HOT

The students limped towards the hot springs with the shuffling feet and vacant stares of a zombie horde. Kaminari, cross-eyed and flickering with the occasional spark, tried to buy an NFT on his phone. Sato had blood-shot eyes and twitched violently, Tokoyami shivered and clung to a flashlight like a life preserver, and Ojiro's tail, limp as a spaghetti noodle, dragged through the dirt behind him.

"I'm never pissing off Aizawa-sensei again," Shoji moaned as he coaxed another Lovecraftian multi-dimensional tentacle back into the void.

Koda wheezed something in response. Kaminari giggled and said, "You say the funniest things ever, mister president!"

Aoyama clutched his stomach and ran a comb through his tangled, twig-ridden hair. "Must… stay… fabulous!"

Todoroki, sunburnt on one side and blue-skinned on the other, muttered under his breath, "Even Endeavor never went this far."

Shriveled like dried seaweed, Sero crinkled as he walked. As the hot springs drew closer, he rose his head and sniffed the air. "Water!" he croaked. "I need it!"

"Pinky up!" Kaminari shouted, raising a pinky limply in the air.

Mineta, covered in dried blood, massaged the spheres on his head. "I can't even feel my balls."

"Me either." "Same." Dull echoes rose from the marching corpses.

"Well, I'm so hard right now it's painful!" Kirishima, his face frozen into a grinning rictus, plowed a furrow in the ground as Bakugo dragged him by his feet.

Bakugo muttered, "Can't let… robots wear me down. Must destroy computers."

Iida, walking on his hands because his legs were still smoking, puffed out, "Rules! Vandalism! Private property!"

"Stuff it up your exhaust pipes."

Everyone plopped into the hot springs. Sero's skin soaked up water like a sponge, Shoji re-entered the physical plane, and Kirishima limbered up as he sank into the water.

"Ah, how magnifique!" Aoyama said as the water instantly gave him a full makeover.

Kaminari shook himself under the water and shouted, "I can think again!"

"The robots could attack right now," Bakugo said as he leaned into the water, "And I almost wouldn't care."

Izuku, glowing like a second sun, walked to the edge of the spring. "Perfect, a coolant reservoir. My core temperature was approaching critical levels."

The water hissed and boiled around Izuku as he sank to the bottom. Within seconds, a huge cloud of steam engulfed the forest.

The boys of 1-A sat on the bare stone, shivering and scalded all at once. Sero scrambled for the last little puddle of water as it disappeared into thin air.

"My water! My beautiful water!"

Bakugo cracked his knuckles. "So this was your evil plot all along. It's more sinister than I could have ever imagined."

Sato and Shoji exchanged looks. "We'll hold him down."

"More hot spring water detected," Izuku said. "Refilling reservoir."

He punched the bottom, and water gushed up. Everyone cheered, except Bakugo, who got out of the water.

"Where you going?" Kirishima asked. "Water's awesome!"

"I'm not bathing in robot water. Probably has nanomachines or something."

499

Nanomachines, son!