerous Villains without your super shield thingy?"

Midoriya just shrugged, not looking back. "A Hero can't be too reliant on Support Gear, right?"

He wasn't wrong, but still…

Ashido decided not to press any further but made sure to store this memory for later. She already knew a couple girls that would want to hear about this later.

'Of course those two don't really need more fuel for their obvious crush… but I'm gonna tell them anyway.' She grinned mischievously.

Two blocks later, the pair overheard commotion over the torrential downpour and howling wind. Captain Midoriya stopped at a street corner, signaling for Ashido to stop and remain quiet–which she nodded in return.

Listening closely, the verdette could hear various cries and shouts; not of pain or fear… but frustration.

"Dammit! What the hell are these things!?"

"They won't come off!"

"I can't move!"

"I'm stuck too!"

"Don't let 'em touch you!"

"They're everywhere! I can't see where they're coming from!"

The Captain and Ashido looked at each other, curious.

'Something that won't come off… Can't move…?' His emerald eyes widened. 'Wait… That could only mean–'

He was interrupted from his musings when a short, pudgy man stumbled down the street into view, completely unaware of the pair's presence.

"Hey!" He held up a walkie-talkie, screaming, "Is no one responding anymore?! Someone is capturing–AW!"

Without warning, a few purple balls flew out of nowhere and stuck to the man's feet–forcing him to fall over. Several more rained down on him, sticking his arms and legs to the wet pavement.

"Dammit! What the hell's going–HUH!?"

In a swift motion, the green-clad soldier rushed forward and punched the man in the face, knocking him senseless.

"Mineta-san, where are you?" He called out.

"M-Midoriya-san…?" A timid voice stammered out.

Mineta shakily stepped out from behind a car and, noticing his two classmates, immediately rushed forward. "Oh thank God!" He exclaimed in relief. "I'm not alone here!"

"So Mineta-san was the other student here?" Ashido blinked. 'I mean, I'm glad he's not dead or anything like that, but why do I feel disappointed?'

"Are you alright?" Captain Midoriya knelt by him, closely examining him for any physical injuries. Aside from a few scrapes, he appeared to be okay.

"Of course I'm not okay!" Mineta cried out. "None of us are! Villains are trying to kill us!"

"Yeah, we've noticed." Ashido sardonically replied.

"Don't act so calm!" He screamed. "Villains are attacking us! Villains! We're gonna die! I'm gonna die, and I'll never see Yaoyorozu naked!" He grabbed his head on the verge of a complete panic attack, if he hadn't crossed that threshold already.

The Captain frowned and felt his right eye twitch at Mineta's last remark. Why did he suddenly have the urge to punch the short teen? No. Regardless of how he felt, now wasn't the time for that.

'Later.' He thought.

Ashido rolled her eyes. "Only in your dreams, buddy."

"Give me a break!" Mineta yelled. "We're students for crying out loud! We shouldn't have to deal with this crap in our second week of college! Why aren't you two freaking out?! Aren't you scared?!"

The Captain and Ashido both shared a look.

'This isn't my first rodeo, kid.' That's what the verdette wanted to say, but he couldn't.

"Well… I never said I wasn't scared." Ashido admitted. "But there's no point in freaking out."

Captain Midoriya nodded. "If we want to stay alive, now isn't the time to panic. There'll be time for that later when we're not in danger."

Mineta shook his head in disbelief. "You both are freaks! Let's just–Hmph!"

The Captain put a hand over Mineta's mouth and sighed. "Mineta-san, look down there," He pointed down the street. The short teen looked to see the group of Villains he had trapped earlier. They were stuck to the street or together by many purple balls. "Even though you were terrified, you used your size and the environment around you to sneak around these thugs and capture them all on your own. That's no small feat."

"Y-yeah… I guess so." Mineta quietly admitted.

"It's okay to be scared. That's natural. But you can't let that fear control you; especially if you want to be a Hero." The Captain calmly stated. "This job isn't easy. And whether we're afraid or not, it still needs to get done."

Mineta and Ashido were both silent, staring at their soldier companion in awe. Though he had military training, he was still a Hero-in-training like them. But why was it that he had the aura of a veteran Pro Hero right now?

"Hey, is anyone still on the radio? What's the update on those students? Did you say someone was capturing you?"

All three heads turned to the short, pudgy Villain across the street. The walkie-talkie was still lying on the street in front of him.

"Whoever's listening, we're meeting up at the center of the zone and fanning out from there. We'll find these three kids!"

"Wait… We're near the center of the dome." Mineta glanced up, confirming they were near the epicenter of the Downpour Zone. "They're coming here!"

"Alright," the Captain stood up, "we're gonna head to the dome's rim and look for an exit. We'll take the alleys and avoid the main streets. Hopefully we'll miss anyone they send this way."

Ashido gave a thumbs up. "Sounds like a plan."

"Why don't we just hide in one of these buildings and wait for the Pros to show up?" Mineta trembled. "All Might'll come and save us, right?"

Captain Midoriya shook his head. "We can't wait on the Pros. We have to save ourselves for now."

This response only served to terrify the ball-headed teen further.

"C'mon! Let's get moving!" the Captain ordered.

"I am so ready to get out of this rain" Ashido stated, exasperated.

"You and me both." Though the super-soldier wasn't a stranger to working in bad weather conditions, even he'd admit he was getting tired of being soaked as well.

With that, the trio made a mad dash down the street and through various alleyways in the direction of the dome's perimeter. The verdette made sure to keep his pace in check so Ashido and Mineta (especially him) could keep up.

As they ran, the super-soldier thought back to what Kurogiri had said before teleporting the class. "These Villains are here to kill All Might. Many have tried and they've all failed. What makes this time so different? Why do they believe they can pull it off? Surely they don't think they can overpower him with these street thugs…"

His thoughts then shifted to the teal-haired man with hands across his body… and the bird-like monstrosity in the plaza.

'Those two… Are they the key to this whole thing?'

"Hey, Midoriya, you're mumbling."

"Huh?" His head snapped up. "Oh! Uh, s-sorry, Ashido. Was just trying to figure out the Villains plan."

"Why?" Mineta cocked a brow. "These guys don't stand a chance in hell against All Might. He'll blow them all away with one punch!"

"For once, I actually agree with Mineta-san. This place is going to be crawling with Heroes soon. Then these Villains will be hauled away." Ashido declared confidently.

The Captain didn't look so sure, however. 'I hope you both are right. I really do. But I can't shake this feeling…'

---

Yaoyorozu grunted as she landed feet-first and then collapsed to her rear.

"Midori-kun…?" She uttered.

Two more grunts caught her attention. Opening her eyes, she turned to see Tsunotori and Kaminari on their knees next to her. Blinking in confusion, Yaoyorozu looked around to see they had landed on the rocks of the mountain they had seen on the other side of the USJ.

"Need to add knee pads to my costume…" Kaminari stood up, rubbing his sore knees. "You girls okay?"

Yaoyorozu nodded and returned to her feet. "Yes, I'm fine."

"I think I'm alright, but w-what happened?" Tsunotori asked in English, looking around frantically. "Where's everyone else?"

Kaminari cocked an eyebrow. "Uh… sorry, my English isn't that good, Tsunotori-san…"

Tsunotori's blue eyes widened, her face flushing in embarrassment. "Oh! S-Sorry!" She responded in Japanese.

"It's alright." Kaminari waved off, smiling. He had to admit that Tsunotori looked cuter than usual when she was flustered, but even he knew that now wasn't the time to flirt. He then looked around at the area they had been dropped in. "Um… we're still in the USJ, right?"

"It would appear so." The creation heiress confirmed. "The warpgate Villain, Kurogiri, must've transported us to the Mountain Zone."

She scanned the rocky terrain, only to freeze when she noticed something start to move. A Villain. One then became two, two became four, and soon an entire group of Villains had surrounded them.

The Villains had literally been lying in wait for them!

Kaminari pulled out his batons, Tsunotori widened her stance with her horns facing forward, and Yaoyorozu formed a paintball-gun out of her right arm.

Almost all of the Villains laughed maliciously as they approached, relishing the slaughter to come. Some of them even licked their chops.

"H-how many are there?" Tsunotori sounded nervous.

Yaoyorozu did a quick headcount of the Villains in her field of view. "Forty. But there could be more in hiding…"

The heiress then recalled the last statement made by Kurogiri before warping them away. 'I see. They planned to split us up and use their numbers to overwhelm us.'

Kaminari grimaced. "Sh*t. This isn't good."

"Just stay close. We'll make it through this!" Yaoyorozu stated strongly, but the fear in her eyes was evident. "Kaminari-san, have you tried contacting the school?"

Kaminari took a moment to mess with his head gear and frowned. "No dice. My signal is being blocked."

"Heh-heh! ~Well lookie here~'' One of the Villains, a gray-haired wolf-man wearing only blue trousers, wolf-whistled—ironically. "We got two fine looking young women here." He leered, and several of the men surrounding them laughed.

Yaoyorozu and Tsunotori both felt their skin crawl from the leers directed at them. Kaminari's grip on his batons tightened as he glowered at the group. Sure, he may be a closet pervert… but he wasn't a creep.

"Alright, I call the pony-girl." the Wolf-Villain sneered, making Tsunotori shiver in disgust. "You pups can have the other two."

With that, the Villains ran forward to attack the three Heroes-in-training.

"S-Stay back! Thunder Horn!" Tsunotori yelled, shooting off a barrage of horns from her head.

Most of the Villains cried out as the horns rained down on them, tearing up the ground in the process. Though Tsunotori struck them with the horns' blunt ends, they still hurt very much!

Kaminari grinned. "Nice work, Tsunotori!"

"T-thanks…" Tsunotori strained, keeping her focus on rapidly firing more horns.

"Grrr!" The Wolf-Villain growled while jumping off to the side to narrowly avoid the barrage. "A fighter, eh? Seems I'll have to break you in." On all fours, he rushed at Tsunotori to swipe his paw-like hand at her. However, his swipe was blocked by Kaminari's batons, the force behind the blow making Kaminari skid back on his feet.

"Back. Off!" Kaminari struggled against the wolf-man's strength before challenging electricity into his metal batons.

The wolf-man howled in agony as his body conducted the electricity, sending him to the ground convulsing in pain.

Yaoyorozu, meanwhile, was using her paintball-gun to down Villains; some in the face while mostly in the legs. The pasty projectiles immediately hardened to trap them on the ground or against each other.

Tsunotori stood near the tall ravenette and resumed firing an onslaught of horns at anyone who got too close. They were either knocked out by the blunt force behind the horn or were pinned down against the ground.

Any thugs who managed to slip past Tsunotori's horns were met by Kaminari. They were either smacked by his metal batons or zapped by his electrified costume. He even managed to take out his chain and wrap it around a few thugs to electrocute them into unconsciousness.

Short range and long range, fighting side-by-side; it was a fine-tuned machine.

"Ergh…!" Tsunotori suddenly stopped shooting her horns, kneeling to grasp her head. "Ow… I think I hit my limit…" She painfully grimaced.

Seeing this, Yaoyorozu immediately formed another paintball-gun from her arm. "Tsunotori, take this!" She handed her the weapon. "Do you know how to shoot?"

"Heh," Tsunotori confidently smirked despite her headache, "I'm from Texas, Yaomomo. Of course I can shoot!"

Grinning, Tsunotori took aim and fired several well-aimed shots at any Villains in her sights–immobilizing them with the thick paste. "Like shooting fish in a barrel!" She commented in English.

After using up her rounds, Yaoyorozu tossed the gun aside and flung out iron spiked tacks from her arms and then a large capture net from her torso. The tacks forced a group of hooligans trying to outflank her to stop long enough for the net to capture them. This allowed Tsunotori to fire more adhesive bullets at the thugs, taking them out of the melee.

"Nice work, Yaomomo!" Tsunotori complimented.

"Seriously, you really can make anything you want, huh?" Kaminari called out. He smacked his electrified baton into a hooligan's face, knocking them to the ground unconscious… and several teeth in the process.

"Well, as long as I know what it's made of…" Yaoyorozu swiftly formed a staff and scanned the area with the remaining Villains.

'The longer this battle draws on, the higher the risk one of us is taken hostage… or worse…' The heiress mused, swiping her staff into a thug's head–knocking them out. 'We need to end this quickly. But how?'

As her intelligent mind calculated solutions, she recalled a moment with Midoriya and Uraraka not long after the Entrance Exam.

---

Yaoyorozu, Midoriya, and Uraraka sat at a booth in the American-themed restaurant, Concord Dawn USA Diner. The trio had just finished their meals and were preparing to leave.

"Thanks again for treating us, Yaomomo," Midoriya said gratefully. "This was really kind of you to do."

"Yeah, thank you so much!" Uraraka bowed in her seat.

"It was my pleasure. I'm grateful I'm getting to spend time with my best friends." Yaoyorozu smiled beautifully, unknowingly making Midoriya's heart flutter; even Uraraka couldn't help but admire it.

Her grey eyes then sparkled. "I'm just so happy we're attending UA together!"

"Yeah!" Uraraka fist-pumped the air. "It's gonna be awesome!"

"I imagine we'll be hitting the ground running the first week, so we should be prepared." Midoriya advised.

"Think they'll have us fighting those robots again in training?" Uraraka asked curiously.

"Maybe… Of course they could throw a curveball at us. Have us do something completely out of leftfield." Midoriya shrugged.

Both Yaoyorozu and Uraraka blinked in confusion at Midoriya's statement.

"Curveball?" Uraraka cutely cocked her head to the side.

"'Out of leftfield'? I don't believe I've ever heard those sayings before…" Yaoyorozu added.

"Oh… Uh, nothing. It's just a couple American sayings." He waved off.

The girls accepted the reply, but something else piqued Yaoyorozu's curiosity.

"Midori-kun, if it's alright, could I ask you something else regarding the practical exam?" The heiress questioned.

"Sure. What's on your mind?"

"You mentioned that those Faux Villains were rather easy to destroy, correct?"

He nodded. "Right. It didn't take much to deactivate them… As long as you had the ability to, I mean. I imagine it would've been harder for someone without abilities or at least a weapon of some kind."

"Individually," Uraraka chimed in, "I guess they weren't all that strong. There were just so many of them, and we had little time to take down as many as we could."

"Which leads to my question," Yaoyorozu continued, "how come you weren't in the streets during the exam, Midori-kun? Could you not have acquired more Villain Points if you were in the middle of the action, so to speak?"

"Not necessarily. There was no way to tell how many Faux Villains were in a given battle center." He responded. "I figured I could cover more ground and have more opportunities to get more points than the other applicants in the streets."

"I thought the same thing." Uraraka added, grinning. "I used my Quirk on myself for as long as I could to get across the city faster and take out more robots. Well, heh-heh…" she became sheepish, "before I became too nauseous to do it anymore."

"You still did good, Uraraka-chan." Midoriya complimented her before turning back to the ravenette. "But yeah, it's military strategy 101. Sun Tzu in The Art of War advised military leaders to take high ground and let enemies try to attack from a lower position. It's easier to fight from an elevated position for tactical reasons."

"Hmm… Yes, that does make sense." Yaoyorozu replied, holding her chin in a thinking pose.

'Sun Tzu even to this day is a renowned military strategist. I suppose it's no surprise Izuku knows of his teachings with him being in the American military.' Yaoyorozu mused.

"Also," Midoriya continued, "I didn't want to get in a slugfest with opponents who don't feel pain; so, taking the high ground was the best option." He shrugged.

---

The flashback then ended.

'Higher ground… and with Tsunotori here…' Yaoyorozu's eyes shot open as an idea immediately came to mind.

"Kaminari-san, Tsunotori… listen up!" Yaoyorozu called out. Swinging her staff, she knocked away a thug's pipe and tripped them up into a tub of white glue she had made behind her calf. "I have a plan, but I'll need a higher vantage point. Tsunotori, if you get me higher with your horns, then I can trap these Villains in one fell swoop!"

Tsunotori nodded determinedly. "I can do that!"

"Kaminari-san! I need you to distract these hooligans long enough to carry out the plan!" Yaoyorozu stated.

"Leave it to me!" Kaminari avoided a lizard-faced Villain's lunge and kicked him away, shocking him in the process. "Let's go, losers! You're facing the Human Taser now!"

'Human taser? He may wanna rethink that name…' Tsunotori sweat-dropped.

With that, the electric blonde rushed forward into the mob with his batons at the ready. He smacked a few thugs away and used his electrified costume to stun anyone who touched him.

Tsunotori, meanwhile, disconnected a pair of horns from her head, levitating them over to Yaoyorozu to hook under her armpits. The lyre-horns lifted the ravenette over 10 meters (~30 feet) into the air, giving her an ideal view of the mountain terrain.

'From this height, I can see all of our enemies… and they don't even notice I'm up here. They're focused on Tsunotori and Kaminari. Perfect!' Yaoyorozu then got to work on the next step of her plan.

On the ground, Kaminari ducked under a fist at the last second and slammed his batons into his attackers' shins, simultaneously breaking them and electrocuting his attacker.

The Villains were at a loss of how to handle Kaminari. Even with Kaminari's lack of fighting experience, it was still difficult to fight someone that couldn't be touched without suffering electrocution. None of them possessed any conventional weapons either, arrogantly believing they wouldn't need them (overestimating their own Quirk's abilities) or were unable to acquire them.

"Man… what the hell!? How are we losing so badly!?" One thug exclaimed before getting rammed in the stomach by one of Tsunotori's horns.

"They're just freaking kids!" Another yelled. "Just kill them alr–AHHHHH!" He couldn't complete his statement as Kaminari wrapped his electrified chain around him, shocking him unconscious.

Tsunotori, while focusing on keeping Yaoyorozu airborne, was shooting more horns at any thugs who got too close. 'My head hurts so much… but I gotta push through or else we're dead!' She mused determinedly.

Concentrating hard, rainbow-colored light shimmered off Yaoyorozu's thigh as she fashioned herself a larger paintball-gun with extra round capacity than the ones before and straps to help her hold it up. She briefly glanced over her weapon to search for any potential flaws, nodding in satisfaction when she found none.

Lifting up the gun, Yaoyorozu flipped a switch and a barrage of white paintballs rained down on the horde below. They yelped and howled as white goo splattered all over them, some of them even sticking together. Some tried to take cover behind boulders or their fallen comrades, but it didn't do them any good.

After using up her ammunition, Yaoyorozu called out, "Tsunotori, Kaminari! Take down the stragglers!"

"Yeah, I'm…" Tsunotori grit her teeth, a bead of sweat racing down her brow, "...on it! Thunder Horn!"

With a painful cry, Tsunotori unleashed another barrage of lyre-horns. The lyre-shaped projectiles slammed into the thugs via the blunt end and either knocked them out or pinned them to the ground, helpless. The rocky terrain around the area was also torn up by the horn bombardment.

The entire horde was now either trapped in Yaoyorozu's goo, knocked out or pinned down by Tsunotori's horns, or electrocuted by Kaminari.

Tsunotori stopped her attack and collapsed to her knees, clutching the top of her head in pain. Her break in concentration caused the horns keeping Yaoyorozu airborne to fall as well. Yaoyorozu quickly formed a parachute from her back that slowed her descent enough.

"Hey, Tsunotori!" Kaminari rushed over to her in concern. "You alright?"

"Owww… never fired off… that many horns before…" She panted out.

Deactivating his Quirk, Kaminari helped the foreign girl to her feet…err, hooves. Trying to stand, she stumbled into the electric-blonde's side, making him blush.

"Wow… that was really cool, Tsunotori-san." Kaminari then frowned when he noticed her horns weren't growing back… and the blood on her scalp. "Hey, you alright? Why aren't your horns growing back?"

"Pushed my Quirk too hard…" Tsunotori painfully winced.

Safely landing on her feet, Yaoyorozu disconnected herself from the parachute and rushed over to her blonde companions. Noticing the lack of horns and blood on Tsunotori's head, Yaoyorozu sprang into action to help her.

"Tsunotori!" Yaoyorozu knelt by her side, reaching into her belt to pull out first aid supplies. "Take a knee. I'll apply first aid!"

She wasn't a medical expert by any means, but she knew enough first aid to competently apply disinfectant, pain numbing cream, and bandages on the blonde girl's head. Any supplies the beautiful heiress didn't have in her utility belt she created on the spot.

Moments later, she completed her treatment on the American girl. "That should prevent any infections, but we should get you to a doctor soon, Tsunotori."

"So… maybe refrain from shooting off any more horns for a while?" Kaminari suggested.

"Okay…" Tsunotori nodded in response, unknowingly leaning further into Kaminari's side in exhaustion–making his face turn red.

'I have a cute foreign girl leaning on me! Score!' The electric blonde inwardly cheered, smiling dumbly.

"Well, that was freakin' cool! We kicked massive butt!" Kaminari fist-pumped the air in excitement. "You girls were awesome!"

"Yee-haw…" Tsunotori grinned weakly, her head still in a pained daze. She then glanced over at Kaminari. "Izuku's suggestions for your Costume…really worked well, huh… Kaminari-san?"

'No joke!' He inwardly mused. 'If I was still using my old get-up… I wouldn't have been much help here at all.' Still, with such a pretty girl leaning into him and successfully holding his own against real Villains, Kaminari was feeling very confident at the moment.

"Well, it wasn't all Midoriya-san. I had some input too." Kaminari smirked. "I can tell you about it when we get out of this alive. Maybe talk over Taiyaki and ice cream?"

"As long as it's vegan…" Tsunotori sheepishly replied.

Kaminari blinked twice. 'That wasn't a no, right?' He outwardly grinned.

"I appreciate the socializing, Kaminari-san, Tsunotori… but we have more pressing matters to attend to." Yaoyorozu cut in, making both teens perk up. "Kaminari-san, any luck on trying to contact the outside?"

Kaminari messed with his head gear, adjusting the dials for a moment.

He then shook his head. "No, my signal keeps getting blocked. Someone or something in here keeps interfering."

Yaoyorozu nodded. "Just keep trying. If it is a person's Quirk that's disrupting your signal, perhaps one of our classmates or the teachers can handle them."

"Speaking of which, you think they were scattered across the USJ too?" Kaminari asked.

"Given what Kurogiri said, I'm positive they are." Yaoyorozu replied.

"They're probably fighting bad guys too then…" Tsunotori added.

"Should we head to another zone to help?"

Yaoyorozu shook her head. "No, we can't be looking for another battle if we can help it; especially with Tsunotori's condition."

Tsunotori wanted to object, but knew she was right. She didn't want to be sidelined, especially with her friends and classmates still in danger. But without her horns, she would be at a great disadvantage. Her entire fighting style revolved around them.

Also, despite the pain-relieving ointment Yaoyorozu applied on her head, her cranium was still throbbing–making it extremely difficult to concentrate. Yeah, it wouldn't be smart to throw herself into another life-or-death battle.

"We'll navigate around the central plaza." Yaoyorozu continued. "From there, we can get back to the stairway."

"But isn't the plaza where Aizawa-sensei is fighting those Villains?" Kaminari nervously mentioned.

"They could spot us…" Tsunotori sounded worried.

"Yes, we'll have to be careful and hope they don't spot us." Yaoyorozu admitted. "As of now, the stairway is the most logical place for the rest of our classmates to regroup."

Kaminari and Tsunotori both nodded, understanding where Yaoyorozu was coming from.

"Let's go! We don't want to waste any more time!" With that, the trio trekked down the mountain in the direction of the facility's plaza.

With Yaoyorozu leading the way, the heiress's thoughts shifted to her classmates. 'I hope everyone else is holding up. I trust in their abilities, but I can't help but worry. Izuku… Ochako… please stay safe.'

---

As soon as Uraraka was enveloped in Kurogiri's black mist, it disappeared as she suddenly fell through.

She opened her eyes. "Midori-kun?!"

Instead of seeing her verdette friend or any of her classmates, the brunette only saw a large pool of water fast approaching.

"OH CRAP–" With no time to react, Uraraka slammed into the water and sank deep beneath the surface. Thankfully, even after the impact from hitting the water, Uraraka was able to stop herself from sucking in a breath while underwater.

'I got caught up in that Villain's Quirk with everyone else.' Grunting, Uraraka started kicking herself towards the surface. 'He must've warped the class across the USJ…'

Uraraka's train of thought was interrupted as she caught a blur of motion out of the corner of her eye. A shark-based Villain was swimming toward her with its jaw wide open.

The brunette's eyes widened as she internally screamed. Though her vision was blurry, she could still make out the rows of razor-sharp teeth coming right at her. Her mind raced, trying to think of a way to defend herself; however, while underwater there wasn't much she could do.

When the Shark Villain was within arm's reach, a green blur shot out of nowhere and slammed into the thug–sending him tumbling through the water away from Uraraka.

Turning, Uraraka identified her rescuer as Asui.

"Hold on, Uraraka! Kero!" Asui wrapped her tongue around Uraraka's waist and pulled her through the water.

Glancing around, Asui noticed that the Shark Villain wasn't alone, and any path back to shore was cut off. The boat in the middle of the artificial lake was clear of any Villains, though. With her classmate running out of breath, Asui kicked her legs and swam toward the boat as quickly as she could.

Asui burst through the water's surface and stuck to the boat's hull. She then lifted Uraraka out of the water and gently dropped her on the deck. Uraraka coughed and gasped for breath, thankful she was out of the water and harm's way–for now, at least.

"Uraraka-san?"

The brunette lifted her head to see Jiro kneeling on the deck in front of her, looking at her worriedly. "Are you alright?"

"Jiro?" Uraraka coughed a little, pushing wet strands of brown-chestnut hair out of her face.

Climbing on board, Asui looked at the purplette in mild surprise. "Jiro-san? How'd you get here?"

"I was warped into the boat, not the water." Jiro replied.

"Ah, that's good. Kero." Asui was relieved. "I was worried I may have missed you or something."

"Good thing I wasn't in the water." Jiro glanced down at her speaker-boots. "These things may have sunk me…"

Uraraka looked at Asui and smiled. "Thanks for saving me, Tsuyu. I don't want to think about what would have happened if you hadn't shown up."

"You'd probably have been eaten," Tsuyu simply said.

Uraraka and Jiro both paled at that thought.

"Yeah… Good thing I wasn't in the water." Jiro mumbled.

"You f**king b**ches!" A furious shout came from the water. The three girls looked off the side of the boat and were surprised to see that the Shark Villain from earlier resurfaced. "Where's that frog b**ch!?"

"They're on the boat!" Another shouted, pointing in their direction.

"Not good… Kero." Asui spotted more aquatic Villains surrounding the model boat, effectively trapping them.

The Villains then started climbing up the side of the boat, including the Shark Villain. "I'll pull you down and eat you alive, frog!" He exclaimed angrily.

"Both of you get back and cover your ears!" Jiro yelled, pushing Asui and Uraraka away from the railing–who quickly complied with the purplette.

Plugging one of her jacks into a smart watch and the other into her left boot. Before the Villains could climb over the railing, an ear-piercing high-frequency sound wave slammed into them and even created wave ripples around the boat. The Villains screamed, unheard over Jiro's soundwaves, and clapped their hands over their ears–falling back into the water. Even the Villains further away were forced to cover their ears and dive deep to try and muff the painful noise.

With the Villains falling back, Jiro turned off her speaker–prompting Uraraka and Asui to uncover their ears; however, they could still hear a bit of ringing.

"Thanks, Jiro!" Uraraka sounded relieved. "You're a lifesaver!"

"Yeah… though my ears are still ringing. Kero." Asui rubbed around her ears.

"Sorry about that." Jiro was a tad embarrassed. "Too bad Yaomomo isn't here. She could've made you guys some ear plugs."

"It's fine. We could've been in real trouble there without you here, Jiro." Uraraka said.

"We're still in trouble though." Asui bluntly stated. "Those Villains will be back…"

"What're these creeps even doing here? Do they seriously think they can kill All Might?" Jiro said incredulously.

"They must. They wouldn't be carrying out a plan this ambitious if they didn't believe they couldn't." Asui wisely mentioned.

Jiro shuddered at that unsettling thought. "That's unreal…"

Uraraka then recalled something Kurogiri had said. "That warp guy said he wanted us to meet his comrades…and our demise..." Her eyes widened in realization. "Oh no…"

"Tch," Jiro clicked her tongue, coming to the same conclusion, "They split us up into smaller groups to pick us off. That means everyone else is fighting large groups of Villains like this too. We're in serious trouble."

"So, what do we do now?" Asui asked. "I'm not fast enough to outswim all those guys while carrying you two."

Uraraka's brows furrowed, considering their options. "I could make us weightless and fly us to the shore, but…" She then glanced at the lake, "those guys will probably just follow us there."

"Personally, I know I'd have a better chance fighting on dryland than here." Jiro mentioned.

"We're still students, so I'd want to avoid a fight if we could help it; especially near the plaza where Aizawa-sensei is fighting those other Villains, but," Uraraka frowned, "I don't see any other option…"

"Whatever we do, we need to come up with a plan fast." Asui glanced over the boat's railing to see some of the aquatic Villains resurfacing, surrounding the model boat. "The Villains are resurfacing. They're being cautious right now, thanks to Jiro-san, but they'll make a move soon. Kero."

Uraraka lowered her head, her thoughts shifting to her two best friends. 'We're really in a pickle here. What would Yaomomo or Izuku do in this situation?'

Uraraka mused on that thought before suddenly recalling a memory from yesterday with Midoriya.

---

It was mid-afternoon and Uraraka and Midoriya were both lounging in the former's apartment. Earlier, they had finished an hour-long study session together covering English and mathematics with Midoriya doing most of the teaching. She was progressing in both subjects…albeit slowly.

The duo was currently taking a break from studying those subjects. Midoriya was watching something on TV with a notepad in his hand while Uraraka sat close by. At the moment, the bubbly brunette was looking over an example question from her Foundational Heroics textbook that had her confused.

'I need to figure this out. If I can't answer questions like this, I won't stand a chance in passing our first exam.' She frowned, tapping a mechanical pencil against her chin. 'But I just don't get it. What am I missing?'

"Fascinating…"

Uraraka looked up from her textbook to see Midoriya looking at her small TV with keen interest. Curious, she glanced at the screen to see underwater footage of a pod of humpback whales. Their loud, melodic calls reverberated from the television's tiny speaker.

"... Although inaudible to most human ears, a whale's low frequency call can travel up to 1000 miles underwater. Nature sure is remarkable." He muttered to himself while drawing a sketch of a humpback whale in his art notepad.

Uraraka smiled. 'He's so cute when he's focused.' She then blushed and shook her head from that thought.

Quickly getting herself back under control, she looked back to see Midoriya still focused on the screen. Honestly, she had just turned the TV on for background noise. It just happened to be playing a whale documentary on the International Graphic channel.

"Wait…" Midoriya perked up after hearing something stated in the documentary. "Humpback whales are no longer endangered? Is that accurate?"

"Um, yeah. Why would they be endangered?" Uraraka questioned.

He turned to her. "Well, didn't commercial whaling decrease their numbers?"

"Whaling?" Uraraka tilted her head, bemused. "I'm pretty sure no countries don't do stuff like that anymore… Even Japan hasn't for a long time now."

Midoriya blinked, looking at her with a surprised expression.

'It's like this is all new information to him…' Uraraka mused.

"Well, anyways," she decided to change the subject, "do you think you could help me figure this out, Midori-kun?"

"Oh, sure thing," he lowered the TV volume and placed his notepad down, scooting across the floor to where Uraraka was sitting. "What's stumping you?"

"It's a practice question in our Foundational Heroics book from chapter 5."

Midoriya chuckled a little. "Already ahead, huh? Aren't we still in chapter 3 in class?"

"Well yeah," Uraraka looked sheepish, "but I wanted to get a head start, yah know? Go Plus Ultra and all that!"

"I get it." He smiled.

"Anyways, chapter 5 mostly covers team-ups, and how Pro Heroes should handle them." She explained. "It makes sense for the most part, but this scenario is confusing me though." She pointed in her textbook. "I get there's no one clear-cut answer here, but still…"

"Hmm…" Midoriya looked over the question, and read aloud, "you're patrolling alone in Balnab Ward outside Tokyo. 66 low-tier Villains have teamed up to cause havoc in a city park. You and three other Heroes nearby are to deal with the threat. Your teammates abilities are as follows:

"Member A can manipulate nearby plant life at their whim to subdue and capture enemies, but only if they focus. Member B can control water in the near vicinity, even creating powerful jets of water from their hands. Member C can summon fire and control it at whim. All of them have excellent control of their Quirks. You have your respective Quirk and your current Hero Costume.

"Local police are forming a perimeter around the area, but there are still civilians in the park. Other Heroes are en route but their ETA is unknown. How do you and your makeshift team handle the situation?"

After he finished reading, the verdette looked up at her. "What exactly is confusing you?"

"Well… How could just me and three other Heroes fight off 66 Villains?" Uraraka wondered. "There's no way of knowing what each of their Quirks are, right?"

"Fighting Villains isn't the only priority in this scenario, Uraraka-chan. Notice how it said, 'there are still civilians in the park'?" Midoriya pointed out. "Your team's priority is getting those bystanders to safety."

"But how can we save people while dealing with that many Villains too?" Uraraka asked. "It just sounds impossible without more backup."

"Believe it or not, it isn't impossible taking this hypothetical team into account; especially with your own really cool Quirk added to the mix, Uraraka-chan." He grinned brightly.

The brunette's face flushed a little and felt her heart flutter at the praise of her Quirk.

"But this team also has its weaknesses too; especially those 3 Fire, Water, and Plant Heroes." Midoriya continued.

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it. Member A can control plants, but Member C's fire could burn them. Member B can control water, but Member A's plants could absorb it if they summon enough. Meanwhile, Member C's fire can be quenched by Member B's water."

"Wait…" Uraraka gasped, "their abilities cancel each other out! It's like Jan-ken!"

Midoriya nodded, recognizing that "Jan-ken" was Japan's version of the rock-paper-scissors concept. "Yeah. In fact, this actually reminds me of the cycle between the Fire, Grass, and Water Pokémon."

"Pokémon? Going REALLY old school with those comparisons. Aren't you, Midori-kun?" Uraraka grinned.

"Y-yeah… heh-heh." Midoriya rubbed his neck sheepishly. "What can I say? I like the classics."

"The ancient classics." She giggled a bit.

Unbeknownst to her, Midoriya internally flinched at that statement.

"So," she continued, "how would we work together then? Wouldn't we just be getting in each other's way?"

"Your hypothetical team will need to delegate tasks. For a team to get the best results, each member's strengths need to be leveraged." Midoriya explained. "One or two should handle evacuating citizens from the park while the rest keep the Villains at bay long enough until citizens are safe, then you can all work together to take down the Villains or keep them contained until help arrives."

"But how do you determine who fights and who helps evacuate citizens? They all seem equally strong."

"Well, notice how the scenario laid out the setting at the beginning?"

Uraraka looked down at her textbook. "Balnab Ward outside Tokyo… in a city park..."

"Balnab Ward is mostly suburbs with a lot of forests around it, from my understanding. As for the city park, what do you typically find in parks?"

"Hmm…" Uraraka considered the question before her eyes widened in realization. "Plants!"

"That's right."

"I get it now. So… Member A can control the park's plant life to take down and even capture some of the Villains. Member B can use their water to also take down Villains too. That leaves me and Member C to help evacuate citizens." Uraraka stated.

"I'd switch out Member C with B instead." Midoriya politely countered.

"But… wouldn't C's fire Quirk burn A's plants?" Uraraka pointed out.

"Remember there's 66 Villains, and A likely can't handle all of them. A's Quirk is dependent on their focus, remember? Also, most people aren't fireproof, so C's fire abilities would be beneficial in taking down enemies or keeping them contained within the park by creating a fire wall." Midoriya elaborated.

"That makes sense..." She conceded.

He continued. "A and C can keep the Villains contained—watching each other's backs—while you and B evacuate citizens. Once they're safe, you can make yourself and B weightless and fly over the park. That'll allow you to spot patterns and strays. B can also use their Quirk to take down Villains from above while simultaneously strengthening A's plants on the ground, and even put out any rogue fires caused by C.

"With all that said, your hypothetical team should then be able to save the citizens AND defeat these Villains too, or at least hold out long enough until backup arrives."

A moment of silence passed.

Uraraka gaped at Midoriya, flabbergasted. "Midori-kun… You came up with all of that just after reading the scenario one time?"

"Y-yeah…"

"...Midori-kun is amazing." Uraraka uttered to herself.

The verdette looked away in embarrassment; his head strongly resembled a tomato. "I… you're way too kind… Uraraka-chan…"

"I'm serious. How did you figure all that out so fast?" She inquired, still amazed.

Midoriya cleared his throat, trying to suppress his blush. "W-well, before you make a plan, you have to keep the strengths and weaknesses of your teammates in mind while also taking the environment into account."

"I see… That makes sense." Uraraka lowered her head, contemplating his words.

Midoriya continued. "Though individuals aren't well-rounded, a team can be if they work together and leverage each other's strengths."

---

The memory then ended.

Mulling over Midoriya's sage words, she looked between Asui and Jiro thoughtfully.

'Okay… think, Ochako. We're on a boat in the middle of a lake surrounded by water Villains. I can make things float, but I can't do anything in the water. Tsuyu can do whatever a frog can and is pretty fast underwater. Jiro can't do much in water either, but her soundwaves are definitely effective. So… what can we do together?'

Uraraka glanced down at the speakers on Jiro's boots for a moment. Hold on… Whale calls can travel up to 1000 miles underwater, right? Does that mean…

"Hey, sound is louder underwater, right?" Uraraka questioned.

"Uh… yeah, I think so." Jiro replied, half-unsure.

"It is. Kero." Asui confirmed. "I can hear more things when I'm underwater." She then cutely tilted her head. "Why do you ask, Uraraka?"

"Well… I think I may have an idea."

Both the frog girl and rock musician gave the gravity girl their undivided attention.

Moments later, the aquatic Villains had mostly recovered from Jiro's sound attack (though still heard ringing in their ears) and were beginning to grow restless via swimming around the boat.

"C'mon! What're we doing just swimming around?! We got a job to do!" One shouted.

"Hey, if you wanna go deaf, by all means charge ahead," Another remarked. "I actually like my hearing."

"I got an idea…" One of the Villains started contorting the water around his arms. "I'll use my Quirk to sink that boat."

"Good thinking! Those broads will be easy pickings in the water!"

"HEY! Villains!"

The thugs looked up in surprise to see Asui on the boat's railing. "Catch me if you can!"

With that, Asui leaped into the water and dived deep.

"AFTER HER!"

"I'll tear her limb by limb!"

"The legs are mine!"

With that, the school of Villains swam after Asui in hot pursuit. It didn't take long for Asui to reach the bottom. The greenette quickly went horizontal and swam across the muddy bottom with a trail of churned up dirt in her wake.

There were a variety of aquatic Quirks on display. Most of the Villains had fish-based abilities with the bodily attributes to match while a few had reptilian Quirks reminiscent of crocodiles and iguanas. Naturally, they were all quite fast while underwater; some were even faster than motorboats at full speed. However, Asui's agility gave her a leg-up on all of her pursuers.

When Villains got close or believed they had cornered her, she was able to escape by making very tight turns and performing incredible acrobatic feats. Also, visibility was also decreasing as the water by the bottom was being stirred up via the commotion.

"Dammit! I can't see anything in there." One voiced, swimming above the mud cloud.

"She's gotta be in there somewhere!" Another shouted.

"Search for her!"

Meanwhile, Asui was clutching onto some boulders in the midst of the mud cloud. Amazingly, her body had become transparent to match the environment around her. At the moment, the greenette was thankful she had discovered her camouflaging abilities a couple of years before attending UA.

Though visibility was zero, she could hear everything around her. From the Villains' shouts, their swimming strokes, and even some of their heartbeats. There was a cacophony of sounds while underwater that to the untrained ear sounded like white noise. The frog girl could discern it all. She had been training her entire life in or at least near the water in some capacity.

However, she imagined her aquatic foes also had similar training and experiences as well.

Still clinging to the rock, Asui stayed as quiet as she could possibly be… listening for one particular sound.

'I'll have to come up for air soon. I just hope Uraraka and Jiro are ready by then…' Asui thought.

Meanwhile, with all of the Villains brashly chasing after Asui, Uraraka and Jiro were given an opportunity to enact step two of their plan.

"Okay, I think I'm at the center of the lake now. Are you ready, Jiro?" Uraraka called out.

With a rope tied around their waists, the two young women weightlessly floated several meters above the lake away from the boat. It was fortunate they had managed to find some maritime gear on the boat that included a set of rope. Minus an actual engine, UA University made the model boat as realistic as possible.

Jiro glanced down, feeling a tad nervous. "Y-yeah… I am! As ready as I'll ever be…" She mumbled the last part to herself.

'Hopefully this works…' The rocker girl inwardly mused.

"Hold on! You want me to use my Quirk underwater?" Jiro asked incredulously.

Uraraka nodded firmly. "Your Quirk made them retreat earlier and is the reason they're not attacking us now. We can use that to take them all down."

"Yeah… but I dunno if my speakers will even work underwater. I mean," Jiro looked unsure, "I know I asked that they'd be water-resistant when submitting my Costume form… but I'm not sure they'll work for every long fully submerged."

"It doesn't have to be long. If sound is louder underwater, your Quirk could stun them long enough for us to get back to shore without being followed." Uraraka pointed out.

"But if my speakers get broken? I'll practically be defenseless…" Jiro countered.

"Maybe just use one speaker then?" Uraraka suggested. "That way, if it does break, you'll still have one to fall back on."

Jiro lowered her head to ponder the suggestion. She wasn't sure about this, but the musician didn't have any better ideas either. Plus, they were running out of time to boot. Those Villains may wise up and try surrounding them, preventing her from using her Quirk fully without harming her friends.

"Yeah… Alright, I'm in." Jiro joined in.

"Hmm," Asui tapped her chin, glancing out at the lake to see Villains still circling the boat, "we'd need all the Villains to be underwater when Jiro-san uses her Quirk for this plan to work."

"Think you can keep them distracted for just a few minutes, Tsuyu?" the chestnut-haired girl asked. "I know it's dangerous, but you're the fastest person I know in the water."

"Kero. I can do that." Asui nodded. "But I'd rather not be underwater when Jiro uses her Quirk though…"

Uraraka shook her head. "We'll give you a signal when we're ready and you come to the surface. As soon as you're out, Jiro can use her Quirk."

"A signal? What will it be? Kero." the greenette questioned.

Jiro then grinned. "I got something in mind. Trust me, you'll know it when ya hear it."

Uraraka used her Costume's air-thrusters to carefully guide her and Jiro till they were floating centimeters above the water's surface.

"Alright, Jiro, give Tsuyu the signal." Uraraka instructed.

"On it!" Connecting an ear jack into her smart watch, Jiro plugged the other one into her left speaker.

Selecting the sound on her watch, a Popish Rock song called The Day–recently released by one of her favorite bands–blared through her boot-speakers. The water above the floating girls began to ripple from the sound.

Meanwhile, near the lake's bottom, all the Villains looked around dumbfounded from the sudden noise.

"Huh…? Where's that music coming from?"

"It sounds kinda good, actually…" Another commented.

"Hey… did anyone remember those other two girls…" one thug dumbly said.

Upon hearing the song, Asui immediately sprang into action. 'That's the signal!'

With powerful thrusts, she shot upward out of the mud cloud like a torpedo. As a result, her camouflage started to fade out a little.

Halfway to the surface, one of the Villains–who strongly resembled a humanoid-swordfish–spotted Asui's faint transparent form.

"LOOK! THERE SHE IS!" He pointed up.

"She's heading back to the boat!"

"GET HER!"

With that, the school of aquatic Villains pursued after the frog girl.

'Almost there!' With the hull of the boat in sight, she swam at top speed.

After playing the song for a full thirty seconds, Jiro disconnected her ear jack from her smart watch. 'Hopefully Asui got the message…' She then scrolled to another sound option with her ear jack millimeters from the port–ready to connect at a moment's notice.

"C'mon Tsuyu…" Uraraka said quietly, hoping her friend was okay.

Suddenly, something burst out of the water near the boat. Immediately dropping her camouflage, Asui turned in Uraraka and Jiro's direction. "HURRY! KERO! They're coming up!"

"Right! Do it, Jiro!" Uraraka shouted as she carefully lowered Jiro down further without fully submerging her.

With her right leg bent upward to avoid getting her right speaker wet, Jiro's left boot was lowered into the water.

"Get rocked, Villains!"

Plugging her ear jack into her watch, a bone-shakingly loud wave of sound blasted out of Jiro's left speaker; the water intensifying it even more. The artificial lake shook from the powerful soundwaves echoing back-and-forth within it.

The aquatic Villains were practically stunned as the soundwaves reverberated through their bodies, causing significant bodily damage in the process. Their painful screams went unheard over the blaring noise. Their eyes then rolled behind their head as every single Villain passed out. Some even had blood trailing out of their ear canals.

Jiro then felt her speaker begin to glitch out before it stopped working. "Alright, Uraraka-san, that's it!"

Uraraka nodded. Shooting air from her boots, the pair ascended upward. She carefully navigated back to the boat, which was rocking from the waves produced by Jiro's sound. Ripples were spreading out across the lake as if a massive stone was dropped in it.

Gently lowering Jiro on the deck, Uraraka touched down and deactivated her Quirk. Almost immediately, Uraraka leaned by the railing and clutched her stomach. "Ow…"

"You okay, Uraraka?" Asui said, concerned.

"Y-yeah… still not used to using my Quirk on myself for that long…" Uraraka groaned, trying to keep her lunch down. Untying the rope around her waist, she reached into her belt and pulled out one of her motion-sickness pills—popping it into her mouth.

Moments later, they noticed all of the Villains rising to the surface, eyes rolled over and gargling foam from their mouths. They were unconscious and defeated.

"Looks like… we won…" Uraraka panted lightly, feeling a little proud of herself. 'Thanks, Izuku...' She smiled warmly.

"Nice work. All of you. You're both amazing. Kero." Asui praised.

Uraraka and Jiro both smiled bashfully.

"Give yourself some credit, Asui-san," Jiro replied. "You distracted them long enough for everything to work out."

"It's no problem. And please, call me Tsuyu," Asui requested. "All my friends call me that."

Jiro smiled at that. "Fair enough. You can call me Kyoka. Both of you can, actually."

Asui and Uraraka nodded happily at that.

Jiro then glanced down at her left boot to inspect the damage. It was pretty busted up with water still pouring out of the crevices.

"Yeah, this thing is done for. Good thing I still have my right speaker…" Jiro dryly noted.

"Sorry about that," Uraraka said sheepishly.

The purplette shook her head, smiling. "Don't be. Your plan worked, right?" She said, pointing her thumb in the direction of the criminals in the lake. "We won't have to worry about those creeps anymore."

"Sorry to interrupt, but we should be heading back to shore now while we still can." Asui insisted.

Both girls nodded in agreement.

"I'll float us over there." Uraraka said determinedly.

"Are you sure? What about your nausea?" Asui inquired.

The gravity brunette shook her head, smirking confidently. "I'll be fine. I'm already feeling better!"

Taking her word for it, Asui and Jiro allowed Uraraka to use her Quirk on them. Tapping her shoulder, Uraraka floated upward with them.

"Alright. Grab on, you two!" She ordered.

Asui and Jiro complied by grabbing onto Uraraka's sides. Activating her Costume's air-thrusters, the trio soared away from the boat in the direction of the shoreline.

Upon reaching the shoreline, Uraraka lowered their speed and descent. Asui and Jiro let go of the brunette once they were close enough to the ground. With her passengers safely on the ground, Uraraka deactivated her Quirk and gravity's effect returned on the trio.

Uraraka stumbled a little and hunched over, feeling knots in her stomach. She resisted the urge to hurl her breakfast and lunch. 'Still…need more practice…' She mentally groaned.

"You alright, Uraraka?" Asui asked, concerned.

"I'm fine…" Uraraka waved off.

Asui accepted her reply and turned her attention to the towering stairway nearby. "We should head back to the entrance before we're spotted. Kero."

Jiro nodded in agreement. "Yeah, good idea. We shouldn't be getting into any more fights if we can help it."

Uraraka straightened up and then turned her gaze at the large fountain in the facility's center. She had made sure to land them on the backside out of view from where Aizawa was fighting that mob of Villains.

"We should take the shorter path to the exit." Uraraka pointed to the left, which revealed a clear path toward the stairway.

Asui nodded. "Good idea. That way we don't run into the Villains Aizawa-sensei is fighting over there." She turned toward the fountain.

They could hear the sounds of fighting on the other side.

"Even if you erase their Quirks, there's still way too many Villains down there for you to fight on your own." Midoriya's words replayed in her head.

Uraraka frowned. 'How long can Mr. Aizawa hold out till help arrives? I know he'd want us to get back to the exit, but… is it right for us to just leave him? What would Izuku do in this situation?'

She didn't need to ponder that thought for long. 'What am I saying? He'd rush in to help without a second thought.'

"Guys, Aizawa-sensei is gonna need backup." Uraraka asserted. "If he doesn't, they'll eventually overpower him."

Jiro and Asui both looked at the brunette, dumbfounded by what she was suggesting.

"Uraraka, we can't just rush in there." Jiro countered.

"Kero. I don't think Aizawa-sensei would approve of us inserting ourselves into the middle of a battle, even if we had good intentions." Asui added.

"I–I know that. But," she looked back toward the central plaza, "I'm not saying we should rush into his fight or anything, but maybe we can at least take a few of them off his load or something…?"

The greenette and purplette could understand what Uraraka was saying, but still looked unsure.

"Well," Jiro twirled her ear jacks nervously, "we're gonna have to go past that area to the stairs anyway. We can at least make sure he's okay..."

"Hmm…" Asui tapped her chin; a common thing she did when she was deep in thought. "Okay. We'll check to make sure he's okay. But I'm still against fighting unless it's necessary."

Uraraka nodded in agreement. "Yeah. That's fair."

"Try to be stealthy. I'll warn us if anyone tries to sneak up on us." Jiro said.

The three girls carefully proceeded down the shoreline in the direction of the stairway.

Meanwhile, Uraraka's thoughts shifted to her classmates. 'I hope everyone else is doing okay…Yaomomo, Izuku… Please be safe!'

---

Todoroki fell through the black portal and landed safely on his feet. The moment his feet touched the ground, he started looking around to take in his surroundings. A sloped terrain with various debris scattered across keyed the dual-haired teen to deduce he was in the Landslide Zone.

'So they scattered us across the facility…' Glancing around, he didn't see any of his classmates with him. He was on his own. Not that that mattered much to Todoroki as he preferred working alone.

The sounds of footsteps caught his attention as a group of Villains suddenly came out of hiding in front of him and rushed towards him.

'I see. They split us up to pick us off in smaller groups. However…'

In an instant, nearly half of the zone was suddenly covered in a couple feet of ice. Every Villain had been frozen in their tracks with no way to escape.

Todoroki exhaled a frosty breath. 'These pawns of theirs are merely a ragtag group of thugs. Not all that dangerous in the slightest. Do they really believe they can beat All Might with this group?'

Suddenly, a skull-faced Villain wearing black clothing burst from the unfrozen ground at his right, rearing back his hand that was cackling with electricity.

"EAT LIGHTNING, YOU ICY BRAT!" The electric thug assumed he had gotten the jump on the dual-haired teen coming from the underground, but his supposed victory was short-lived.

Without looking, Todoroki extended his right arm and effortlessly froze the skull-faced man in place.

Now, one would think that with an electric type Quirk, the Villain could electrocute Todoroki via the ice. However, though water was a good conductor of electricity, its frozen counterpart (ice) was a bad conductor. Even if he could use his Quirk, the intense cold that concealed his entire body, minus his face, made it impossible to focus.

In summary, he was screwed.

"S-sh-sh*t!" The skull-faced Villain shivered madly.

"Th-This guy… H-He took us out… in an instant… Who is he?!" A Villain shivered; his tone portrayed shocked fear.

'From what I saw, there were only two or three truly dangerous people. If that's the case, then the next step I should take is getting more information.' Todoroki internally rationalized.

"Hey, I have some questions for you." He glowered at the group. "If you don't answer me honestly, then I'm going to leave you frozen. You'll most likely develop frostbite before anyone comes to get you. You might even lose parts of your body from it."

The Villains nearby were all starting to panic at this point; some even had small tears in their eyes as they feared for their lives.

"I want to be a Hero, so I'd prefer to not do something so cruel, but…" Todoroki left the sentence hanging, adding to the cold atmosphere, "you have to answer all of my questions. For starters, how do you plan to kill All Might?"

---

"There he is!" A Villain shouted.

"GET HIM!"

Aoyama calmly stood still as three thugs spotted him down an alleyway. As the criminals charged at him with their melee weapons ready, Aoyama folded his hands behind his head in a lackadaisical manner.

"Facile." He remarked in French, and then shot three separate laser beams from his torso.

With no room to maneuver in the cramped alley, the Villains were knocked unconscious by the blasts.

Aoyama closed his eyes, smiling. "My sparkles are just too much."

With his back turned from the crevices in a compromised building across the street, a Villain charged at Aoyama with a machete reared back to strike. Meters away from striking Aoyama down, a shadowy talon-hand shot out of nowhere and slammed the Villain into the pavement.

Aoyama turned to see Tokoyami walk out of a crevice between two wrecked buildings leaning against each other. The Ruins Zone, an urban environment, filled with various pathways and buildings in precarious conditions–nearly on the verge of collapse.

"That makes six of them." Tokoyami said as Dark Shadow returned to him.

The bird-headed young man turned to the sparkling blonde. "Are you alright, Aoyama-san?"

"Oui," Aoyama replied easily.

He then turned to the thug that Tokoyami had saved him from. 'I didn't even see him coming. If Tokoyami hadn't been there…' He apprehensively mused, a bead of sweat forming on his temple.

It was a scary reminder that even though these Villains may not be the most powerful, they were still dangerous and capable of ending one's life at a moment's notice.

"We should stick together. Slowly but surely, we're decreasing their numbers, but we have no idea how many there are." Tokoyami pointed out. "Was anyone else with you, Aoyama-san?"

"Non. I'm afraid not, my shadowy compatriots."

Suddenly, they heard many girlish screams as a group of Villains sprinted out of a building… with various rodents swarming them. If it wasn't rats crawling over them… it was the bats flying around and biting them.

As the thugs ran out of sight, another individual walked out of the same building. They turned to see it was Koda nervously waving at them, completely unharmed. Though Koda wasn't the most social around people nor the best fighter, with animals in the vicinity, he could be quite dangerous indeed.

"It's always the quiet ones, huh?" Dark Shadow commented.

Tokoyami and Aoyama both nodded in agreement.

---

"Outta my way!" Bakugo yelled, blasting a large Villain aside.

Moments earlier, he and Kirishima had been dropped in the middle of a street with burning buildings surrounding them. The Conflagration Zone was a domed urban environment where buildings and areas of the street were constantly on fire to simulate fire-related disasters.

If the hot temperatures weren't enough, they had been surrounded by Villains almost instantly. Nevertheless, the Explosion and Hardening duo proved to be more than what their opposition had been expecting. They had broken through the encirclement and were currently fighting their way through a horde of criminals.

Punching a thug in the gut with his hardened fist, Kirishima shouted, "STAY DOWN!" The man promptly collapsed to the street with his eyes rolling behind his head, unconscious.

"Geez…" Kirishima panted, wiping some sweat off his forehead. "There's no end to these guys…"

'I really hope Mina is okay,' Kirishima worriedly thought. 'I know she can take care of herself, but I still can't help but worry.'

As the spiky redhead mused on his girlfriend's safety, a chameleon-like Villain jumped out of nowhere and lunged for Kirishima's back with a knife. "DIE!"

The Villain was promptly slammed headfirst into the pavement by Bakugo's hand and blasted away with an explosion; charred and unconscious.

"Watch it, Sh*tty Hair!" Bakugo exclaimed, annoyed.

"R-Right… thanks." Kirishima replied.

Bakugo scoffed. "Anyways, these guys are nothing but weaklings. Did they really think they could take down All Might with these scrubs!?"

"We gotta find our way out of this hot box and regroup with the others." Kirishima stated, wiping more sweat from his brows. "Don't know how much more of this heat we can take…"

"Speak for yourself, Sh*tty Hair," Bakugo retorted, "this heat is perfect for my Quirk." He glanced down at his grenade-shaped gauntlets. 'My right gauntlet's already 3-quarters full. It won't be long before both are fully loaded.' His mind flashbacked to Kurogiri, the Hand Guy, and the bird monster. 'Then I'll have enough juice to blow all those bastards away.' He grinned roguishly.

Kirishima rolled his eyes at the ash-blonde's remark. "Let's just go already, man!"

With that, the duo ran down the street toward the edge of the domed zone in search of an exit.

---

As the black miasma lifted, Tokage looked around and was shocked to find almost all of her classmates were gone. Across from her, Shoji unfolded his arms to reveal he had grabbed Sero, Sato, and Iida. Next to Tokage was Thirteen–whom she had rescued–and the Pro was already dusting herself off as she stood up, keeping her eyes trained on the Villian.

Kurogiri, meanwhile, kept his distance and watched the group keenly.

'Thirteen was the closest to me, but I feel bad that I couldn't save anyone else.' Tokage inwardly lamented.

"Hey!" Sero whipped his head around, looking for anyone else. "Where'd everybody else go?"

"Shoji, Tokage," Thirteen spoke up, "can you confirm everyone's positions?"

Both students nodded. While Shoji extended his arms out and formed eyes and ears at the end of his appendages, Tokage disconnected both of her eyes and ears from her head and levitated them in the air.

"I can see Yaomomo, Tsunotori, and Kaminari in the Mountain Zone." Tokage reported. "Todoroki-san is in the Landslide Zone. And… I think I saw a splash in the Flood Zone. Can't confirm who's there though."

"I can hear explosions coming from the Ruins nearby. Probably Bakugo-san..." Shoji added, then pausing for a moment. "It sounds like everyone is here. The Villain just scattered them across the USJ."

The rest of the students sighed in relief, but it was short-lived.

"They're not alone." Tokage added, sounding uneasy. "I can already see Villains surrounding the groups in view."

"I can also hear commotion in the other zones. There are a lot of Villains…" Shoji said grimly.

A cold chill went down the group's spines. The fact that their classmates and friends were fighting hordes of Villains filled them with dread.

"We have to do something!" Iida urgently exclaimed.

"We will." Thirteen reassured him. "Just stay calm. We'll get help and save the others."

"You will do no such thing." Kurogiri suddenly spoke up. "Though you may have escaped my Warp Gate, I am more than capable of handling you six." It didn't sound like he was boastful or arrogant, only stating a mere fact–which made several students feel even more uneasy.

As Tokage's ears and eyes returned to her head, she noticed something off to the side of the pathway. With a cunning Villain in front of them though, she remained as discreet as possible to not draw any attention towards it.

"What do we do?" Sero asked. "This guy isn't affected by physical attacks and can teleport stuff too…"

'He's not completely invulnerable though…' Tokage recalled what Midoriya had pointed out earlier, focusing on Kurogiri's metal brace. 'Perhaps his physical body is protected by that?'

"Iida, I have a job for you." Thirteen called out. "Run to the main campus and alert the faculty of what's happening."

Iida gapped at the suggestion. "W-what? But I can't just–"

"We have no alarms and no phone signal." Thirteen interjected. "Even with Eraserhead canceling people's Quirks left and right, nothing has come back on. The one responsible must've hidden somewhere as soon as they teleported here. By the time we find them, it could already be too late."

There were a few audible gulps, recognizing what "too late" meant. Dead.

"It would be more logical for you to run and get help at this point." Thirteen concluded.

"Yes, but… it'd be disgraceful for me to leave you behind, right?" Iida protested.

"You're the fastest one here, Iida," Tokage chimed in. "There are alarms outside, which is why they're keeping us trapped in here."

"I get it." Sato stepped forward along with Sero, both taking fighting stances. "If Iida-san gets outside, they won't follow after him."

"Iida, you can blow this stupid mist guy away with those Engine legs of yours!" Sero exclaimed confidently. "We've got your back!"

Tokage suddenly split her arms, legs, and torso apart to hover in midair. "We'll keep this guy distracted. Just run and get help!"

"Use your Quirk to save others." Thirteen declared. "Be a real Hero!"

Iida took his teacher and classmates' words to heart. After a brief moment, his visage hardened with resolve. Extending mufflers out of his recently repaired Costume, he got in a sprinter's stance–his Quirk reeving up.

"How foolish of you." Kurogiri narrowed his eyes. "To strategize right in front of your enemy!" He launched himself forward, a black tidal wave ready to crash down on the group.

"It won't matter when I'm done with you! Black Hole!" Thirteen extended her head and her index finger cap popped back, allowing a powerful vortex to suck up everything in front of her–including the Villain.

"Ah, yes. Your Quirk is indeed dangerous, Thirteen." Kurogiri calmly said. "If I hadn't prepared, I would have been completely at your mercy."

Thirteen's eyes widened. 'Prepared?'

The Black Hole user didn't notice a warp gate appear behind her. At the same time, Kurogiri opened one in front of him, hitting the Hero with her own Quirk. She immediately felt her back being ripped apart and a wave of agony enveloped her.

She couldn't close her glove's cap; the pain made it impossible to focus.

"You're an excellent Hero, Thirteen, but you specialize in rescue operations–not combat. That means you have little battlefield awareness in comparison to other Heroes like Eraserhead." Kurogiri stated matter-of-factly.

"Thirteen!" Tokage screamed in horror.

She shot an arm and leg forward to push Thirteen out of the way of her redirected attack. Using her hand, she grabbed her right glove and closed the cap back over her index finger.

Shoji and Sero, meanwhile, immediately rushed to the aid of their teacher.

"Iida! Get out of here already!" Tokage shouted out.

"Right!" Iida sprinted forward, flames firing out of his leg mufflers. "ENGINE!"

'I'll be a real Hero. I'll keep my classmates safe!' Iida was determined.

Kurogiri turned his sights on the running white-knight. "A sheep trying to escape from the wolves? I simply cannot allow that." Activating his warp gate, the Villain reappeared in front of Iida as a black swirling mass. 'If other Heroes arrive, our plan will fail.'

Iida was forced to stop mid-stride as Kurogiri appeared directly in front of him, seconds away from enveloping him in his mist to presumably teleport him somewhere unknown.

DING!

A bell-like sound echoed out as Kurogiri was suddenly knocked aside.

Iida blinked and looked up to see one of Tokage's arms holding a familiar object. "Midoriya's shield?"

The greenette discreetly picked up the indestructible disk while Kurogiri had been distracted.

"Get going!" Tokage yelled urgently.

Nodding, Iida sprinted forward toward the exit. 'Don't worry classmates! I'll be back in a flash!'

Kurogiri grunted as he picked himself off the floor, narrowing his yellow eyes in frustration. "I won't allow it!"

As he was about to pursue Iida, Tokage's body parts suddenly flew around him–including the arm holding Midoriya's shield, which she kept in front of the Villain. "Hey, hey! Eyes on me!" She snapped her fingers for emphasis.

"Impertinent child! Move aside!" Before he could lash out, several sets of arms suddenly wrapped around him.

Shoji fell to the ground, keeping a tight hold over Kurogiri–which included his metal bracer. "I got him!"

"GET OFF ME!" Using his warp gate, he teleported out of Shoji's hold and reappeared behind Iida–pursuing after him.

"You won't set foot outside those doors!" Kurogiri angrily shouted.

'What if the doors are locked? Will I be able to pry them open in time?' Iida worriedly thought.

Tokage swung the arm holding Midoriya's shield around in a circle. 'Aim for the brace in the mist!' After gaining enough momentum, she released her hold to send it flying toward her target like a frisbee; however, there was a slight problem.

Her aim was off.

The shield soared past Kurogiri going wide-left. It struck the path's railing and harmlessly ricocheted off to the side.

'Dammit! I missed that badly?!' Tokage berated herself.

Wanting to make up for the bad throw, all of the greenette's disconnected body parts shot forward. As Kurogiri was about to engulf the Engine user, he was stopped by a floating pair of arms wrapping around his bracer and pulling back. Two legs then appeared and proceeded to kick him hard.

This only served to anger the black miasma rather than hurt him.

"YOU PEST!" Kurogiri roared.

Before the Villain could retaliate, a net of white tape-like strands suddenly wrapped around his bracer. Glancing back, he saw Sero standing behind with several tape strands coming out of his left elbow.

"Heh!" Sero smirked. "Not the prettiest net, but it'll do."

"Release me!"

"Sure thing!" Tearing the tape off his elbow, he handed it off to Sato.

The well-muscled young man spun around and pulled Kurogiri back away from Iida. After a few spins, Sato released the tape and sent Kurogiri flying upward toward the dome.

"RUN IIDA!" Sato shouted.

Iida reached the doors and, using all of the strength he could muster, he managed to pry them open just enough for him to squeeze through. As soon as he stepped outside, flames burst out of his mufflers.

"Engine… BOOST!" Iida blasted away at full speed, leaving a trail of dust in his wake.

Kurogiri regained control of himself just before he hit the roof. He looked down to see the knight-looking student had already escaped.

'This is very bad.' Eyes narrowing, Kurogiri twisted in on himself and vanished–leaving the group alone at the entrance.

Sero sighed in relief, slumping his shoulders. "Did we win?"

Shoji looked at the open door and back toward the rest of the USJ, where the rest of their peers were fighting for their lives. "We'll know soon if the Heroes arrive in time."

Tokage floated back to the ground and reconnected her parts. "Our classmates are strong. I'm sure they can hold out until then."

The group nodded in agreement, but still couldn't help but feel concerned. Though Tokage was confident in her classmates, she'd be lying if she said she wasn't even a little worried.

Turning, Tokage spotted the shield off to the side. Disconnecting her left arm, she levitated it over to pick it up and bring it back to her. For a moment, she looked at the green, white, and red disk introspectively.

'Midori makes throwing this thing look so easy. And it's heavier than I thought too…Yet he carries it around like it's nothing.'

Tokage realized the incredible skill her fellow greenette possessed to gracefully wield such an object in the manner he did. She honestly felt embarrassed with herself thinking that she could throw it like Midoriya could without any sort of practice.

'Yeah… I definitely overestimated myself on that one.' She admitted sheepishly.

Shoji, Sero, and Sato meanwhile were kneeling down by the injured Thirteen–who had passed out from the intense pain.

"Hey, Sero… can you do anything for her with your tape?" Shoji inquired.

Sero nodded. "I'm no medical expert, but…" Producing tape from his elbows, he patched up Thirteen's torn back. It wasn't pretty, but it was better than leaving it exposed to the elements. "There. That should help a little."

Sato nodded. "At least long enough until help arrives… hopefully."

"Help will arrive." Tokage walked over, holding the shield from its leather straps. "Iida won't let us down." She smiled widely, showing off her sharp teeth.

Tokage's confidence rubbed off on the three young men as they smiled too; Shoji's was hidden behind his mask.

The Lizard Tail Splitter user shifted her gaze to Shoji. "Hey, Shoji-san," the multi-armed man perked up. "Were you able to pinpoint Midoriya's location? I couldn't spot him anywhere…"

"No," Shoji looked out at the facility, "but I didn't hear or see him in the Mountain, Flood, or Landslide Zones. There's commotion in the Ruins… but I can't tell if he's there or not. As for the zones with domes… I can't hear enough to determine who exactly is inside them."

'Well, that crosses off half of the zones at least.' She mused. "Alright then, I'm gonna head out and find Midoriya."

The three men looked at her in confusion.

"Huh? But why?" Sato asked.

"It could be dangerous… There's a ton of Villains out there, right?" Sero pointed out.

"That's exactly why I need to find him and return this." She held up the shield, "Don't you think he could use it right about now against hordes of Villains?"

All three young men looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

"Alright. We'll watch over Thirteen in the meantime." Shoji said.

"Thanks!" she grinned roguishly.

"Just be careful out there." Sato said.

"Heh. I'm always careful!" Tokage split herself apart and flew into the air.

Her eyes and ears split off from her head and searched over the facility. 'Alright Big Green… where are you hiding?'

Knowing that the Mountain, Landslide, and Flood Zones were off the list, she focused her attention on the three remaining zones: Ruins, Conflagration, and Downpour.

With the Ruins and Downpour Zones being closer, she split her attention to check them first. But as one of Tokage's floating eyes and ears headed toward the Downpour Zone, she noticed some commotion in the central plaza. Glancing down, she was met with a gruesome sight.

"Oh sh*t…" Tokage grimaced.

Aizawa was lying face down on the ground. Both of his arms looked mangled and blood was pooling around his head. Standing over the Pro Hero was the jet-black skin monstrosity with an exposed brain, clutching onto Aizawa's head with its large hand.

'Aizawa needs help! I gotta do something, right?' Tokage frantically thought. 'But I can't do anything for him with that thing standing over–Wait!'

The greenette beauty froze, spotting something out of the corner of her eye. She perked up when she recognized who it was.

'Perfect timing!' Tokage's mouth grinned.

Her body parts floated closer together as if they were a flock of birds and soared above the plaza in the direction of the Downpour Zone.

---

"Alright, Uraraka, we're just here to see how things are going." Jiro stated as she, Asui, and Uraraka quietly walked around the shoreline in view of the main plaza where Aizawa was still fighting.

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry. We'll run away the moment it's too dangerous." Uraraka replied.

The three girls tried to stay hidden by crouching below the shoreline ridge, observing the battle transpiring.

Multiple bodies laid across the ground as Eraserhead kept on effortlessly dealing with all of the cannon fodder thugs that stood in his way. After typing up two people with his scarf and knocking them out, he looked up to see Shigaraki Tomura charging straight for him with his right hand extended.

"23 seconds… " Shigaraki said under his breath.

"Final boss?!" Aizawa said as he threw his long scarf towards him in an attempt to immobilize him.

"24 seconds… Then it was 20 seconds… Now, 17… "

Aizawa attempted to elbow Shigaraki in the chest, but was blocked at the last second.

Shigaraki held Aizawa's elbow in a tight grip.

"Damn." Aizawa said as he realized his attack was stopped.

"It's hard to see because you keep moving around, but I found your tell. It's your hair." Shigaraki began to say as Aizawa widened his red, dried eyes.

"That's when you deactivate your Quirk. The space in between has gotten shorter and shorter. Don't push yourself, Eraserhead." Shigaraki finished as the skin of Aizawa's elbow tore apart, revealing bloody red muscle and bone as cracks spread across the skin of his right arm. "You may just fall apart. Wouldn't that be a shame…"

Aizawa jumped away from Shigaraki, feeling the intense pain in his right elbow, "My elbow's crumbling!"

The fodder Villains took this as an opportunity to get the jump on Aizawa. He dodged all of their attacks as he panted, feeling the fatigue from fighting a big group for a long period of time.

"Your Quirk isn't suited for long drawn out fights against a large group, is it? Aren't you a little out of your depth here, Eraserhead? You specialize in surprise attacks–not prolonged battles. Even so, you jumped right in to fight us directly. Was that to put your students at ease?"

As Shigaraki taunted Aizawa, despite being down an arm, he continued to take down the other Villains trying to ambush him.

He then readied his scarf and honed in on Shigaraki, ready to fight him head on. "I have to admit, you really are so cool. Oh, by the way, Hero… I'm not the final boss."

A large shadow was cast over the haggard man. He gasped when he turned to see the robust creature with a beak full of sharp teeth, jet-black skin, and an exposed brain.

The creature brought its hand down and smashed Aizawa to the ground. Blood and a pair of yellow goggles went flying.

"This is Nomu. The bioengineered Anti-Symbol of Peace." Shigaraki stated.

Aizawa looked up at the monstrosity crouching over him, trying to erase its Quirk; however, it had no effect. Nomu grabbed his head and smashed it into the ground–creating a small crater. Nomu then lifted up its leg to step on Aizawa's right arm, breaking it in the process.

Aizawa cried out in utter agony.

"You can erase Quirks. That's cool, but not overly impressive." Shigaraki grinned in twisted delight at the sight of Eraserhead being broken. "In the face of overwhelming power, you might as well be a Quirkless child."

Fighting through the pain, Aizawa turned his gaze back to Nomu; his eyes turning red to signify he activated his Quirk. However, Nomu remained unaffected and snapped Aizawa's other arm–making him scream once more.

'He's breaking my bones like their toothpicks… I know I erased his Quirk. That means… he's super-strong even without a Quirk.' Aizawa internally analyzed. 'He may be as strong as All Might!'

Nomu picked up Aizawa's head and smashed it into the concrete again, creating more cracks and inflicting even more damage on the Erasure Hero.

Meanwhile, the three young women watching couldn't believe their eyes. Their instructor was being broken so easily. That Villain…that monster…was treating it like it wasn't even a warm-up. How could someone be so strong?!

Was it even a person?

"T-this… this is bad." Jiro stammered fearfully. "We gotta get out of here before we get hurt…"

"Kero…" Asui was in agreement. She was having trouble watching this gory scene.

"But… Aizawa-sensei…" Uraraka shivered. "We can't just…"

Then, a familiar black mist suddenly appeared beside Shigaraki.

"Shigaraki," Kuroguri gained his ward's attention.

"Kurogiri, did you kill Thirteen?"

Hearing this, Uraraka's breath hitched in her throat. 'No…' She felt a deep pit in her stomach. 'Not Thirteen…'

"Thirteen is out of commission, but there's been a complication. Some students were able to evade my mass warp... and subsequently, one of them escaped the facility." Kurogiri reported. "He is likely already contacting the school right now."

"Someone got out? Kero." Asui whispered.

"That's what I heard." Jiro confirmed.

Uraraka lowered her head thoughtfully. Who could have escaped? The only ones she knew who could outrun the sudden teleportation would be Midoriya, Bakugo, and-

Iida...

Her eyes widened. It had to have been Iida!

"What…?" Shigaraki's voice cracked as he slowly turned to Kuroguri. "Why didn't you chase after him?"

"I would've sounded the alarms had I gone outside. The Heroes and local authorities would've arrived much sooner."

This, however, did not please Shigaraki. Not. One. Bit.

The dry-skinned, teal-haired man began to scratch at his neck roughly. "Kurogiri… you damn fool!" He hissed as his body shook with rage. "If you weren't our ticket out of here, I'd turn you into f**king dust right now!"

"All Might and the teachers are on the way." Jiro sighed in relief. "Man… That's music to my ears."

Uraraka and Asui both smiled as well. All Might may have been late for whatever reason, but he could still save the day!

Just when Shigaraki was ready to rip open his own throat, his arms fell limply to his sides and his whole body slumped; his face staring up at the ceiling. "Dammit… this sucks." He sighed loudly.

Uraraka was flummoxed. 'W-what?!' One second that man looked ready to murder anyone; now, he was whining like a spoiled child.

Jiro blinked twice in confusion. She certainly hadn't expected that reaction.

Asui merely croaked nervously. For some reason, Shigaraki's unhinged personality only made her more nervous.

"We can't win if an army of Pros show up. It'll be game over." Shigaraki groaned. "Let's just go home."

Jiro gained a hopeful look. "It sounds like they're going home."

Uraraka narrowed her eyes suspiciously. 'This doesn't make sense. Why would he just give up? He should know UA will increase their security after this. He won't get another shot like this again. Why is this 'game over'?'

"Kero. This isn't good." Asui sounded apprehensive. "He's like a child throwing a temper tantrum…"

"Yeah… So, what's the big deal?" Jiro shrugged. "They're leaving, right?"

"I have little siblings and I can tell you from experience that little kids don't lose gracefully." Asui stated plainly.

Uraraka and Jiro felt a new sense of dread overcome them, realizing what their frog-like friend was implying.

Oh no.

"But before we go," Shigaraki straightened up, turning his head a little, "there's something I want to do."

At incredible speed, Shigaraki rushed toward the three girls at the shoreline.

"Let's smash All Might's pride by killing some of his students!"

The girls had no time to react as Shigaraki was upon them, his hand reaching out from one of them. The one in the center.

Uraraka was frozen in place. Everything happened so fast and was left with zero time to react. His hand was already going for her face and she wasn't fast enough to move out of the way.

He was too close to dodge. Too close to block. She was caught. Recalling what the man had done to Aizawa's arm just by touching, she came to a grim conclusion.

She closed her eyes, waiting for the end.

Time passed.

One heartbeat. A second. Then, a third. Nothing had happened. In fact, she didn't even feel the man's hand touching her yet. Confused, Uraraka opened her eyes to a floating purple arm blocking Shigaraki's hand from touching her.

'Wait… purple arm…' It then clicked for her. 'Tokage?!'

Cracks suddenly grew across the arm and, in mere moments, it turned grey as it crumbled away to dust.

Shigaraki was confused, but before he could say anything he felt something really hard strike him really hard in the side. The cause was a greenish-white circular disk that sailed out of nowhere. The force knocked him to the side and sent him tumbling across the ground. In the process, the hand covering his face flew off and landed several meters away.

'Wait…' Her eyes widened in recognition. 'That was–!'

"STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THEM!" A new voice shouted out.

---

Moments earlier…

"YES! We're finally out of that stupid monsoon!" Ashido cheered the moment she and the others ran out of the doors lining the Downpour Zone's perimeter.

"Ugh…" Mineta tipped his diaper-like thing to the side to pour out water. "I hate the rain so much…"

"You get used to it after a while." Captain Midoriya shrugged, unaffected by being wet. Though his suit did a good job keeping him dry, for the most part.

Taking off her small tan jacket, Ashido started twisting it to ring out the water. As she did, Mineta's gaze lingered on her as her wet skin tight Costume hugged her body's generous curves even more than usual.

"On second thought… Maybe the rain isn't so bad at all. Heh-heh," He grinned lecherously.

Ashido narrowed her gaze. "You better avert your eyes or I may just accidentally spray acid in them."

Mineta swiftly looked away; a nervous sweat-drop racing down his face.

"Alright, focus!" The Captain regained their attention. "There were many Villains emptying into here earlier, so we need to remain cautious. Let's head for the entrance and try not to draw–"

"GREENIE!" A voice shouted out.

The trio jumped at the sudden exclamation.

The verdette quickly recognized the voice. "Tokage?" He looked around the courtyard, but didn't see her.

"Up here!"

They glanced up to see a mass of floating purple body parts flying toward them. Included were her head with one eye and ear attached, her torso, legs, and one arm. Her arm though was carrying a familiar object.

"Lose something, Greenie?" Tokage's arm lowered to hand him the shield, which he graciously accepted.

'Good to have you back, old girl.' He smiled. "Thanks, Tokage."

"No problem, but listen we have a big problem." Tokage sounded urgent, which mildly unnerved the group. If Tokage was worried, then things must be really bad.

"Look!" With her floating arm, Tokage directed their attention to the courtyard.

The first thing they noticed was that there were less Villains than before as they lay scattered across the ground, unconscious. A ways off were three Villains off to themselves: the teal-haired man in black clothing and covered in hands, Kurogiri, and the bird-brain monster that stood taller than All Might. But there was something else that caught the trained soldier's attention.

"Aizawa-sensei!?" Ashido gasped in horror.

"Is… I-Is he dead?" Mineta stammered.

Aizawa laid face down on the ground with the giant monster kneeling over him, its hand grasping the man's head.

"No… at least not yet," Tokage said grimly. "But he needs help soon or he will be."

"We need to get that thing away from him first." the Captain stated.

"But how?!" Mineta cried, panicked.

Before he could respond, a fearful expression took shape on Tokage's face. "Oh no…"

"What is it?" Ashido asked.

"I see Uraraka, Jiro, and Tsuyu near the Flood Zone. They're okay, but…" Tokage's other eye and ear hovering over the courtyard with the three main Villains in view, "I think Hand Guy knows they're there. I see him glancing in their direction!"

Captain Midoriya perked up at this. Snapping his head to the courtyard, he looked between Aizawa and the three Villains near him, and then to the lake where he spotted Uraraka, Jiro, and Asui near the shoreline.

His enhanced analytical mind considered the options available to him. In mere moments, he had a plan.

"Ashido, Mineta… Listen up!" Both perked up at their names. "You both head to the stairway and wait. When you have a clear shot, swoop in and carry Aizawa-sensei to the entrance! You have to be quick about it!"

"But–"

He cut Ashido off. "We don't have time to debate. Please, just do it! For our sensei's sake!"

"Ashido-san, let's just go!" A hand on her leg from Mineta stopped Ashido from arguing any further. Giving the verdette one last look, Ashido took off. Mineta lingered a few steps behind. "Good luck, Midoriya…" Was what he said before he and Ashido headed for the stairway.

"Tokage, with me!" He took off in a mad dash toward the courtyard; specifically, the Flood Zone shoreline. Tokage's body parts soared alongside him, her head to his right. "Listen, I need you to gather as many of our classmates as possible. Tell them to meet up at the courtyard."

"Hold on," Tokage eye's widened, "you're not suggesting–"

"Until the Pros arrive, we have to defend ourselves. We're gonna need all hands on deck! See if you can find–"

Before he could continue, he saw it happen in front of him. The man covered in hands had suddenly rushed across the plaza at an incredible speed and was within an arm's reach of the three girls.

He had no idea what the man's Quirk was, but it seemed to involve his hands as he was stretching out his right arm to them; more specifically, Uraraka.

Then, at the last second, Tokage's other arm soared down and blocked the man's hand before it could touch Uraraka's face.

However, what happened next utterly shocked the super-soldier. In seconds, Tokage's arm had been reduced to dust.

"Oh sh*t…" Tokage uttered apprehensively.

She didn't seem to feel any pain from losing the appendage. But the fact this Villain could destroy anything he touched was very frightening.

'With a Quirk that powerful, if he touches any of them…' The thought of Jiro, Asui, and Uraraka being reduced to ashes played over in his mind. 'NO!'

Rearing back his left arm, the Captain threw his shield forward. It soared through the air and struck its target in the side–sending him tumbling down the ground. More importantly, it created some distance between him and the three girls.

"STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THEM!" Captain Midoriya shouted.

The girls turned to see Midoriya running across the courtyard right towards them with Tokage's other body parts floating alongside him. He caught the shield that had rebounded off Shigarki's body and back into his awaiting left hand.

"Midori-kun!" Uraraka happily cried out.

"Kero…" Asui sighed in relief.

"Perfect timing, dude," Jiro smiled a little.

The verdette stopped in front of the group, checking them over for any injuries.

"Are you guys okay?" He immediately asked.

"Kero." Asui nodded. "I'm okay… all things considered."

"Same here." Jiro acknowledged.

"Me too, but," Uraraka directed her gaze to Tokage, "Tokage, your arm–"

"It's alright," She held up her other arm, giving a thumbs up, "I can regenerate any lost body parts later. So don't worry about it."

Uraraka deeply exhaled. "That's a relief…"

'Although it will drain my stamina...' Tokage thought.

The Captain directed his attention to the body splitter. "Tokage, go round up the others quickly!"

"But Midoriya, help is–"

He cut off her protests. "I realize help may be on the way, but we can't wait around for the Pros! We have to defend ourselves until then!"

Tokage looked out at the plaza; specifically, the monstrosity still standing near Aizawa, motionless. Its gaze was practically dead–which only unnerved her even more.

She had a really bad feeling about this. The fact that the Hand Guy could disintegrate things with just a touch only made her even more apprehensive.

But Midoriya was right. If they were going to have any shot of living through this, then they would have to work together. At least to survive long enough for help to arrive.

"Alright, Greenie. I'll trust you on this. Just try to stay alive, alright?"

"I don't intend on dying today."

Nodding, Tokage took off into the air. "You guys stay safe. I'll be back with some more help!"

"Uraraka, Asui, Jiro." The three girls perked up.

It was surprising to hear Midoriya speak with such command and composure. The same guy who got flustered in most social settings, especially around cute women.

In Uraraka's mind, she was reminded of the Battle Trials last week. Only now, her best friend seemed even more dialed in… if that was possible.

Meanwhile, the Captain's attention was focused on Shigaraki and the two other Villains a little ways off across the plaza.

"I need you three to listen to me very carefully."

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A/N: That concludes part 1 of the USJ arc!

I do apologize for the delayed update. Things have been busy with work lately. Also, there was a lot of ground to cover in this chapter. Nevertheless, I had a good time writing it!

I will admit that what I did in this chapter was partially inspired by what ss3dj did in their story, "Green Tea Rescue". It should be available on both and Archive Of Our Own if anyone is interested in reading it.

It was fun changing up the order of most of the groups who got separated.

Momo showcasing her creative skills and Ochako taking stock of her surroundings–both utilizing the talents of those around them and both being inspired by Izuku. Kaminari actually got to be useful in a fight without making himself stupid while Tsunotori went Plus Ultra in using her horns. Jiro using her sound in the water was something I hadn't seen before and definitely wanted to do–granted she did lose a speaker in the process as I doubt they'd be fully waterproof, at least the Alpha versions.

As for Izuku, I always wanted to have a scene where he's kicking butt without his shield. I sort of did that in Chapter 3, but I wanted it to be against actual Villains and not just some high school delinquents.

Iida is still the one to escape and run for help. I initially considered using Tokage, but realized Iida is still the better candidate as he's faster than her.

Tokage still made her presence known by holding off Kurogiri, returning Izuku his shield (realizing he is indeed the better wielder, lol), and (more importantly) saving Ochako from Toumara's hand of death.

Now, we get to the good stuff in the next chapter! The Star Spangled Man has a plan! I'll try not to take as long as last time getting Part 2 and the Conclusion out.

Please leave any comments, critique, or suggestions in the review box below. Thank you for the support as always!