A few days past by in the farm house as the droids continued building the teleporter. During the first day, Asajj hacked the computer sitting on the office desk. Ventress scrolled through the internet news of the past day to find information about the planet or at least the country. Very quickly she learned of the city she was currently close too and the shocking discovery of quirks. A couple of google searches later she was up to speed on the basic needs and knows of quirks on Earth. Eighty percent of the population have them, All Might is considered the most powerful one on Earth, and nobody truly knows how they came to be.
The assassin read more news article headlines when one caught her eye.
Ahsoka Tano: The Nomu Killer is Set to Compete at UA Sports Festival
"No! They survived!" a fustrated Asajj screamed slamming her fists onto the wooden desktop.
Clicking onto the article she read the description of the fight and found a link to a video. In one point of the clip, she saw clones attempt to take the beast down. One of the men caught her eye.
"That captain! What's his name... R.. Rex!" The last time she paid any mine to that clone was when she tried mind tricking him on the planet Teth when Dooku ordered the kidnapping Jabba's son. "Should have killed you when I had the chance."
If puny clones were able to survive coming through the black hole, then there was no reason to think that Anakin and Obi-Wan died.
Ventress sat with this in her head. She couldn't do anything about this because of the orders her master had given her. Every second she ate, showered, sat on patrol she thought about those jedi. Those oblivious jedi who had no idea the sith apprentice was here and could kill them if she was allowed to. "I can't take it anymore!"
It was now the day of the Sports Festival. She picked up her lightsabers and grabbed a black leather jacket out of the closet that seemingly belonged to the old man she had killed a few nights ago. It fit well enough for her to blend in with any crowd.
Ventress stole the keys to the farmer's truck and headed to the barn with a message for the droids.
"I will be leaving for a few hours. You are to call me when the project has finished."
"Mistress." the droid she was conversing with said. "Count Dooku gave you direct orders to stay with us for protection."
"The Count isn't here right now. And I'm positive that he gave you no such order to pursue me if I ever left you all alone. Now get back to work!"
The B1 unit looked at his fellow droids welding the machine and then turned his head back toward Asajj. "Roger Roger." he said turning and leaving.
She normally would have diced the droid for even questioning her authority, but Ventress needed as many as possible to complete the teleporter.
"If I can prove myself and kill at least one of you jedi before Grievous arrives, perhaps my master will agree to overthrow the emperor with me." she gleamed with evil joy.
(X)
The students all circled the pillars and stood behind a marked white line on the ground. Nerves and tension were high even for people like Todoroki. The first few steps were important to separate one's self from every one else. The ice and fire boy did remember that there were basically no rules. He would use this greatly to his advance.
Present Mic giddy with excitement began the countdown. "THREE... TWO... ONE... CLIMB!"
To his left and right, Shoto Todoroki created an ice wall to rise from the ground and block the other competitors from getting any sort of lead. Heads knocked into the wall as it had gone up to fast to even react to. On the other side of the field, Bakugo blasted several people in his area as he rocketed himself upward.
Ahsoka, who had suspected them to run a move like that, didn't start the race anywhere near the two. In the clear she grabbed onto one of the pillars foot holders and flung herself to one much higher.
"LOOK AROUND PEOPLE. THIS FREE FOR ALL IS SOMETHING ELSE ISN'T IT?!"
"Indeed Present Mic." Padme chimed in. "Many of the students were going to take advantage of the lack of rules the moment they heard Midnight."
All around the field of play, quirks were fighting against one another trying to knock out a little bit of the competition. Kamanari shocked many around him running to the pillars while another named Ibara used her vine like quirk to pull a group off the rock she wanted to climb.
Midoriya, unlike the others, avoided everyone as much as he could. All he could do was keep his head down and hope no one paid attention to him as he climbed. As he ascended, someone higher up lost his grip and began falling almost smaking into Deku. Before hitting the ground All Might caught him like it was nothing but a chore. All around him students fell from the pillars only to be saved by either All Might or the two teachers with the same quirk, Obi-Wan and Anakin.
Midoriya, after a few tedious minutes reached the top of the first pillar. From this height he could see he was only about twenty percent of the way to the end. He needed to move faster. A few students looked to be almost done. Also there was definitely more than forty people ahead of him as even Mineta passed him up on the climb. He needed to use his quirk!
"Come on Izuku! How can you use your impossible to control quirk?! Think!"
A lightbulb popped up. During the first day of school, Midoriya put One for All into a single finger so he wouldn't break his whole arm to throw a baseball. He could do that here but with his toes.
Quickly, he took off his shoes and socks and threw them off the ledge onto the ground. No point in destroying them while using the quirk.
"You're trying to get up to that pillar sixty feet up. Imagine the egg in the microwave and don't break your toe."
Putting it into his pinky toe, he powered the ability up and launched into the air. The wind rushed onto his face like one of those slingshot amusement park rides. Instead of flying the sixty feet up he flew one hundred and twenty onto a different rock. He was now halfway there.
"IZUKU MIDORIYA WITH A STUNNING JUMP! WHERE DID THAT COME FROM!" Present Mic shouted from the booth.
Meanwhile, Ahsoka kept climbing and jumping with the grace of a mountain goat. She wasn't in first but everything would be fine for her if she placed in the top forty. At the moment Bakugo was in first not even using the pillars but using his quirk like a jetpack. Sero, who had been using his tap to catapult himself higher was now catching up.
"See you at the top!" he yelled passing by to become the race leader.
Feeling his temper boil by this, Katsuki fired a blast at Sero causing him to become unbalanced and fall back to Earth. Ahsoka felt generous enough to use the force and grab a hold of him, placing the boy on top of one of the pillars. But she wasn't done yet.
Just like in the waiting room, a sense of frustration melted over her. With no regard for his safety, she slammed Bakugo against one of the rocks with as much force as possible. She watched as he fell below her for about a hundred feet before recovering with more air blasts.
His uniform recieved a few tears as it had been smashed into the footholds. That didn't stop his taste for revenge as he worked his quirk into over time to pick up lost ground.
While tensions occured near first place, Deku was prepared for his second leap. The next best toe to eliminate after his right pinky toe was his right ring toe. He thought having the broken bones on one foot would most likely be less painful than both feet at the same time.
"Again, think of the egg in the microwave! C'mon, you can do it!"
The toe lit up with the spectacular green light and launched him another thirty percent the way to the top. One or two good leaps would allow him to win now.
Looking down, he noticed the toe was black and broken. He had failed to not hurt himself again. "Dang it! How the heck can I control this quirk?! I've thought of everything but nothing works!"
Deku did notice that he was around twenty in the race, but what was the point if he couldn't control the ability. At some point he was going to lose the competition by hurting himself.
Maybe he was going about it all wrong. His analogy wasn't working and he needed a new one. Why not the Ahsoka one.
Izuku began remembering the times he saw the girl meditating outside of the school in the grass. She was calm and seemingly at peace with herself.
With no reason to not try it, the boy inserted it as his new mindset. "Keep calm, keep calm when using it."
His middle toe on the right foot began glowing like the others. "Here we go."
This time he sprung significantly less into the air only landing on the pillar ten feet above him. Izuku immediately looked down at his toe to see it still intact. He had kept it all from breaking!
Looking up he could see a few people nearing the end. Izuku knew that he would be able to qualify around the middle of the pack because of the large gap between him and forty. So instead of taking the chance to hurt himself more, He stayed on top of the pillar that he was on. The race was coming down to a handful of students. Ahsoka, Sero, Tokoyami, Tsuyu, and the copy cat 1-B student Monoma (who had touched Tsuyu on the back before the race) were all in contention to win.
It was neck and neck between them all as Bakugo and Sero started spreading themselves from the group again.
"THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT FINISH!" Present Mic shouted spazzing out on the great competition.
Suddenly, another challenger approached. Todoroki shot up from below using ice as a platform and blew past his classmates. Almost everyone had forgotten about him. He had been quietly sitting below the front group, following behind like a lion waiting for an opportunity to strike. He found it at the end of the race.
Shoto attached a layer of ice to a pillar and started his quick ascent from there. With no chance for anyone else to catch up, he landed on the top pillar proclaiming himself champion of the event.
"IT'S OVER! IT'S OVER! WITH A SURPRISE FINISH SHOTO TODOROKI HAS TAKEN FIRST PLACE! YEAHHHHHH!"
"That's right Present Mic. Instead of playing aggressive like everyone else was in the top ten, he used the element of surprise to pull a fast one." Padme deduced for the crowd. "He showed that it's now going to take more than having a good quirk while trying for gold."
Instead of celebrating like a normal boy would have, He stared down frowning at the cheering crowd. When he found his father the look of happiness on his face made Todoroki more disgusted.
As stated before by Midnight, second through forty were to be determined by what position the contestants were in when Shoto finished.
Soon the enormous jumbotron screen filled with names. From the ground, Obi-Wan and Anakin were happy to see Ahsoka and most of her classmates make it into the next round.
Shoto Todoroki- 1st
Katsuki Bakugo- 2nd
Hanta Sero- 3rd
Tsuyu Asui- 4th
Ahsoka Tano- 6th
Fumikage Tokoyami- 7th
Mashirao Ojiro- 10th
Ochaco Uraraka- 14th
Eijirou Kirishima- 19th
Izuku Midoriya- 21st
Minoru Mineta- 22nd
Tenya Iida- 25th
Momo Yaoyorozu- 31st
Yuuga Aoyama- 37th
Mina Ashido- 40th
Outside of the stadium walls, Hardcase jumped up and down when he notice that his commander made it to the next round. Noting that people were now giving him strange looks, he stopped seemingly a little embarrassed.
"I taught those kids." he said walking away from the onlookers.
The 1-A students who made it breathe a sigh of relief, especially Mina. It meant so much to her that she made it to the next round. Thanks to her quirk, the acid helped make it easier to grip onto the pillars allowing to move faster. Still without a proper ability to help her gain any sort of speed boost, she only barely made the cut.
She felt the need to thank her teacher Mr. Kenobi, who had first talked to her about how failure affected skillful heroes too such as him. From that day on, she decided to judge herself more realistically as a student rather than a master of the hero job. Now that learning was paying off.
The few 1-A students who didn't make it felt robbed that the event was not well suited for their own quirks. "Tough luck I guess." Denki said walking off of the field to tell his parents what happened. They would still be proud of him nonetheless just on the fact he competed against the most highly skilled students in the nation.
"Alright everyone! The next event will start in ten minutes!" Midnight shouted at the crowd. "We have one more event to determine who gets to the top sixteen to fight in the final stretch of the tournament!"
The stadium goers gave their usual hooray before most got up to get food or take a leak. Midnight was also one to leave, but she had other plans.
Walking through the tunnel back under the stadium, she found Rex and a couple of his men standing guard.
"Captain." Fives said holding a smile. "Your favorite girl is here."
Rex turned around and saw her approach him with a seductive stride.
"I think now is a good time for us to check on the others." Tup suggested with an evil grin under his helmet.
"Great idea!" Fives exclaim as they scurried off.
"Fives and Tup! As your commanding officer I order you to stay!" Rex hissed. The usual cool and calm trooper was now a sweating mess thanks to that woman.
"Sorry KERRRR sir. Your KERRRR breaking up." Fives giggled along with Tup before disappearing around the corner.
The captain groaned before turning to face his opponent.
"Hello again Rex." Midnight greeted with a wave of the hand.
"How are you Nemuri." Rex responded.
"Let's skip the small talk, I wanna go on that date tonight." She grinned. "I was thinking something fancy like italian or french. After the restaurant we can go for a walk in the park then back to my place possibly for some fun." With no one else around to judge her, Midnight rubbed her hand under the chin of his helmet.
Rex should have swatted her hand away immediately but didn't. For some reason it felt good be rubbed like a dog. It took the clone some time to come to his senses.
"I never agreed to anything. You're the one forcing me into this." he said.
"I know." she smiled flapping her long eyelashes. "But I did it in front of the press, do you want bad publicity. I can already see the news title. MIDNIGHT STOOD UP BY NEW HERO. I think I'll tell the press about it, let them take a picture of me crying, and then tell them all the promises you made saying that this was going to be my best date ever."
"Well ah..." Rex tried to think of a rebuttal. How could he, Midnight had him played like a fiddle. The captain didn't personally care about what the citizens thought of him, but that didn't mean it's okay. Too much attention then he and his friends might get into some sort of trouble if people started digging into his past.
"Why are you doing this to me Nemuri? You could go after any other guy that's interested in you"
"Those creeps are a dime a dozen. They complement my physical features and nothing else. I like you Rex. You don't feel the need to compliment me or any other woman if they're around you. Also there is something very attractive about you from the way you put others before yourself to the fact you're hiding something behind that helmet, and I want to see. Plus you did beat me in a fight. Any guy who can do that is by default more interesting to me"
The bombardment of complements were heartwarming to Rex.
"What? Is there nothing you like about me? You think I'm ugly do you?" she said with a saddened face.
"That's not true." Rex said not wanting to upset her. "You're one of the better looking people in this town..." he walked into that one.
"I knew you liked me!" she said happily. "How about i see you at eight o clock tonight. Give me your phone so I can give you my number."
Rex reluctantly gave her his phone out of one of his armor's pocket. After going to his contacts and typing the number she noticed the background on his homescreen. In it was a picture with a total of four clones; Rex included. Midnight noticed that the other three men's armor design in the picture looked like his teammates Fives, Echo, and Dogma. Together in the photo they seemed to be on a hill surrounded by dirt and metal. Although the strangest part of the photo was what the men were doing. Rex was guiding a flagpoles base into the dirt while the other three were in the middle of pushing it into a straight position. The flag was something Midnight had never seen consisting of a circle with eight lines coming out of it. Eight unconnected lines forming a circle surrounded that while a connected circle surrounded it all. The designs were black while the background of the flag was white.
"What is going on in this?" Midnight asked curiously. "Were you in a warzone?"
"No. It was a training exercise." Rex lied.
"Us heroes certainly do not do anything like this." Midnight said. "You preparing for a war or something?"
Just then her phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Midnight." Cementoss answered. "We start back up in three minutes, Principal Nezu wants you back here."
"Okay I'm coming." she said hanging up turning back to Rex.
"I'll come find you in a bit" she said strutting off moving her hips so the captain could get a good look at her butt.
(X)
Now out of the nurse's station, Izuku was ready whatever awaited him in this next challenge. Walking back to the field, he met All Might in the hallway.
"Young Midoriya, no one else is behind you around the corner right?" the giant asked.
"No just me sir." Izuku replied.
"Fantastic!" All Might said walking over to a nearby trashcan.
In a flash he transformed back into Toshinori who proceeded to spit a mouthful of blood into the bag.
"Are you going to be all right for the rest of the events?" Deku asked worryingly.
"I can get through this just fine. It looks worse than it really is. I just want to get out of that form anytime there is a chance just incase. Anyway, were not here to discuss me. I wanted to say I'm proud of you so far."
"Really? I didn't even get in the top ten though." Midoriya said.
"Kid you're either too hard on yourself or just thick in the head. You can't even control your power and you still got into the next round. That's a pretty good start to me."
"Yeah," Midoriya said rubbing the back of his head. "I guess you're right."
"Anyway I love the way you put One for All into your toes so you wouldn't injure yourself to much. How are the three little piggies now after going to see Recovery Girl?"
"Actually, I only broke two not three." Deku announced proudly. "For the first time ever I controlled my quirk!"
"That's incredible!" Toshinori smiled. "Guessing you imagined the egg in the basket."
"No actually. You ever seen Ahsoka meditate outside before school? Well I didn't breath so heavy, stayed calm, and it worked for my last jump!"
Toshinori grinned at the statement. Not only was Izuku becoming better with his quirk, but Tano had fulfilled the promise she would help him become stronger even if it was indirectly.
The teacher then looked down at his watch, two minutes until the next event. "Wow look at the time! Hurry up and get back down to the field young man." transforming back into All Might he gave a him a peace sign. "I'll watch you from the booth."
(X)
Back on the field a maze had formed thanks to Cementoss who was now a bit tired from over exerting his power. No one knew what it was for yet but everyone saw the strange heroes with white and blue armor throwing dodgeballs over the walls.
Echo stood by several coolers handing the remaining contestants water. "C'mon everyone get one! It's important to stay hydrated. Drink water before you get thirsty! Thirst is a sign that your body is already dehydrated!"
"Thank you Mr. Echo!" Iida said. "And I must say your facts about water are quite informative and interesting."
Joyful to hear someone took an interest in what he had to say for once, Echo continued to speak with Iida about water. Ahsoka watched from a distance as Echo had found his new and even nerdier best friend.
Soon she saw Kirishima and approached him by playfully tapping him on the shoulder. "So I didn't see you during the race, how did you land into the next round?"
"Was that smack talk Tano?" Kirishima said giving his toothy grin.
"Perhaps."
"Well as someone who can turn into rock it was easy for me to grip the pillars. I just wish I was faster."
"Alright everyone listen up as I explain the rules for the new event!" Midnight yelled standing on her podium. "You all will play in a battle royale dodgeball game where your quirks can be used. The only rules is that like the pillars you cannot destroy any part of the maze or go outside of the outer most walls. If your opponent catches the ball don't worry, you're not out of the game. Whatever else you can think of is fair game."
Coming from the tunnel entrance, Anakin and Obi-Wan carried a box using the force and placed it next to Midnight. Quickly, she pulled a red button out of the box. "You all will stick one of these to your chests. It's a sensor to tell you if you got hit or not. It will light up to tell you to exit the game. Got it?!"
"Yes ma'am!" the students shouted in response.
(X)
"THREE, TWO, ONE, GO!" shouted Mic.
The students were all placed inside the maze in random spots. When the words left Mic's mouth they all ran to grab a ball. The first student to be knocked out was Monoma of class 1-B. Before the match he had bragged about how he had beaten many of the class 1-A students to their faces. Tsuyu then happily shouted to everyone that his quirk was to copy others when touched so stay away from him. She figured this out after wondering why he touched her arm right before starting the pillar climb.
Knowing he was a sitting duck, Bakugo cheerfully slammed a ball into his gut within the first few seconds.
The maze itself was not very big or confusing. It had the usual dead ends and paths that lead back to where you started. It wasn't hard to immediately run into anyone and start fighting from there.
Ahsoka had found two balls, grabbed them, and scaled the walls to get a better view. Up on the wall she saw Shoto ice surfing while strafing a view students below. Yuuga's naval laser could be seen shooting into the air some distance away.
What interested Ahsoka was a green haired girls exposed back. Ahsoka smiled at the opportunity for a sneaky attack. She jumped in the the air and dived at her target, giving the ball some good spin when exiting her hand.
Surprisingly, the girl turned just in time to catch the ball with her vine like hair. Effortlessly, she threw a heater back at Ahsoka who dodged it by what was seemingly luck.
"God has chosen us to fight. Now it is up to me to win." the girl said.
Getting a good look at her, Ahsoka recognized the class 1-B girl as Ibara Shiozaki
The two now stared at each other with unmoving eyes. Two cowboys in a duel waiting for the perfect time to strike.
Ahsoka made the first move by running against the wall to her right. Spotting an opening, she quickly threw her second ball. The opening closed quickly as Ibara in one motion, moved her unprotected side.
It was immediately caught and launched back at Ahsoka who again felt as if she dodged it out of pure luck. Tano had felt the cold wind fly by her as the ball disappeared around the corner.
Ibara almost cursed at her missed throw but reminded herself that would be sin to do so. Luckily though, she found four balls piled up in the maze corner behind her. Using the ends of her vine hair, she gathered them all up and prepared to fire.
Obviously Ahsoka saw herself at a major disadvantage and sought out a way to abandon the fight. Before Ibara rocketed the dodgeballs her way, Tano leaped over the maze wall into another section of maze.
Landing on her feet Ahsoka breathe a sigh of relief as she escaped from the close call. It didn't last long as she ran into another problem. Her feat refused to move.
Purple balls were scattered throughout a ten foot area all around her. Slowly, a maniacally laughing Mineta peaked his head around the corner. "Well well well Ahsoka. It seems you are the first to fall for my trap." From behind his back he pulled out a dodgeball. "Now prepare for your downfall!"
As if the situation couldn't get any worse green vines began coming over the wall. Ibara was pulling herself over in the hopes to keep pursuing Ahsoka.
Tano needed to think fast if she wanted to get out of this. She began formulating a plan in her head. Mineta himself would not be the major problem but his balls were extremely tough. When Ibara finally pops her head over she will most definitely throw her dodgeballs at Ahsoka without a second thought. With the theory of what her enemie's moves would be she positioned herself ready to defend.
Using the force she pulled the ball out of Mineta's hand then smashed him in the face with it. Mineta fell over thinking how he should of had a contingency plan prepared. The padawan turned her attention to the green haired threat and force pushed her off the wall, hearing Ibara on the other side tumble to the ground with a thud. Sadly for Ahsoka, it was going to be that simple.
The vines appeared over the maze wall again, this time much faster. So fast in fact that Tano didn't react fast enough to push her again. Now Ibara was on her side ready to fight. Ahsoka thought abour how she had underestimated the girls quirk as the wave of green vine hair was menacingly towering over her. Ibara had changed the strategy from throwing the balls at Ahsoka from a distance, to holding her down with the vine quirk and hitting the padawan in the chest while incapacitated.
Remembering she was still stuck in place by Mineta's balls, Ahsoka gave into her only option. Giving it all her strength she used the force to hold the vines back.
"TWENTY-THREE STUDENTS REMAIN! SO SEVEN OF YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO GO!" Mic announced.
Mineta's trap was still not releasing her from grasp. Ahsoka would have liked to run seeing how this girls quirk was a hard counter to the force. Beads of sweat began rolling off Tano's cheeks. The distance shrunk every second as she was starting to lose the battle against the vines.
"You are very resilient." Ibara said in a very friendly manner. "Sadly I'm still going to have to tag you out. I was going to play passively and wait out the match but you left me with no other choice."
The vines began wrapping around Ahsoka's arms. "This is the end of the games for me."
"SWOOOOOOSH!" A ball had flown past Ibara's face momentarily distracting her. With the female not paying direct attention, Ahsoka used the rest of her energy to force push her away.
Apparently Midoriya and Kirishima had begun a fight with each other and had by chance brought it down to the section of the maze where the girls were having the stand off.
The ball that flashed by Ibara was directed toward Deku who dodged it using his quirk. With a closer look, a person would notice the two broken middle and index fingers on his right hand.
Green lightning glowed over Izuku's skin as he threw his dodgeball at Eijiro. It missed him but Ahsoka caught it as it flew by. Now holding the ball she Saw Ibara stager and get up. The green haired girls attention was now directed at the two new fighters who ruined her elimination attempt.
Vines quickly tangled Kirishima's legs up and knocked him to the ground. Deku jumped out of the way using his quirk. Ahsoka at first didn't believe it. How did he learn to control his power just today?
That was something to ask later. Right now she had an opportunity to remove the main threat.
Izuku continued dodging the vine assault left and right until he fell over and grasped at his foot. His mind had started to crumble under the pressure unfortunately, so he wasn't unable to stay calm and keep his quirk power from getting too high.
Ibara thanked the lord above that the other boy had finally stopped wiggling free from her grasp. She gathered up two balls with her hands and prepared to fire at the imprisoned guys.
"Beep." her buzzer rang.
Horrified she looked down at the glowing red light on her chest. Ahsoka immediately dropped to her knees exhausted. She needed some down time after fighting the powerful opponent.
"IT'S ALL OVER! THESE SIXTEEN STUDENTS WILL MOVE ON TO THE FINAL STAGE." Mic screamed destroying the eardrums of everyone in the stands
The names showed up on the jumbotron.
Katsuki Bakugo
Shoto Todoroki
Itsuka Kendo
Izuku Midoriya
Hanta Sero
Tetsutetsu Tetsutesu
Fumikage Tokoyami
Ochaco Uraraka
Ahsoka Tano
Tenya Iida
Kojiro Bondo
Mashirao Ojiro
Eijiro Kirishima
Hiryu Rin
Tsuyu Asui
Mina Ashido
"Now that those fantastic and exciting two stages are over, we will take an hour break for lunch." Padme announced as Present Mic danced with glee in the back of the booth.
(X)
Hey guys. I have been able to work on this more since quarantine started. Hopefully I can produce the next chapter quick too. I'm exited for what I'm writing next. Thank you for reading this far through and please leave a review :)