Death

by tmb1112

Death is a Quirk that can only kill. A perfect Quirk for a villain, but what if the boy who manifested that power just wanted to be a hero? Enrolling in U.A. might not be enough when all your Quirk can do is kill people. Follow Zach Sazaki from his first day in Class A on a story that spans years, as he learns to be a hero, finds out more about his Quirk, and too much to summarize!

49. Chapter 49: Capture The Flag

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 49:

Behind U.A. High School, Class 1-A was gathered at Training Ground Omega. Past them was a base that looked a bit like a really-obvious evil lair. There were skulls and crossbones painted on the stone walls in black, there were high walls just outside the fortress, and another wall just outside the gate covered in screens showing camera angles all over the inside of the base. There was an outer area inside the walls but not yet inside the fortress, there were long passageways inside and open grand halls with lots of furniture in them to get in the way, staircases up, and in one room in the fortress there was a blue flag hanging off of a post that stuck out of the ground.

"You all did a great job yesterday with your research paper presentations," Midnight began to the excited students all looking at the video screens and slowly putting together what was happening. "So because of that, and because there is only a week left until the end of the term and your freshman years here at U.A…"

Here it comes… Kaminari leaned forward with Sero and Kirishima on either side of him.

"We will be doing a training exercise," Aizawa said from where he stood on Midnight's left in front of the students. None of them got disappointed looks on their faces, all of them just leaning in further as they hoped Aizawa was messing with them with his tone, and their homeroom teacher grinned after a second at his class that had caught on too well by now. "Of capture the flag-"

"YaHOO!" Ashido shouted and jumped up in the air. Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero all threw up an arm and yelled out excitedly too, and so did half of the rest of the class.

"A totally fun game!" Mineta exclaimed, then breathed out a sigh of relief.

Yeah, don't get too excited Mineta, Zach thought as he looked down and to the right at the top of the short boy's head. I'm sure they're not going to just let it be that simple.

The third teacher there with them, All Might stood on Midnight's right and began to the happy students, "It's capture the flag, but with a few differences, mainly the full use of your Quirks is allowed." He held up a finger and explained further, "The team inside will be the villains, protecting their flag. It could be a bomb the hero team needs to get out of the building. Or a captured hostage! Think of it as something important that you need to get out of there."

"But remember it is just a flag," Midnight added. "So even if it gets a little damaged in the fighting, it'll be fine."

The excited looks on the students' faces started to simmer down. Midnight smirked at them all, and she held up capture tape in one hand as that smirk started to turn more sadistic. The male teachers both glanced in at Midnight hesitantly while she said, "Just because it is capture the flag, does not give you an excuse to take your training exercises anything but seriously. Go Plus Ultra, and steal the flag within fifteen minutes! Villains or heroes, use the capture tape to wrap your opponents and stop their movements. If the flag is taken out these front gates, time runs out, or all members of one team can't move, then it's game over!"

Bakugo grinned and he lifted his hands, little explosions going off in front of his green gauntlets. His competitive smirk had the people around him getting nervous and leaning back, but more of them were starting to smirk and grin themselves as they got into the spirit of what would still be a fun game anyway. The teachers had not specified the class as being important to their grades, but they were supposed to take it seriously anyway and as U.A. students, they planned to do just that.

Mineta looked around with a nervous look on his face, then he stared back forward and up at the huge fortress in Ground Omega. Kaminari lifted his hands and made sparks come off of his fingers with a smirk across his face. "Small cramped corridors. A flag room that's not too huge," he tilted his head back and looked confidently forward. "Let's do this!"

"Sensei," Yaoyorozu lifted her hand and started. Midnight turned to her, and Yaoyorozu asked, "How will we decide which team gets the extra person?"

There were twenty-one of them in all, so one of the teams would have a number advantage, or so it seemed. Midnight grinned at that, and then she swung her arm to the side with a black whip in it and the screens lining the wall behind her all stopped showing camera angles inside the training ground. Every screen showed part of the same image so they all acted as one giant yellow screen that was split down the middle. 'Villains' was written at the top of the right side of the screen, and 'Heroes' covered the top of the left. There were four empty boxes beneath 'Heroes' and only three boxes under 'Villains.'

"There will be three games!" Midnight called out.

"Those of you chosen as villains will get a couple of minutes to set up inside, while the heroes are not able to watch the screens," Aizawa added. "I won't say there's an advantage for either team though, as it is up to chance really."

"Chance?" Kirishima asked.

"That is right!" All Might called out. "You will not always get to choose who you are put with in a fight. Usually we choose teams for your exercises, but today we leave it up to fate!"

"Ooh, this is kind of exciting, right Deku?" Uraraka looked to her right at the taller boy who looked back and nodded. Uraraka got a softer look and more confused one at the sight of Deku's, but he turned away without treating it like anything was wrong.

Midoriya stared up at the screens as All Might called out how the system would randomly select them, but then he turned his head a little more and looked to the right out the corners of his eyes. He stared over towards Zach who was on the right of Kaminari and Kirishima by a few feet, standing near the front of the class. Izuku Midoriya thought about the talk they had the night before, when Zach finally agreed to talk to him about his paper he had kept a secret for so long. "I'm glad you liked it, but it's not like that. I'm not going to do anything about it right now." Midoriya stared closer at the back of Zach's head, an uneasy one on his own face. "…Well, there's not much I can do. We're still in school Midoriya. But, even though I don't like the media, and I don't like being on camera, maybe next time I am I'll mention a part of my beliefs. Just a little. I'll use the media's interest in me. Or tell small groups first, then let them spread what I say to others, and hopefully I hear those views outside of the people I first told them to. If I hear positive responses towards certain opinions I can push it farther. Use everything. You know?" No Zach, I really don't know what you were talking about. You've got these like, crazy ideas that sound so, so-

"The first member of the hero team, is Izuku Midoriya!" Midoriya's eyes opened wide at Midnight's call, and he snapped his head back up to the big connected screens where his face just appeared in the box farthest to the left.

"Who's team are you trying to be on?" Kaminari asked, leaning in towards Sero and smirking.

Sero hummed and then said, "It's gotta be one of those three yeah? Todoroki, Bakugo, or," he looked up and then turned his head and finished, "Midoriya too. Don't think I'd lose with one of them with me-"

"Shoto Todoroki!" Midnight called out.

Half the class lowered their bottom lips as the second member of the hero team got picked. Aizawa sweatdropped, and All Might kept smiling while looking back though he did get more of a hesitant look on his face. "This is why I said random doesn't work," Aizawa began in a low mutter.

"Ochaco Uraraka!" Midnight shouted the next name without hesitating after everyone had seen Todoroki pop up.

"Yes!" Uraraka called out happily. "We're on the same team Deku," she said to the boy who just turned back to her.

"Y-Yeah, that's great," he said, leaning away as she leaned towards him while saying it in her excited voice.

"You're so lucky Ochaco," Jirou said behind her. Midoriya and Uraraka looked back at the girl standing on Yaoyorozu's right side who added, "You guys have got this for sure."

"I'm surprised it was Uraraka though," Kaminari said, a more relaxed look coming to his face. "For a second there I thought it was going to be Bakugo."

"And the last person on the hero team, is Tenya Iida!" Midnight announced.

Kaminari sweatdropped, and Sero muttered under his breath, "He would have been the fourth person I picked." Kaminari nodded in quiet agreement, while Kirishima punched his fists together in front of him in excitement.

"I hope I'm a villain," Kirishima said, something he did not know if he had ever said before or ever would again.

"You want to go up against them?!" Kaminari asked like he was crazy. "Those three powerhouses," he started loudly, then he coughed as he noticed Ashido glaring at him a few feet to his left, and remembered Uraraka standing behind him. "Not to mention Iida," Kaminari added after his cough.

Uraraka's face lit up in surprise as she realized she was included as one of those 'powerhouses,' while Iida turned his head and gawked at Kaminari's insult. Sero elbowed Kaminari in the side though and said with a laugh, "Nice save."

Zach shook his head over at Kaminari, then he turned it more and looked back at Uraraka and Midoriya. He glanced over at Iida, then Todoroki who stood farther back. His gaze shifted right past Momo as he looked towards Todoroki, but after he looked at him he looked back and pretended like he had not seen her staring at him when his gaze shifted by the first time. He smiled at her, then he turned back forward and looked towards the villains' side of the screen. Focus. This is training. It might be fun, but if I'm in this match it's going to be the hardest thing-

"Zach Sazaki," Midnight called out as the faces flipping fast through the box on the far left of the right half of the screen finally stopped on his class photo. It was his new class photo taken right after he returned in early January, his mouth a flat line and his bangs longer and messy over the top of his face unlike the parted way he had them now. He had wished for a few months now that he had at least pretended when he got that picture taken that he was happy, but he actually appreciated it for once that he looked scary like that.

Everyone spun towards Zach to see his reaction to getting put up against that other team, only for their eyes to open wide at the grin rising on his face. "Are you crazy?" Kaminari called to his right. "Stop looking so excited!"

Zach spun left in surprise, then looked around more nervously, only for Kirishima to step towards him from just on his left and hold up a clenched fist. "Yeah! Let's do this! I'm getting picked next!" Zach relaxed as Kirishima joined in with being excited about being on the villains' team, even though he was not on it yet.

"Yeah, we got this," Zach agreed, and he looked back competitively towards Midoriya who looked surprisedly back at him. After a second though, Midoriya smiled too and nodded his way with a competitive look in his own eyes. Uraraka felt relieved as she saw that smile, for some reason feeling like something was wrong up until Deku made it.

"Come on, come on," Kirishima held his fists in front of him and stepped past the rest of them. He looked up towards the middle blank under the word 'Villains' that kept spinning around. He was grinning his sharp teeth wide while most everyone behind him just hoped the board would agree and let Kirishima take up one of those spots.

The faces stopped flipping through, and all of the students and teachers' eyes widened at the face of the boy who appeared there. He had spiky bleached blond hair, and he blasted explosions off of his hands as he saw his face, "Alright!" Bakugo yelled, making everyone around him spin his way with even wider eyes at how excited he sounded. Bakugo was holding it back and pretending like it did not matter, but seeing his face up there let him show how much he wanted to be on the villains' team. He got on it and spun left after shouting, looking towards Midoriya and Uraraka, and Iida who had just headed over to talk with them. Midoriya leaned back at the threatening gaze, while Uraraka's face turned pale, and Iida sweatdropped as it looked bloodthirsty. Then Bakugo spun towards Todoroki farther than them and as far back as he was, and he shouted, "Destroy the heroes!"

"You really get into it whenever you're picked as a villain, I see," Sero joked, and they all thought back on the first combat training they had and how scary Bakugo got back then too.

"I don't want to be in this round," Kaminari said after a second of deliberation. He thought for a moment maybe it would be okay with Bakugo on his team, but he started shaking his head at the idea of what was about to go on past those walls. "All those monsters fighting each other at once," he said and shivered. "Kirishima, take my place if the computer picks-"

"The computer's picks are final," Aizawa said loudly and harshly before Kaminari could finish.

"Ah-em, I mean, yeah of course," Kaminari said, leaning away from his scary homeroom teacher before grimacing as he looked towards the board again.

All of Class A stared at the board. They all watched the box for the student farthest on the right, wondering who the seventh in this first round was going to be. The majority of them were not saying anything, but they agreed with Kaminari and just hoped Kirishima would get what he wanted here. Kirishima's arms shook at his sides as this sounded even more fun now with Bakugo and Zach on his team.

Yaoyorozu hummed to herself and did not look at the screens with as much anxiety as the others. Jirou glanced at her like she was crazy for doing so, but the shorter girl snapped her gaze back to the board as the faces started flashing through on the farthest right box. As Jirou begged not to get thrown into that mess, Yaoyorozu thought, Considering the grace period the villains get, I would be able to make a series of traps. Bakugo could destroy the floor in different areas, and I could create a tarp that looks like the hallway's real floor. Pitfalls, as well as cannons I could set up at the end of halls. If we could fire the capture tape out cannons, or use trip wires and drop it as nets…

Out of everyone here, I kind of want Yaoyorozu on our team, Zach thought. He shook his head after, then he paused and shook it again. Just because of her power though. It would be really good in a situation like this, like it is for most situations… But let's get Kirishima! That could be really good. I don't think Bakugo'd work well as a team unless Kirishima's there. Plus Kirishima's really strong too, so if we play it right we just might-

Everyone there stared at the last person to appear to finish off the seven. Zach stopped thinking and he lowered his head and looked to his right. Bakugo grunted but paid less attention than everyone else, still smirking afterwards and raising his fists as he turned back to their enemies. The teachers who were hoping the teams might even up depending on the last person all grimaced, though Midnight started grinning a few seconds later and shaking her head with a small laugh. She spun and swept the bottom furry part of her black whip out towards the short boy whose jaw was dropped and eyes were full of fear. "Minoru Mineta!"

Yes! Not me! Sero thought, while looking towards Mineta with a wide grin on his face that showed all his big teeth.

Tokoyami put a hand down on Mineta's right shoulder and Mineta snapped his gaze up to the dark boy who had a serious expression on his face. "Mineta. Don't worry about it."

"What's that supposed to mean?! You think I'm going to die in there!" Mineta shouted at Tokoyami, who instead of denying it just turned his head away like something else caught his attention.

Mineta dropped his jaw again, then Midnight started shouting even while All Might and Aizawa looked hesitantly in at her like they wanted to suggest changing up the teams. "Villain team! Head into Ground Omega! You will have five minutes to prepare. Good luck protecting your flag!"

The huge gates started to open up, and Bakugo sprinted towards them without waiting. He was laughing, but he stopped for a second as All Might called out, "Don't forget to grab your earpieces!" He lifted up a box with small white headsets in them, and Bakugo humphed in annoyance but turned and grabbed one of the ones on the villain side.

Zach let out a breath of relief as he saw Bakugo grabbing one before running in. Bakugo shouted behind him without looking back, "Move it!"

"I don't wanna anymore," Mineta began in a quiet and nervous voice.

"Come on Mineta," Zach said, looking down at the boy as he started walking forward. Mineta looked up and into Zach's eyes, and Zach grinned and said to him, "Let's win this. We can't do it without you." Zach turned forward and jogged towards All Might, reaching into the box and grabbing an earpiece to put in his right ear.

All Might looked at Zach in surprise, and Aizawa narrowed his eyes after a second at him too. Does Sazaki have a plan, or is he…

Really? Mineta? Ok, it's not the worst thing that could have happened… right? Well I can work with it anyway. Mineta beat Midnight sensei. He passed when Sero and I failed. That's why Midnight sensei doesn't look like she has zero faith in us like All Might and Aizawa sensei do. There's a lot he can do, as long as he feels confident enough. Hope he thinks I have some great plan for him or something-

Mineta ran forward with a newfound confidence even as sweat was still covering his face. He grabbed a earpiece from All Might and fumbled while putting it in his ear as he ran through the gate. "Zach! Zach what are we going to do?! They have Midoriya and Todoroki and-"

"And nothing!" Bakugo's voice shouted into the headsets, making Zach and Mineta both wince and pull their heads to the opposite sides as their earpieces were in. Behind them, the teachers called out for the hero team to move forward into the waiting area just outside the gates that were closing again, past the wall that had all the screens on it for the rest of them to observe. The hero team grabbed their own headsets, while the teachers each put in their own that could monitor both teams' communications. All three teachers winced too as Bakugo's screaming voice filled their headsets, and they all lowered the volume for their own and also for the students they felt a little bad for. "I'm going to kick all their asses!"

Zach slowed down after the gates closed behind them, and he lifted a hand and covered his earpiece with one hand while turning to Mineta. He lifted his eyebrows a few times, and Mineta's eyes opened wide before he reached up and covered his headset too so Bakugo would not hear Zach's voice over it. Everyone outside except for the four heroes who started making their own infiltration plan started laughing as Zach and Mineta planned while jogging into the fortress, obviously hiding whatever they were talking about from Bakugo.

"…he's not going to listen to anything we say. But this is Bakugo, so he's definitely going to win. Or he'll be trying his hardest to from the very beginning. Which means, hopefully we have a few extra minutes that we can prepare." Zach lifted his hand off his ear and said louder, "The two of us should just stay as defense. Sound good Bakugo?"

"Do what you want! Don't let them take the flag."

"Let us know if anyone gets past you. Where are you by the way?"

Nothing responded back for a few seconds and both Zach and Mineta sweatdropped, then Bakugo snapped, "I'm on the second floor at the front of the building. The flag room is another floor up, get up there now!"

"Sure," Zach said, before instantly covering his headset again. "Alright Mineta, we got this. I need your help with the flag room for a second, but then let's split up and guard from different places."

"Separate?! But there are only three of us already, and Bakugo's not going to work with us! If we separate-"

"If we stay together, and Todoroki gets us all with a single ice attack, it'll be over before it started. It's a good thing Bakugo's not with us, because if either of us get caught it'll be up to him to save us," Zach said, and then he grimaced deeply just as Mineta did.

"Do you think he would?" Mineta whispered, really hoping their conversation could not be heard through his fingers over the earpiece.

"I think he wants to win," Zach replied. "So it depends on if he thinks our help would help him."

Outside Ground Omega, Midoriya, Todoroki, Iida, and Uraraka stood in a small circle just past the closed gates. There was a timer being projected on the gate, and they still had three more minutes to plan. "You think Bakugo's going to attack right away?" Todoroki asked Iida after what the class rep just theorized their opponents' plan would be.

"I don't know," Uraraka began hesitantly herself. "He looked to be running far ahead before the gates closed. He was almost inside the fort."

"An ambush?" Midoriya whispered, a hand up in front of his mouth as he muttered under his breath during their conversation. "I don't think Kacchan will go along with whatever plan Zach might make, or Mineta," Midoriya added, scratching his chin some more as he added it. "Bakugo's combat sense is unrivaled, but the other two think a lot too. Mineta can do more to slow us down… unless Zach decides to use his Nightmare form."

"Do you think he would?" Todoroki asked the green haired boy who was the closest to Zach out of the four of them.

Midoriya hummed, then he turned and glanced at the gate. "I think…"

"What?! Why not?!" Mineta shouted at Zach as they ran into the flag room on the third floor of the fortress.

"Do it now," Zach said, and Mineta ran forward still with a flustered and annoyed look. While Mineta pulled the purple Pop Off balls off his head, Zach responded to his question, "I won't use Nightmare on them. This is supposed to be a reward from the teachers I think. They're giving us this exercise without really much at stake, and it's a fun game of capture the flag. As intense as it might get, this feels like a game to me. It seems like everyone wants to have fun." Mineta looked over his shoulder with wide eyes, and Zach lifted his right hand and stared at it inside the glove. "If I wind up knocking someone out for a few hours, or a day, or two days… I can control it well, but I can't plan for their actions completely. If I'm a little off with my aim when trying to just get them to fall to their knees, take all their strength, I might wind up ruining their day. I could make it so they miss out on watching the next rounds, cheering on the others, and make what's supposed to be a good day turn into something unpleasant for everyone."

Zach clenched his lifted right hand into a fist and then lowered it down to his side. He looked over at Mineta to continue, then he shouted, "Keep going! We don't have a lot of time!" Mineta jumped at the shout and then nodded fast as he had totally forgotten, and he started pulling off the purple balls again and getting back to their plan. "Sorry," Zach added as he just shouted there. He meant it in two ways though, "I know it could get us an easier victory, maybe, if I just try filling up the area around the flag with Death. It's just not what I see as fun."

Bakugo stayed quiet as he stared out a window on the second floor, his back up against a wall next to it and only just glancing through. He stared through the glass towards the front gates he would have a view of from the second the other group entered, and he could see whatever strategy Deku put into place. He stopped thinking about his opponents and their probable strategies for a second though, the right corner of his lip lifting up before dipping down just as fast. Good. But fuck you anyway. Damn it. Midnight sensei said our reports were good, but that bastard made mine sound boring. No, that's not it. That's not what bugs me about you, bastard. Bakugo's head turned back a little from the sideways angle he was staring through the window, looking farther into the fortress and up at the ceiling above him. But I don't know what it is. Those scars. Disappearing that same weekend the League of Villains were attacked. And then you, you got me believing your excuse by comparing me to the electro-idiot. I realized it later on. How quickly I changed my mind because of that. Did you expect that to happen? Is that why you said it?

Bakugo spun his head right again as he heard 'one minute left' called out by Midnight sensei in front of the gates.

On the other side of those gates, Iida scratched his chin thoughtfully and then turned back to the gates himself. "So Bakugo-kun will not try attacking us all at once. Zach-kun will not use his Nightmare Form. And Mineta-kun will try to stop our movements. The path to the flag is straight-forward from what I could see looking at the camera angles earlier. There are other ways to it, but with the time limit-"

"That shouldn't be a problem for you," Todoroki started. Iida turned to him, and Todoroki added, "You should go around for the other door in that flag room. Bakugo will surely come after me or Midoriya if we go straight."

"We should both go straight," Midoriya agreed, looking at Todoroki and nodding his head. "The villains are at a disadvantage because of their numbers, but Kacchan is strong. Even the two of us together will not beat him easily. But if we can stop Kacchan, Iida can get to the flag and escape quickly. Quicker, if Uraraka makes his armor weightless. That way, your Engine and even your Reciproburst will be faster. Uraraka, could you hold onto Iida too and make yourself weightless?" Midoriya asked, and she nodded fast at him as there were only thirty seconds left to finish making a plan. "If using speed to grab the flag doesn't work, since Mineta might have blocked up both paths or the area around the flag, it might be the two of you versus the two of them. You'll have the advantage though, because they have to protect the flag. They can't go wherever they want and leave the flag unprotected."

"Midoriya," Todoroki started. "Do you really think Bakugo will just stay distracted by us? If he sees the two of us running straight in, I am sure he'll know what we're planning."

"I don't think it'll matter," Midoriya replied, and Todoroki's eyebrows lifted in surprise. The other two looked confused as well, but Midoriya turned to the gates and continued while getting into a ready stance, "Kacchan will leave it to the other two. Zach wouldn't have any problem with telling him if they let the flag get stolen. Kacchan will just fight us until that happens, then he'll go after Iida, unless we can tie him up with the capture tape first. This is assuming Iida and Uraraka can get the flag though."

"Leave it to us," Iida said, pushing up on his glasses while facing the gate himself and leaning forward in a running stance.

"We've got this Deku!" Uraraka added and punched a fist up in the air. She then made herself weightless and grabbed onto Iida, doing the same with all his armor. "Let's win!" Uraraka shouted in a confident and excited tone.

Todoroki breathed out a visible cold breath and clenched both fists at his sides. "Didn't think this is where I'd have my rematch with Bakugo."

"I was thinking the same thing," Midoriya said. "But we can't think of it like that, when it's the two of us fighting together."

"He's going to go all out on both of us," Todoroki said. The timer was about to reach zero, and he lifted his fists and dug his feet down. "So let's do the same."

"Hey guys! Don't destroy the whole training ground in the first round!" Kaminari called forward with his hands cupped to his mouth.

"First match, START!" Midnight shouted, and the gates reopened.

"Here they come," Zach said, putting his hand next to his earpiece. "Bakugo, are they splitting up?"

Mineta glanced nervously back behind him, then ahead of him on the hallway he was standing in. Why am I all alone?! In the main path too!

"Grr, shut up," Bakugo said, but his words came out in a quiet voice.

He sees them running his way. Damn it. Just tell us where-

"Glasses and Uraraka are going around the north side." Bakugo said, then he stopped talking and he ran off from his position at the windows before anyone could see him glancing through them. Bakugo moved around on the second floor, backed away from the windows and stepped out into the hallway. He took a deep breath, ignored the 'thanks' over the headset without even growling, and he just pointed his right hand down at the floor and curled his left hand's fingers in in front of it. "AP Shot," he said in a soft voice, while a huge smirk spread on his face at the sound of the door opening below and in front of him. "FIRE!"

Midoriya and Todoroki snapped their heads up and both skid to as quick a stop as they could. Bakugo was not dropping down right in front of them to give them the chance to sprint by and make it to the stairs. He blasted a hole in the ceiling they were about to run under, and he blew it apart with such force that the debris shot down before the falling teen himself. Bakugo lifted his right hand and pointed the green gauntlet forward, grabbing the pin on the side of it while Midoriya clenched his fist and Todoroki lifted his right hand.

"Already?!" Midoriya shouted as Bakugo was about to use his most powerful explosion at the start to blow them back.

The teachers outside held back from shouting at Bakugo not to kill his classmates, as unnerving as this straight-out assault within the first twenty seconds was. Todoroki's right side covered in ice and an ice wall shot out in front of him and filled the whole hallway. Bakugo smirked and let go of the pin he had grabbed on his right gauntlet, firing a normal explosion out in front of him instead and blasting himself back onto the second floor.

Midoriya's eyes started going wide as he heard the explosion but the ice did not get blasted backwards. "What happened?" Todoroki said, as he lowered his right arm and did not hear Bakugo trying to smash through the ice on the other side.

"He had us block up the main path, and cut off our access to the new hole in the ceiling," Midoriya said as he realized what Bakugo had done. "In that case," he was not waiting around, and he bent his knees and then jumped straight up at the ceiling above his head. He pulled his leg back, while Todoroki pointed his left hand forward and fired flames at his own ice wall. "We'll open up more! SMASH!" Midoriya kicked a hole through the ceiling, while Todoroki destroyed all of his ice.

Rubble flew up onto the second floor, then Midoriya snapped his body back. I knew he'd expect me to come straight up. Bakugo's right grabbing hand passed over the top of Midoriya's body, and Midoriya reached up both arms and grabbed onto it. He started swinging as his legs were touching down on a piece of ceiling-floor still rising, and he bent his knees and pushed off. Bakugo's other arm swinging around to slam into Midoriya's back opened its fingers and fired an explosion right before Midoriya extended his legs. Their trajectory changed from what Midoriya tried to do sending them at the wall behind them to throw them outside in front of the fortress, instead sending them sideways with Midoriya back-first towards a wall.

As soon as Midoriya's back hit the wall he gasped out, and Bakugo fired an explosion from his right hand that Midoriya's grip loosened a little from. He pulled his right arm backwards while swinging his left arm more, firing a series of explosions out of it that rippled in a line across the front of his body, one of which hit Midoriya and slammed him back into the wall he bounced off of. As Bakugo was swinging his arm though, his head was already turned the other way, and after his hand passed Midoriya he fired explosions from both hands out in front of him at the same time. Bakugo shot over the hole Midoriya made and over his own hole in the floor, but a glance down showed him a trail of ice going down that hallway. Bakugo did not slow down, even as he saw the path of ice splitting off in three different directions at the intersection at the edge of his vision through the hole.

You think you're so smart, Bakugo thought, and he stopped blasting explosions behind him and just sprinted down the second floor hall and cut right. He fired a blast that way, then he cut back and ran down the hallway straight. Bakugo sprinted towards the stairwell and leapt up before he reached the door, put his left hand close to it, and he fired a huge explosion with the sweat from running over there without making it too big he'd need to destroy the gauntlet. The door blasted backwards, and Todoroki lifted his left hand as soon as he heard the blast. The door was almost on him when he fired the huge fiery blast out of his own hand, the only thing strong and fast enough to stop the door moving at that speed from slamming into him. He blasted a hole through the door and slowed its momentum a little, but the two halves of it still hit him and threw him back into the wall at the top of the second floor stairwell. The stairs did not keep going to the third floor but forced him inwards since above it was the exterior of the fortress that narrowed in towards the top.

The explosion Todoroki fired smashed through the door though, and through the explosion Bakugo fired into it. As Todoroki was thrown back into the stairs, Bakugo slammed into the wall on the other side of the hallway as the stairwell entrance, even if he did pull his body mostly to the right before it happened. His left shoulder and most of his left arm got burned, but after he slammed into the wall and closed his eyes with a loud grunt, his eyes snapped back open and his head spun to the right. He glared down the hallway at the light he saw bouncing on the walls in his direction, and he rose his right gauntlet that way and pulled the pin.

Midoriya was using Full Cowling down the hall to get a hit on Bakugo who he saw falling off of the wall looking injured. Bakugo's head snapped his way without warning though, and as Midoriya tried to get there faster, Bakugo just decided to blow up the entire hallway. Midoriya turned right as the explosion was coming out, and he had just bounced to the ceiling so the fastest way he could get out was going straight down. He pushed off his bent legs and shot at the floor with both arms crossed in front of him. "CAROLINA SMASSHHH!" Midoriya swung both arms out as he was about to hit the floor, and All Might's mouth curved into a huge grin outside even as Midoriya had to use his arms instead of his legs to get out of it. The entire floor around where Midoriya hit blew apart, and then all that rising rubble and the bottoms of Midoriya's legs were caught in Bakugo's enormous explosion. That explosion also ripped apart even more of the floor, the walls on the sides of the hall, and made the floor above shake violently and crack right in front of Mineta whose jaw was on the floor at the sound of all the explosions right below him.

"I can't do this!" Mineta screamed, turning and sprinting away right as a crack formed in the floor between his legs.

"Get back to the flag Mineta! Iida and Uraraka are here!"

Zach stood at the end of a hallway that had a single line of Mineta's Pop Off balls hanging from one side of the hallway to the other. The balls were stuck to the middle of the walls, and the whip dipped down in the middle of the hall but was still above the ground a little even at the center. Zach stood on the other side of them a few feet back with his hands down at both sides of his waist, his fingers twitching next to his weapons while he looked down the hallway with narrowed eyes at the two who just sprinted up the stairs together. Most of them were on the second floor now, with only Mineta above on the flag floor. Thought I'd have a little more time with them going around the whole building, but Uraraka made Iida faster than ever. Jumping over Mineta's trap won't be hard if they're weightless, but hopefully Iida's not since he wouldn't be used to weighing nothing and wouldn't have good movements. What do I do? Just keep bluffing until they run close!

Zach snapped the black grappling gun up from his left side, the only thing still black on his entirely white costume now lined with bone particulate inside the material it was made out of. Zach rose the grappling gun and pointed it down the hallway like a real gun, confusing the two who stared at it, exactly like Zach wanted them to. Why would I point a grappling gun at them? I guess I could fire it if they sprint towards me. Wouldn't pierce Iida's armor, but it could knock him off course, or maybe if I time it right I could actually get it around his leg and trip him up into Mineta's balls.

"Uraraka-kun, let's use our number advantage," Iida suggested in a quiet voice. The fastest path was clearly the one in front of him, but they had gotten this far quickly. "There is no need to fight," Iida added. When we cannot be sure that Zach-kun will not try and knock us out after pretending like he won't for the start of the fight. Iida erred on the side of caution, and he said, "Now, go!" His engines turned on while Uraraka leapt off of his back, and they both shot different directions in the hallway just outside the door of the last stairwell.

"Mineta, your trap worked," Zach said. "Stay calm. Iida and Uraraka are running around to find a different route to the stairs, I'm coming up!"

Zach ran down the hallway behind him, cut right, and he ran straight towards the door to the stairs up in the back of the fortress. It was not the main stairwell, but Zach remembered seeing it outside when they were looking at the camera angles in the building too. He ran inside and sprinted up the stairs cautiously, stepping around the Pop Off balls scattered every couple of steps and keeping his head on a swivel to check behind him and make sure no one was coming.

Zach ran to the top of the stairs and through the door, then called out, "Mineta!"

"I'm coming!" Mineta yelled back. Zach heard it over his headset but also down the hall on his left, and he turned to see Mineta bouncing on Pop Off balls he left in a scattered line going around that hallway and a lot of the floor. Mineta bounced all the way to the one closest to the auxiliary staircase door, and Zach slammed it shut before Mineta pulled off two balls from the top of his head. He winced as he pulled them off, and Mineta said while he stuck the balls to the crack of the door in two places so it wouldn't be able to open, "It's starting to hurt. I can't do this much longer. It's only two minutes in! Zach how are we supposed to-"

"Bakugo's keeping them busy," Zach said. "And I don't think Iida or Uraraka have the power to bust down this door easily. It'll definitely hurt Iida and mess with his Engines if he has to use Reciproburst."

"Damn it! DEKU!" Bakugo's voice came through their headsets and both Zach and Mineta winced, then they heard him scream, "DIE!"

"SMASH!" Mineta and Zach also heard that in their heads.

"Oh shit," Zach muttered. He spun his head, then he turned to Mineta and said, "Guard the door."

"Wh-What?! Where are you-"

Zach sprinted back down the hall, still making sure not to get stuck to one of Mineta's Pop Off balls that were put in tricky locations and just around corners. "Bakugo!" Zach called out as he sprinted towards the flag room. "Do you still have both of them-"

"I will in a second!" Bakugo yelled back furiously, and in some pain.

I knew it! Zach sprinted even faster down the corridors, and he ran straight towards the open door in the back of the flag room. He sprinted through it into the room, then he snapped his head towards the opposite door that flew open at the same time he entered. Zach stared towards that door and his eyes opened wide as he saw Todoroki step into the room with caution in his gaze. Todoroki darted his eyes towards Zach, then back to the flag, then around at the Pop Off balls around the room.

They were scattered, but also mainly just around the flag so no one could stand directly next to it. There were a few around the bottom of the flag pole so no one would be able to take it away, but Todoroki saw this and just breathed out some steam. Zach sprinted into the room. He sprinted as fast as he could straight towards the flag, The one place he can't attack with full power! Zach sprinted, and then he leapt up in the air right before the entire floor of the room froze. Every single Pop Off ball froze in place, leaving small icy bumps scattered around the room and a bumpier area just around the flag. There was no purple left in the room after a single instant though, and Zach grimaced at how many of Mineta's Pop Off balls they wasted doing that. No, we couldn't have just expected Todoroki would be the first one here, Zach thought as he landed and skid forward on the ice. He had his head turned towards Todoroki, then he winced and fell forward, his eyes opening huge and darting down towards the small round bump in the ice his skidding right foot slammed into.

He tumbled forward, then he came out of his roll into a slippery sprint, dodging the ice that just rose up where he was rolling. Todoroki slid forward, ice forming beneath him and rising over the other ice as he shot towards the middle of the room that Zach had just reached. Zach pulled out his grappling gun and pointed it Todoroki's way. Fuck it! Zach fired straight at Todoroki's right arm. Todoroki swung that right arm in front of him and made a wave of ice that blocked the end of the grappling gun, and then froze it which Zach realized as he tried tugging the hook back to himself. Todoroki slid up the side of the wave and threw more ice after it to curve himself back towards the middle of the room. As he came around the curve though, he had to duck as the gun came flying at his head since Zach no longer had a use for it.

Zach pulled out a knife from his right side, and he lifted the white hilt in front of him while standing in front of the flag frozen in the ice. He took a deep breath and let it out, and it hung in the air because of how cold the room had become with ice covering the floor, rising up the bottoms of the walls, and in huge waves curving around it. Come on Bakugo. Midoriya tells me you're still stronger than he is. Please prove he's not just being modest. I can't take Todoroki.

Todoroki dropped off of his wave right in front of Zach only ten feet away. Todoroki's head bowed a little and he stared up through the tops of his eyes at Zach, and Zach smirked while turning his knife in his right hand into a different stance with the blade pointed out to his right side instead of pointing in front of him. He let out another cold breath as Todoroki did the same, and Todoroki could see Zach thinking about how he could protect the flag at his back, and nothing else. Completely separating himself from everything else going on. How he acted during his report, is nothing like I see him act at the dorm. How he acts in a fight, or in public, it's always different. If he closes his eyes right now, what would he think about?

"What are you thinking about, Todoroki?" Zach asked, and Todoroki's narrowed and intense eyes widened. He did not think his expression was anything less than serious, but Zach's eyes got darker as he glared into Todoroki's. His voice was quiet so he would not be heard over his earpiece, and he said, "Where is your focus?" Zach sprinted forward. What am I saying? Why was he just standing there? He shouldn't have given me any time to think. He must have been thinking something weird. Zach tossed his knife at Todoroki who was stepping towards him and raising his left hand, Todoroki had to smack that left hand into the knife, then he leaned away as Zach curled the fist of the hand he tossed it with. His slammed his right fist forward, but he pulled it in and extended his elbow while jumping off the floor that he caught out the bottoms of his eyes Todoroki's right foot just froze. He lifted off the ground and extended his right elbow out for Todoroki's chest, but Todoroki leapt back after freezing the floor, as well as the bottom of Zach's feet that did not rise far enough off the ground in his jump.

"Shit!" Zach shouted, and he reached down and pulled the second knife off of his right side. He bent his body back and then slammed it down, right as Todoroki was sliding forward fast on his right side. Damn it! "No!" Zach yelled, as he tried slamming his knife through the ice between his legs only for more of it to rise up his legs and almost to the bottom of his waist. His knife dug a few inches into the ice, but it did not break through it or anything, and Todoroki just reached the flag. He grabbed the flag and he pointed his left hand down at the bottom that was frozen into the floor. A jet of flames shot out of his hand into the floor, the Pop Off balls, and the bottom of the flag, and then Todoroki lifted most of the flag and flag post except for the very bottom he burned away.

Todoroki paused a moment after lifting the flag, saying, "Those really are strong." He looked down at Mineta's surviving Pop Off balls while all his ice and the ground and flag had been burnt up. Then Todoroki turned to start running back towards the entrance he had come through before which was the closest route to the door.

"NO!" Zach yelled, his voice getting deeper and scratchier, and Todoroki's head turning more with wider eyes as Zach's entire body covered in a black veil. Todoroki turned in that much surprise because he had not seen Zach use this for months now, as he had only been training it in private.

Zach had risen straight up after failing to break through the ice with his knife. He let go of the knife with his right hand, smacked his right hand into his chest while reaching out with his left and catching that knife. As he caught the knife with his left hand, he slammed his whole body back down while the black veil was covering it, though most of the black veil was pushing to one side of his body and down that arm. Todoroki's eyes opened wide as Zach's pitch black right hand curled into a fist and slammed down at the ice covering the bottom of his body. All the ice around Zach's legs blew apart, and a black wind blasted off of the punch that made Zach spin his head and open his red eyes wide towards Todoroki who was not too far from him.

A wall of ice rose up between Todoroki and those black tendrils though, making it big and thick to eliminate any chance of them touching him. Todoroki let out a small but heavy breath as he avoided touching any of it, but the young man with a burn scar on half his face got a confused look as Zach turned and sprinted the other way as the ice wall they just put up while the darkness vanished from around him. Zach did not sprint towards either of the doors, just away from the wall, and away from him. Why would he- below! Todoroki realized it, the ground beneath him started to shake. He forced ice out of his right side, but after just making such a large ice wave in front of him, it was not immediate. It needed to be instantaneous too, as Bakugo did not give Zach much of a warning, before he blew a giant hole straight in the floor with his second gauntlet.

The explosion was not right on target with Todoroki, as it was closer to the door Todoroki came in through, but the explosion was huge. "Bakugo you idiot!" Zach yelled while ducking behind one of Todoroki's earlier ice waves that the top of just blew apart when hit by a huge piece of floor debris. "What if you destroy the flag?!"

"He wouldn't let it get destroyed," Bakugo yelled while flying up through the floor, his second gauntlet destroyed as he rose above, a bruise on his left cheek and blood coming out of that nostril, but no sign of Midoriya anywhere. Bakugo landed at the edge of the hole and looked towards where Todoroki was getting back on his feet. There was some blood on Todoroki's right arm where the blue sleeve was gone, blood coming from a slash by some debris and not from the burned skin around it. While Zach ran after Todoroki blocked him with the wall, he had told Bakugo the exact location of Todoroki and that he had the flag, after hearing Bakugo shout he was blasting through the floor.

Zach heard Bakugo's response to his panicked shout and his eyes widened, then he poked back up over the ice wall behind him that was some of the only ice to survive the explosion that just ripped through the floor. Looking over the ice he saw Todoroki and Bakugo facing off, Todoroki having to hold the flag in his left hand while he rose his bloody right arm in front of him.

Only as Bakugo lifted up his left hand, did Zach notice that Bakugo had blood seeping out between the fingers of his right hand that was staying down at his side. This is absurd, Zach thought, even as he grinned and started sprinting at Todoroki.

"He's mine!" Bakugo yelled.

"I'm just getting the flag!" Zach yelled right back. "I'll leave you to it when I get it back!"

"Guys?! Does he still have it?!" Mineta yelled over their headsets, as he thought with Bakugo's enormous explosion following the talk with Zach that their team would have gotten it back already. "Do you want me to- oh crap!" Mineta spun back to the door to the auxiliary staircase behind him that just blew off the hinges on the opposite side as where he put his Pop Off balls. I should have put them on both sides! He shouted at himself in regret, while stumbling and falling backwards at the side of Iida flipping through the air with blue flames coming out the back of his legs. He had heard Uraraka's failed attempts to smash down the door and then Iida's, but he did not hear them make a plan or anything and did not see this coming all of a sudden.

Iida's head spun and he looked down through his glasses at Mineta who fell back on his butt at the intense look on Iida's face. While they have all been fighting! What have we been doing back here?! Iida heard Zach and Bakugo's shouts over Todoroki's headset, and they knew Todoroki was in the middle of fighting the two of them. The fact that the team with only three had a numerical advantage while he and Uraraka were on the other side of the building made the class rep furious. He glared down at Mineta and shouted, "To the flag!"

Mineta scooted backwards on his butt, a terrified look in his eyes. He turned and started running before Iida fell, sprinting back towards the hallway closer to the flag room. "They're right behind me!" Mineta shouted.

"Hold them off!" Zach yelled right back.

Mineta stopped at the intersection, his eyes opening huge as Zach said it. "I can't!" He yelled. He looked behind him and saw Uraraka running out of the stairwell too, then pointing his way while Iida dropped down to a knee for a second to wait for his Engines to stop overheating.

"A hero can always break out of a tight pinch," Zach called into his earpiece, while stumbling backwards and falling to his butt, holding the flag tight in both arms against his own chest. He held it close and turned to run, and he heard an explosion behind him and Bakugo yelling at Todoroki 'where are you looking?' Zach grinned, Bakugo smirked as Todoroki flew back, and then Zach said into his earpiece, "Think constantly, Mineta." Bakugo's smirk as Todoroki flew backwards dropped immediately, his eyes opening wide and his head turning to the side. Todoroki almost wanted to shout the same thing Bakugo just yelled at him right back, but instead he slammed his bloody right palm into the floor as he hit down, sending a wave of ice at Bakugo who bit down but lifted his busted hand too in order to smack both of them forward rapidly enough with as many explosions as needed to blow through all the ice.

Outside of Ground Omega, All Might's amazed smile as he watched the battles like everyone else dipped down too. His eyes opened huge, his bottom lip lowered, and he stared straight at the camera angle into the middle of the flag room floor where Zach had gone back to the center area and dropped the flag. He grabbed a chunk of ice near him and tossed it over on top of the flag with some effort, then he dropped to his butt on it and started panting while putting a hand to his ear and continuing to talk into his earpiece.

Mineta stopped running right after turning into the hallway adjacent to the one the staircase was in. His eyes had opened wide as Zach told him 'a hero can always break out of a tight pinch,' but he stopped completely at that second part and spun his head around. Think constantly, he thought, and he clenched his eyes shut as he heard more explosions the way he had just been running. I can't go that way! It'll be three on three if Midoriya isn't there, and what if he does get there?! Even if he doesn't, one of them could take the flag while we're fighting, and we'd never catch Iida. If Iida gets in there. If he gets the flag- we'll lose! Does that really matter?! I don't want to die! Mineta took another step back, hearing Iida and Uraraka's voices around the corner getting closer and not caring about their volume like they thought he had kept running away. Knowing that they thought that of him made Mineta's legs stop shaking as much, and he bit down even with the fear all over his face.

"Remember Mineta. It was always supposed to be the two of them against you," Zach said, and Mineta started breathing heavier but slower breaths. Bakugo's expression got confused even as he ran towards Todoroki and blasted himself to the right to dodge a jet of flames. He did not know when they had talked about this before like Zach seemed to be referencing, but the other two had made plans without talking to him in the first place. "Midoriya and Todoroki might not be able to get off of your Pop Offs either, but they could destroy the ground around it easily if they got caught. It would be an inconvenience for them, but for those other two, you can take them out completely. Stick them Mineta. Find a way. Midnight sensei beat me and Sero, but you took down a pro hero on your own. What can Iida and Uraraka do to stop you?"

Zach covered his earpiece more after saying all that, and he started panting and bowed his head. Damn, it. My legs hurt. That was so cold. He started shaking them out, and he lifted the left corner of his mouth while raising off his butt from the ice that was starting to make his white pants damp from sitting on it for so long. He glanced down at the flag underneath it, then around at the Pop Off balls still in the room attached to some debris. Mineta's Quirk seems really weak, but it's his personality that makes that true. He's actually smart, and can be strategic, and if he just has some confidence…

Zach's right, I did beat Midnight sensei all on my own! I had Zach with me, and he got knocked out in few seconds! Just like Sero! Mineta's lips curled into a grin and he wiped some sweat off his face while he started pulling Pop Off balls from his head fast despite the pain. Iida and Uraraka ran around the corner and then came to a stop, their eyes opening wide and both of them diving to the sides at the sight of a purple whip of balls flying towards them. Iida's Engines pushed him away faster, but Uraraka still managed to dodge too back the way they came. The end of the whip hit down between Iida and Uraraka right in that intersection, then Iida turned around after running off, cutting back in and calling out, "Villain! We will get past you!"

Iida ran around the corner, turned his head, and his eyes opened huge. Mineta was attached to the wall right at the edge of the corner, using one hand to hold himself there with a single Pop Off ball, and the other on the ball at the end of the whip he had slammed into the middle of the intersection. Mineta pushed off of the ball on the wall and bounced at Iida with arms wide, and he threw his arms around Iida and wrapped the side of his body in a hug. "Get off of me, Minet- Villain!" Iida yelled, keeping in his persona while swinging his arm and throwing Mineta off of him and farther down the side of the hall he had just run to to dodge the whip.

"Iida!" Uraraka shouted.

Iida spun towards her, then he looked down and his eyes opened wide behind his glasses. There was a single Pop Off ball attached to the front of his armor, but it was attached to a line of them that fell to the floor without being held up as tautly anymore. He did not even have the full length of the whip to move, just ten or so balls before the whip connected to his chest touched the floor. "Hahaha. Mwhahaha! MWHAHAHAHA!" Mineta shouted while getting to his feet, wiping his face with one arm.

Iida spun back to Mineta with wide eyes, and hearing Mineta's laughter he shouted, "You fiend!"

"Iida! I'll get you out of-"

"No, Uraraka-kun," Iida said, spinning back her way. "I will get out of my armor. You keep going to the flag!"

"Taking off your armor huh?" Mineta asked, speaking down his nose while walking forward. Iida turned with a nervous look on his face at Mineta's menacing and cocky voice. Mineta lifted up both hands in front of him, and with blood on the bottom of his eyelids he asked, "You really think I'll let you do that, hero?!" He pulled the end of the capture tape away from its other side, and he started running at Iida while laughing madly.

"Iida!"

"Go Uraraka-kun!"

Uraraka hesitated as she ran for his back, then she hummed affirmatively and turned down the next hallway instead. "Zach! Uraraka's coming!" Mineta shouted, while he ran around Iida staying a good distance but swinging the tape at him to try and wrap him up. Iida lifted his arms to try and start taking off his armor, but Mineta got close when he'd try.

After a couple of seconds Iida stopped struggling to remove his armor, and he said, "First, I'll stop you villain!" Heat came out the back of Iida's legs that he was still able to turn despite being stuck in pretty much the same space. Then the class rep felt his calves hurting as the heat was blocked, and Iida's eyes opened huge and snapped down. "When did you?!" Purple balls covered the back of both of Iida's calves in another smaller purple whip.

"You were too busy trying to take off your armor the last time I ran around you," Mineta said in an even cockier voice than before. He started walking forward, no longer worried about Iida's kicks which were his main reason for staying away. "Now hero, it's time for you to be captured!"

"Hi-yaa!" Mineta started turning, and a hand smacked him hard in the left side of his face. Not only did he get thrown off his feet, but he kept flying off the ground farther and farther down the hallway past Iida and back towards the door the heroes had broken down before.

"Iida!" Uraraka shouted as she looked at her partner she ran back for.

"I cannot believe it," Iida said, in such an ashamed and embarrassed voice as he rose his right hand to his forehead. He reached down with both hands and grabbed the Pop Off balls, and he yanked back from his calves as hard as he could. He started gasping and panting after a few seconds of trying and failing, then his eyes opened huge as he tried pulling his hands off of them. "Oh no," he said. Uraraka sweatdropped as did most people who were watching the screen with Iida on it as he was now stuck in a ridiculous, and uncomfortable-looking position with his hands sticking down on the back of his calves. "Run Uraraka-kun! We must get the flag!"

"I'm on it!" Uraraka called out, though apologetically as she backed away from Iida.

"Don't leave me up here!" Mineta shouted her way, and Uraraka turned down the hall to see Mineta against the ceiling. He was no longer flying without gravity as he had taken off one of his Pop Offs and stuck it above him, but he was still weightless and did not know what to do.

"Sorry Mineta," Uraraka shouted to the boy with a hand-print on the left side of his face and bloody tears streaking down it.

Uraraka started running down the next hallway that her and Iida had tried running down over a minute ago now, and she picked up her speed with a super intense look coming to her face. I can still hear Bakugo's explosions, and Mineta shouted to Zach that I was coming a minute ago.

Think constantly. Think constantly. Mineta snapped his eyes open and reached up his free arm, wiping the blood from beneath his eyes.

Uraraka picked up speed as she turned around a corner, and her eyes widened as she saw through an open door just ahead of her and into a room with giant holes in the floor and walls, chunks of ice scattered around, and a boy in the middle of it staring her way with a knife in one hand and a grappling gun in the other. Zach grinned as he saw Uraraka, who he was expecting to come much sooner but understood through Mineta's headset that she had gone back and attacked him.

Uraraka ran forward, but she slowed down as she heard Iida's voice in her head, "Wait! What are you- Uraraka-kun!"

The shorter girl with brown hair turned her head sideways, and her eyes opened wide as a boy flew past the last intersection and almost shot right by the turn that would have sent him out some windows. Mineta reached a hand forward though and slammed another Pop Off ball into the corner of the turn, jolting the rest of his weightless body back without much pain. He spun himself around the corner and grinned towards Uraraka, then he yanked himself forward off his Pop Off ball and sent himself flying gravity-less down the entire hallway like a missile that was laughing even as he had to squint his eyes because of the blood in them.

"Alright Mineta!" Zach shouted. "You're doing it! Awesome!" Holy crap, and I'm not only saying that to hype you up anymore!

"Release!" Uraraka pulled her fingertips against each other and kept running at full speed again towards Zach. Both Zach and Mineta's eyes opened wide, then the short boy flying down the hallway gained gravity again. Mineta let out a scream right before he hit down on the ground and started tumbling forward behind Uraraka whose face gained an intense look and made Zach step back as she sprinted through the doorway.

Uraraka did not slow down, spotting the flag behind Zach and under a block of ice. She sprinted towards him, and Zach tossed his knife from his right hand to his left, slamming his grappling hook down into the sheath at the same time. Zach lunged the knife forward, and Uraraka pivoted one foot to the side. Gunhead Martial Arts! Against someone with a knife, pivot one foot to disappear from your opponent's line of- Uraraka's eyes opened huge before she could reach in for Zach's wrist. Zach's head was already turning the direction she had pivoted to, as he remembered her fight against Thirteen in the Final Exam last year and knew her fighting style well which was why he led her into this. He smirked as she looked into his eyes, then he fired.

Uraraka's head snapped down, When did he- The grappling gun she thought he had put away was grabbed by the hand that tossed the knife, which had started moving down for it at the same moment he caught the knife in a big movement with his left hand. The wire wrapped around Uraraka's body, and she thought, He put the gun away, to make it seem like he wasn't trading hands! Uraraka brought her hand forward anyway, since Zach had brought it close distance before firing at her.

Zach yanked hard to the side, She's light! He knew he could do it, but the problem was time. He snapped his upper body to the side and down, letting Uraraka's hand pass over him. Her other hand hit him in the side. Zach was so focused on the hand moving over the top of his body, he didn't notice the other that she was curving down to keep out of his line of sight. Zach lost the strength of his tug as he no longer had the weight of his body below him, and his feet lifted off the ground while Uraraka just stumbled to the side and fell to one knee instead of being thrown like Zach had hoped. She spun towards the flag and started running to it while getting off a knee. "I don't think so!" Zach yelled, and he reached both hands forward onto the wire extending from the grappling gun, letting go of his knife and the gun which had turned weightless with him when she touched his body.

Zach pulled himself as fast as Mineta had been moving before at Uraraka, and she saw him coming right as she made the ice in front of her weightless. Uraraka spun and threw the ice chunk behind her, then she touched her fingertips together and returned both Zach and the ice's gravity. Zach gasped in pain as the ice slammed into his face fast. Uraraka started panting while turning her head to the flag again, reaching up her free hand and pulling the hook out from beneath the wire that had wrapped around her, and letting it all drop to the ground just as Zach and the ice that hit him did behind her.

"No!" Mineta shouted from the doorway, and Uraraka turned to see Mineta with one arm out using the doorway as support. He lifted his head and called out while looking a mess, "That flag is ours! You cannot take it!"

Uraraka turned towards the windows at the side of the room that had all been shattered, and she started running without saying a thing to Mineta. She dragged the flag with her, but she made it weightless and pulled the post up in her arms, then her head snapped to the side as she felt the vibration right behind her. "Raa!" Zach came down, but Uraraka felt him before his jump. He knew she had seen him which was why he yelled out to try and intimidate her, but Uraraka sidestepped fast, and she made it look like she was going right first. Shit! I fell for the feint! Zach hit down and put both hands on the ground and bent both knees, then he shot out of the crouched position and ran for Uraraka who was nearing the windows.

"Don't let her get outside!" Mineta yelled.

"If you two lose the flag, I'll kill you!"

Zach did not need the extra motivation from either of them, and he dove at Uraraka with his left arm outstretched before she reached the window. He grabbed her by the back of her pink costume at her left shoulder, then she spun around and swung the weightless flag around behind her. Zach got smacked in the face by it and the flag bounced off, but it did not hurt very much. Uraraka's other hand coming back in a fist though, he did not want to get hit by that. Then again, he reached his right hand across his body and grabbed the weightless flag, and he oofed as a fist hit him in the right side of his face. Uraraka's eyes opened wide as Zach did not try to dodge her punch, but Zach recovered from it fast even while still feeling pain, pulling back on the flag hard.

Release! Uraraka reached her punching hand back to the one holding the flag, making it full of weight again and making Zach's hold on it no longer work as twenty pounds of weight was not easy to tug in the way he was doing with his right hand crossed in front of his body. He punched his left hand under that arm while losing his grip, slamming Uraraka in the side as she pulled forward to try and get out the window. Uraraka let go of the flag as she stumbled to the side, and Mineta stopped stagger-running towards them from back near the middle of the room.

"Ah! Zach you can't hit-"

Uraraka spun around and she jumped up. Zach did not have that much force behind his hit because of his weird position punching his left arm under his right, but now he was in even more an awkward position. He fell backwards with the flag as Uraraka was no longer pulling the other way, and he lifted his right leg to try and slam down behind him for balance, but Uraraka was already diving at him. She smacked a hand down into Zach's face and made him weightless again while he was falling, and then as Zach flipped over as he hit the ground, Uraraka punched her other hand forward and hit him in the gut, sending him flying backwards and letting go of the weightless flag that Uraraka had grabbed with her other hand.

Uraraka turned and she sprinted for the window again only a few feet away. Mineta started running again and shouted, "Ah! What do we-"

"Get behind me!" Zach yelled out. We only have seconds!

Mineta's eyes opened wide, then he ran towards Zach and jumped right as Zach was finishing a tumble over in midair. He bent his knees after his feet touched into Mineta's palms, and then Mineta pushed forward while Zach jumped out of that position. "HAAAA!" Zach yelled, trying to make Uraraka scared so she could not use her power in a good way to get out of the third floor without dropping too fast. She turned her head with wide eyes while just at the windowsill, and then her eyes widened even more when she was about to duck, as a weightless Zach would go flying through the window of the third story of the fortress. Uraraka put her hands together to make everything have weight again, then she instantly made the flag weightless while turning and getting ready to jump out the window.

Zach saw her making him have weight again coming though, and as he gained weight and fell towards the ground littered in ice chunks and debris, the only thing he focused on was one of Mineta's Pop Off balls that he made sure he did not land on. He hit the ground and into a hard roll that scraped through the knees and elbows of his costume, and he felt a rattling in a few of his bones, something really hurt in his back, but he came out of his roll into a full-out sprint and dove at Uraraka whose head started turning to the side again. "That's ours!" Zach yelled, and this time Uraraka's face really did get scared as Zach dove at her. She pulled away, but Zach's diving arms did not grab her, only the top of the weightless flag she was holding.

Zach grabbed the flag, and then his momentum continued his dive straight out the window with his eyes opening huge. "Zach!" Uraraka shouted in panic, and she held onto the flag as hard as she could while grabbing the inside of the window with one hand. Mineta started sprinting up behind her, and he had an idea and reached up to the top of his head. Zach dropped down, both arms up grabbing the post of the flag. His eyes opened huge right before he felt the jolt, and the flag post wobbled just outside the window. He looked up and saw Uraraka leaning the top half of her body out the window, a strained look on her face as she tried holding the flag and the inside of the window that had some glass on it and was cutting into her palm.

"Don't let go!" Uraraka called out.

Mineta ran up behind Uraraka and attached a Pop Off ball to either of her feet, then he leaned outside with blood coming out the corners of his eyes again. Both Mineta and Uraraka were reaching down, but Zach's gaze never shifted to either of their faces. Zach had felt himself dropping with the flag, then he jolted to a stop and looked back to see Uraraka holding onto it with all her might farther back on the flag post and trying to pull it away. Zach let go of one hand on the post, and his other slid off in that same second. Mineta and Uraraka both started shouting, "ZA-" Zach's right hand that slid off the post slid down the blue flag below it, but it tightened into that flag, just as his left hand swept up above him. Zach slashed a knife up against the flag post where the flag connected to it, and he fell.

Uraraka and Mineta dropped their jaws instead of shouting as Zach started falling from the third floor. He let go of the knife in his left hand and used it to grab the flag he just released from his right, while reaching his right hand in and touching himself in the chest while he fell. The building got narrower farther towards the top, so the outer part of the second floor beneath him was only fifteen feet below him. The building's earlier floors were much taller too with the grand hall in the first floor being really tall, and the second floor being a little smaller, but the bottom of the windows of the third floor were only twenty feet up, and Zach was already hanging down before he dropped. He covered in a black veil as he fell, wishing he still had his grappling gun as he bent his legs and prepared for the landing, focusing Death down his legs as it covered his entire body.

Zach hit down on the roof of the second floor, and he heard creaking in his bones. He looked down through the darkness, but then he snapped his head up before actually looking to see what was wrong. He had focused so much Death down on his legs right before falling that it was too thick at the moment to see inside, and he decided as it started to thin out that he did not want to know. How much time is left? He thought instead, while patting his chest with his right hand again, and pushing his balled left fist and the flag in it into the floor on his other side to rise off his butt.

He winced at pain he felt mostly in his left leg but was present too in his right. It's not broken. It doesn't feel broken. He staggered up to his right foot first, then he punched his balled left fist into the ground below him, only to wince as he had gotten rid of the black aura and punching a stone surface hurt his knuckles. The pain in his knuckles shifted some from his left leg though, and he was able to get up on that before looking up towards the window above where Uraraka and Mineta were staring down at him in shock. "Mineta! Trap her there!" Zach shouted, his eyes widening in confusion as to why Mineta was in the window, but not caring enough to think beyond what Mineta could do now to help.

The small boy with blood in his eyes fell backwards on his butt, feeling relieved and scared at the same time that Zach managed to survive that with almost no damage. He looked at Uraraka who was still staring out the window in shock, then he said while rubbing the left side of his face where she smacked him before, "Already done."

Uraraka spun to Mineta, then she snapped her head down and looked at the Pop Off balls attached to her feet that she knew Mineta attached so she wouldn't get pulled out the window. "Ah! Noo!" Uraraka realized it as she tugged her feet up, she was not getting out of this any time soon.

Oh man, Mineta thought while falling back on his back and staring at the cracked ceiling of the flag room above him. If I use any more, they're not even going to be too sticky. I feel like crap, and they're going to lose their adhesiveness soon. He shook his head around and leaned back up, looking at Uraraka who kept struggling despite feeling how hard she was stuck to the floor. Mineta got a nervous look on his face but made it a confident one after a second anyway. "Wait a second," he whispered, an amazing idea coming to his head. His cheeks turned bright red, and he lifted up his capture tape, "Just in case they're already too weak," he started, drool coming out the corner of his mouth while Uraraka turned to him and it was her turn for her face to change color, though to blue instead of red. "Uraraka! Let me tie you up!"

"YAAA!"

Outside of Ground Omega, most of Class A winced as Ochaco Uraraka spun a flag post she returned the weight to at the last second and smacked Mineta in the side so hard that he flew off the ground.

"Not that he doesn't deserve it," Jirou began, while stepping in front of the others and to the right where the three teachers were standing. "But don't you think, this is all going a bit too far?"

Sero had beads of sweat dripping down both sides of his face. "I kind of expected it with a few of them," Sero began. "But man, they're all getting way too into this."

Kaminari agreed while sweating himself. "This is crazy," he said, while looking back towards the screen where an explosion had blocked off their sight for a few seconds, only for them to all be able to see Todoroki and Bakugo facing each other looking absolutely wrecked. Bakugo looked the worse-off of the two, but he was also grinning madly for some reason and looked again like he was really into this villain part. Bakugo pointed his hands down at his sides, twitching his fingers and making explosions blast off of them over and over again without effort. He was sweating out so much nitroglycerin-like sweat that he wasn't feeling slowed at all. On the other hand, he had just shouted a taunt at Todoroki that his ice was too slow for him to even waste explosions on anymore.

Even regulating the temperature, Todoroki thought, panting and lifting his left arm again to get rid of the frost accumulating on his right side. All the frost melted away, but he started panting harder as the heat filled up the room instead, his left hand glowing bright red and the floor on that side melting. I needed to make it much colder, in order for the explosion necessary to take you down. Todoroki was not letting himself get slower for no reason, and he started charging a blast that most of the students watching had only seen at the Sports Festival.

"He's going to blow up the entire Ground!" Ashido shouted, backing away from the walls ahead of her as she suddenly did not feel safe just being near the area anymore.

"Should we stop this?" All Might asked, glancing to his right at the other two.

Midnight hummed, but Aizawa said in a low and serious voice, "They have made it an entire year here." The other two looked in at him, as did the students behind him who were all surprised at what their homeroom teacher was saying. "To make them stop now would be saying that we don't trust them not to go too far. Do you think Todoroki has lost sight of what this battle really is?" Aizawa questioned.

"No," All Might responded without hesitation. "I also believe in our students." He looked back at the screen, and his eyes started opening wide. Bakugo was retreating, and yet Todoroki was not moving any faster. Bakugo knew what Todoroki was doing to let himself get caught up in that much frostbite, and his taunt at Todoroki getting slower was as much to make it seem like he did not know what was going on, as him telling Todoroki to do it now or he would catch on for sure. Todoroki did not think it was either though, and he realized what Bakugo was doing, yet decided to fire his blast anyway. He knew Bakugo would catch on from the start, and he had planned on it as he could not just fire this attack at his classmate from point blank when Bakugo no longer had the gauntlets to let him create as massive explosions as he made earlier.

The only thing the teachers had said through the fight was All Might warning Bakugo not to injure himself right after he used the second gauntlet. He already knew All Might was watching though, and the teacher and former number one hero had warned him about it before. As Bakugo ran off, he shouted into his earpiece, "Where's the flag?! It better still be up there!"

"It's not, but I have it, with me," Zach said, as he walked down a hallway on the second floor. He entered into a large room and his eyes opened wide at the craters all over the place, destroyed and smoldering furniture, holes in the wall, and a big opening in the floor. Zach dropped down to his knees after stumbling into the room, then he crawled over to a turned-over couch that was almost ripped in half, and he pulled half of it towards himself as he scooted to a wall. We should have moved the flag from the start. The teachers haven't said a thing about it. Maybe it's because the others took it first, so it's not like we hid it somewhere they wouldn't be able to find. Could one of them find me? Zach leaned his back up against the couch, and he took in a deep breath, only for that breath to catch in his throat as a massive explosion went off downstairs. "What the hell?!" Zach shouted.

He put his hands over his head, and he coughed a couple of times while clenching his eyes shut in the shaking building. His eyelids slammed closed, and he felt his entire body shaking as he sat there with his back against the couch. With his eyes closed, he saw himself inside a warehouse with Dabi and Spinner on his right, and Toga and Twice on his left. There were thirty people in front of him, and he was surrounded in a black aura with his eyes glowing red. "Tell them who you are." "My name, is REAPER!" Zach's eyes shot open and he shook it around, a smile coming to his face as he thought about where he really was. This is fun. This is just a training exercise. A game. I'm enjoying it! But, I enjoyed that too… didn't I? Zach's expression got dark, and then his eyes shot open wide as he heard something behind him.

"Zach?"

The voice was hoarse, hurt, and yet Zach held his own breath and his eyes opened huge.

"I heard, you shout," Midoriya's voice said on the other side of the couch, much closer to where Zach was than Zach knew the other boy thought he was. Midoriya stood on bare feet just on the other side of it, his head turning side to side. He had a black eye on the left side of his face, he was limping with his left half-burnt leg, and he was exhausted, but he started smiling as he looked around. He lifted his scarred right arm and wiped under his nose where a small trail of blood just started trickling. "Getting out of Bakugo's capture tape when I woke up was hard," Midoriya admitted. "I really wasn't expecting him to come at me from behind, but winning mattered more, than just having good fights."

Todoroki hummed to himself downstairs as he came to a stop instead of running around looking for Zach. Uraraka told them that Zach had the flag and was running with it, and Todoroki started into his headset, "Midoriya. Where are you? I'll come- nevermind-" Todoroki jumped backwards and swung his bloody right arm in front of him, wincing in pain even as he made an ice wall that Bakugo slammed his right hand into and blasted straight through. Todoroki stopped after jumping back though, jumping forwards instead right as Bakugo made it through the ice. Todoroki heated up his left side, melting the ice around him, but his right arm that was burnt and bloody was what swung in front of him and slammed a fist straight into Bakugo's face. Bakugo fired off an explosion into Todoroki's chest over his lifting left arm an instant after the other boy thought he got a powerful hit in, and the two of them flew off from each other, Bakugo slamming into the rest of Todoroki's ice wall he did not break, and Todoroki smashing into the ground ahead of Bakugo.

Bakugo started sliding down the ice wall, his eyes half-closed and feeling exhausted, burnt, cold, bruised, and cut-up. He almost grinned as he saw Todoroki lifting back up to his feet, again, like he kept doing. He almost made a taunt about how he could go all day, and he wanted to do just that, but he also heard what Midoriya said, which meant that he could hear it over his own teammate's earpiece. He doesn't realize how close Zach is to him. Bakugo lifted an arm like he was wiping under his nose of some wet and dry blood, and he spoke into his arm so Todoroki would not know why he was speaking softly, "Don't let Deku see you."

Zach heard Bakugo's voice in his ear, and he smirked on the other side of the couch. Zach pulled out a knife, the last weapon he had on him, and he stood up from behind the couch. "Too late," Zach said. I'm having too much fun, to just hide. It would be as unfair as covering it in Death, if I just hid the flag now. Midoriya turned his head sideways as he was facing the opposite direction as the couch that was pulled almost up against the wall behind him, and the curly-green-haired boy's eyes opened wide as Zach lifted the flag in one hand and a knife in the other. Zach let go of most of the flag so he was only holding on by a piece, then he spun his hand around a few times to wrap the flag around his left bloody knuckles before curling that wrapped left hand into a fist and lifting it in a fighting stance.

"I'm almost out," Uraraka's voice said in her teammates' ears. "I've got one foot- no way!"

Mineta staggered up on his feet, his head partially bowed and a shadow covering the top of it. "You don't seem to understand, Uraraka," Mineta said in a serious voice. She had thought he was knocked out for sure, but he got up and wobbled back and forth like he was unsteady on his feet.

Zach jumped up on top of the couch, and Bakugo smirked ear to ear while lowering his arms and blowing explosions off his palms. Mineta snapped his head up with a completely serious look on his face, and he yelled, "I am going to tie you up for sure! This is my Plus Ultra!"

Mineta sprinted forward. Zach jumped towards Midoriya who bent one leg and then even the other despite him limping with it. Midoriya filled himself with Full Cowling, while Uraraka bent down and picked back up the flag post. Todoroki sprinted to a close distance and stomped his right leg forward to create a spike of ice to capture Bakugo in, and Bakugo put his right hand and left hand together with one curled for a precise AP Shot.

"Time up!"

Zach fell forward on Midoriya, pulling both arms back while Midoriya stopped attempting to jump. The two of them fell on the ground, while Mineta passed-out with a look of despair on his face upstairs, and Uraraka fell to her butt panting as she did not realize how worried she was until Mineta was unconscious. Todoroki froze and the spike that just started came to a stop before Bakugo, while Bakugo pulled his arms away from each other fast and canceled out his explosion with only small blasts coming out of his palms instead. A disappointed look came to Bakugo's face for a second that he could not blast through that ice straight on, but a smirk spread on it a second later as Midnight's voice continued, "Villain team wins!"

"NOOOO!" Iida shouted upstairs, while still stuck in a very uncomfortable and helpless position. His voice echoed around the fortress, and he was the only person able to shout that loudly, as the only person not covered in injuries.

"YEah," Bakugo yelled, his voice cracking halfway through and his hands dropping down to his knees. His body hunched over and he was panting, but with a big smirk on his face. He lifted his eyes and looked through the ice at Todoroki on the other side who dropped his arms to his sides, panting too but without the smile. Todoroki lifted his head and looked at the ceiling, then he grimaced and tssked, looking away in a disappointed way. "Take, that…" Bakugo dropped down to a knee, and he started shaking his head around while looking at the floor. No way. Deku and the half-and-half bastard aren't unconscious. Bakugo blasted some explosions out of his right hand he put on the floor, shaking himself out of it and helping push himself back to his feet.

Zach rolled off of Midoriya and lay on his back next to his friend, both of them panting in exhausted ways. "Good thing, the time, just ran out," Zach said. He stared up at the ceiling and cracked a small grin as Midoriya turned his head towards him. "You were totally, about to kick my ass," Zach said, and he grinned even more before laughing. He laughed, then coughed, then he laughed again and lifted up his left hand with the flag wrapped around it. "WOOHOO-ack-ka, ack!" He coughed a couple of times, but then he started laughing after his cheer of victory.

Outside the gates of Ground Omega, the other students started cheering. A lot of them had been nervous through the fight that it was going to go too far, but they were all happy to see the villain team win. It had seemed like there was an advantage for the heroes, and the heroes had even gotten their hands on the flag multiple times. Yaoyorozu stopped clapping and she let out a breath of relief as she stared at the screen with Midoriya and Zach laying on their backs on it. The two of them started getting up, both looking a little wobbly, but then they started helping each other stand and she smiled even more at the sight of it.

Sero shook his head a couple of times once he stopped cheering. He turned to Kaminari and said, "I didn't even notice the time limit was about to run out. Man, that was so intense." He sweat a little more and then added, "Good thing all of them went in the first round."

After Sero said it, he looked past Kaminari at Kirishima who was shaking excitedly and still cheering. He looked so much more hyped now than he was even before the match, and Sero gulped as he thought about the one person left out there whose team he wanted to be sure to get on.

The whole class had unknowingly moved a lot closer to the screens through the fight, and they finally all leaned back away from them. Tokoyami grinned and he turned to Shoji who flexed his arms, both of them feeling motivated after watching that battle. Hagakure turned to Ojiro and said in an excited tone how much fun this seemed, even if she did hope they didn't wind up getting injured like the others. After Hagakure mentioned it, Aizawa sighed and turned to the other two teachers, asking which of them wanted to call Recovery Girl and let her know how capture the flag went. Midnight called not doing it quickly, and All Might looked back and forth at them with wide eyes before sighing and accepting the horrifying duty.

On the far left side of the group, Ashido turned next to her after calming down a little from the epic end to the fights. She had kind of hoped those last clashes would have happened though, maybe with the exception of Mineta. She turned next to her and got a more thoughtful look while facing the taller girl at her side. "Yao-momo," Mina Ashido began. The busty black-haired girl looked to her right at her pink friend, and Ashido asked, "Does Zach get stronger when he uses that dark form thing? It seemed like he might," she hesitated and looked back at the screen and the boy limping on it alongside Midoriya, the two of them talking and laughing about something. She smiled seeing them laughing, and then she turned back and said to Momo who had a more thoughtful look on her face now, "But he really looked like he hurt himself falling out that window."

"I can't believe he cut the flag," Sero said, turning left to the girls next to him on his other side as Kaminari. He laughed and added, "I think he thought Uraraka was trying to pull the flag away from him."

"I just can't believe Mineta stopped Iida," Kaminari said, turning left himself and shaking his head in shock. "That's gotta sting Iida's pride. And well," Kaminari looked back and the rest of them did too and stared at Iida's bent backwards body with his hands stuck to his own blocked-up calves. He started yelling out for someone to get him out of that, and all of them sweatdropped, realizing themselves that getting him out of that was not such a simple task.

"I'll get him," Aizawa said, and all the students turned to their teacher who scratched the side of his face while walking towards the open Ground Omega gates. Didn't think with that random match-up things would work out like this. Work out… Aizawa walked into the open area between the gates and the fortress, and he had to pause while looking at the exterior of the building alone. Todoroki's huge explosion had ripped an entire section of wall off the first floor, there were holes all over the ceiling just inside the closest entrance straight ahead of him, and there were holes around a lot of the walls on every floor. Isn't this a little much? He thought, a bead of sweat on his face too. "Midnight," he said, putting a hand to his earpiece. "While All Might calls Recovery Girl, mind getting Cementoss over here?"

"Haha, I can do that," Midnight said, admitting herself while looking at all the different screens how much that seemed to be needed.

Yaoyorozu listened as the others she was talking to excitedly discussed the different things that happened during the fight, but she was thinking on what Ashido asked her a minute ago. …but, he still seemed to have hurt his legs. Both times too. Although he was able to break out of the ice, he shook his legs off afterwards. They were even worse after the fall. He managed to jump at Midoriya at the end though. I don't know- I'll just ask him during whatever round I am not in myself. Yaoyorozu smiled at the idea of it, and then she thought, Hopefully they can all watch the next rounds.

---

After school on Friday, the students of Class A were all hanging out in the common room together. The energy was up from the day's activities, and they were still talking about capture the flag in such excited tones. Even though they knew it was unlikely they would get the chance to do it again, any time soon at least, most of them were talking about "next time I'm going to…" or "I'll get you next time!"

Kirishima stood near Ojiro in the kitchen, arguing with the boy with the thick tail who was leaning away with a bead of sweat on the side of his face, but grinning anyway. "You're right," Ojiro agreed. "I couldn't break through Unbreakable at all. I didn't really want to see though, just get you away from the flag-"

"But you were on the hero team," Kirishima argued back. "A hero's gotta be straightforward! That was tricky! I didn't think you'd jump right over me-"

"You're just upset because you let our flag get stolen," Jirou said across the counter, and Kirishima spun her way before crossing his arms with an annoyed humph. "If Koda wasn't there, you would have lost the game for us."

Koda leaned back a few feet behind Jirou and waved his hands in front of him as Kirishima looked over. Kirishima grinned though instead of getting annoyed at Koda, even while Ojiro grimaced and rubbed the side of his head. Ojiro rubbed right over where he could feel the pecking of the birds that attacked him as soon as he came out of the fortress, one of which had stolen the flag away from him while he waved his arms at them.

"I can't believe you let birds beat you," Sato remarked from the edge of the kitchen, though he sounded less disappointed and more like he was holding back laughter.

Ojiro sweatdropped more, then felt a reassuring pat on the back from a girl he could not see behind him. "Today just wasn't the heroes' day," Hagakure said as Ojiro turned to her. "I was so surprised though. I had no idea Yao-momo could be such a scary villain."

"Even if it was just her versus all of you," Jirou remarked with a laugh over the counter. "The villains still would have won."

Kaminari sighed on Jirou's other side at the next table down. "You're totally right. I can't believe not a single hero made it to the flag room. All I heard was screaming and cannon fire going off around the whole building." He crossed his arms and let out a nervous shiver, "It was pretty spooky."

"If Recovery Girl had let us go as hard as those guys did on the first round, I would have won for sure," Kirishima said, looking back at Ojiro.

"Oh, you were holding back huh?" Ojiro asked, smiling again as he shifted thoughts from being attacked by birds to how he outmaneuvered Kirishima again. "Didn't seem like that when you started up your Super Move-"

"You were going all out! And I was more worried about Aoyama's laser…"

Around the corner of the common room, past the couches where others were sitting and talking about their own rounds or each other's, past the front door of the building and over in the stairwell, Zach leaned back on the second floor platform of the stairs. He had thought the boy in front of him would actually be in a good mood, and maybe a good mood with him because they were on the same team after all. Bakugo just glowered at Zach from up close though while they were the only two on the staircase. It was the first time the two of them were alone since the training earlier in the day, and Bakugo thought back on what had been bothering him all day as much as he enjoyed the rest of the game.

"'Think, constantly?'" Bakugo questioned.

Zach's eyes started widening, then shot open huge. Was Bakugo- holy crap he was there when I first heard that! I didn't realize. Why didn't I realize? It's because…

"That's what All For One said, while he was fighting All Might," Bakugo said, his voice low and threatening and accusing Zach of something.

Zach got a bead of sweat on the side of his face at what he was thinking about more than what Bakugo said. It's because, I don't even think about how it's All For One who said it the first time. Not anymore. It's become, my own. "Is it, bad advice?"Zach asked.

Bakugo's eyes widened at Zach's response, as he expected the boy in front of him to try denying it or giving some sort of excuse. He actually did not know why he was bringing it up at all, but it annoyed him to no end for a big reason. "You quoted a villain," Bakugo said, "right after saying, what All Might said. Breaking out of a tight pinch, and thinking constantly. Saying those things together," Bakugo grit his teeth and he glared harder at the black-haired boy in front of him who was four inches shorter than him.

Zach lost his hesitant look, his sweatdrop, and the anxious feeling he had when Bakugo was not actually in a good mood like he assumed when he said 'hey' while walking down the stairs from his room. "You're right, I quoted a villain," Zach said. His voice got quieter and his eyes darted down the steps, towards the second floor hallway, then to the stairs behind him. He darted them right back into Bakugo's eyes and added, "But All For One wasn't dumb. I know, that you know the past behind him." Bakugo's eyes opened huge and he leaned back from Zach at the sound of that. Zach lightened up his harsh and serious expression once Bakugo stopped glaring, and he continued, "I know it too now."

"Deku told you-"

"It doesn't matter," Zach said, not wanting to throw his friend under the bus. The fact that he knew that Bakugo knew as well though meant it could only be Midoriya or All Might, which he realized and cursed himself for since he originally just planned to act like he had learned with the villains. "Anyway," Zach continued, getting back on track, "We know All For One existed a long time before us. He was one of the smartest people in the world, and he was running all the League of Villains' schemes behind the scenes. So I want to be able to think like that guy," Zach said, and Bakugo's eyes narrowed in more but did not look that angry this time. "To hopefully be able to figure out what he's planning." Sounds good. Really I just think it makes sense. It's a calming, two-word phrase. Think, constantly. Whenever I start panicking, or get in a fight and lose track of my surroundings, I just need to think for a second. Hanging out of that window, if I had panicked that I was almost about to fall, I might have lost the flag. If seeing Todoroki chilled me too much, he would have gotten the flag sooner and gotten out of there before Bakugo had time to catch back up.

"He's in jail," Bakugo said. He frowned more at Zach for his excuse, though he was not as bugged by the initial idea as he was before talking to him.

Zach's expression got much darker as Bakugo said that though, and Bakugo's eyes widened as Zach said, "Wonder if he'll be there forever?" He lifted his head fast after saying it, to see Bakugo staring at him with wide eyes that Zach actually thought that. Zach grimaced and almost took it back to say of course he did not expect All For One to ever get free, but he stopped himself from doing so. Instead he thought back to the question Principal Nezu asked him after his report the day before. "World-destroying Quirks," Zach said in a low whisper. "It didn't seem too far in the future when the principal asked me about it yesterday. But the chance of someone training that power is one in a million, and the chance of that person also being a villain, is also one in a million, so the chances of it ever happening like that are tiny." Bakugo got confused at what Zach was bringing this up for, but Zach continued, "Yet it doesn't seem that far in the future if All For One gets out." Zach pursed his lips for a second, then he whispered faster, "Because it isn't about them training it, or them turning out to be a villain, when All For One could just take that power. An evil mastermind with the ability to steal powers. As long as he's still alive, I seriously think there's a chance he can destroy the world."

"You're overthinking it," Bakugo snapped, making Zach lean back with wider eyes now. "He's arrested. That's the end of it. Got it?"

Zach hesitated after Bakugo's final 'Got it,' and he thought, Is he trying to get me to be less paranoid? That's pretty nice of him. I think you're wrong Bakugo. I think he could get a Quirk that tells him others' Quirks, or helps him locate the exact Quirk he wants, and if he's had enough of trying to rule this world from the shadows, maybe he'll just destroy it. "Y-Yeah, you're right," Zach said, shaking his head and lifting his left hand to scratch the back of it. "Well I'm going downstairs," Zach said, turning to continue his way down. "Nice job winning it for us today," Zach finished while walking off.

Bakugo had an annoyed look on his face, mainly because that smile he saw felt as fake as Zach's agreement with what he had said. Bakugo frowned more that Zach still thought All For One was a huge threat, and he wondered in annoyance why Deku or All Might would tell him, but he said aloud as he walked for the stairs up instead of down, "It wasn't just me."

Zach stopped almost at the bottom of the steps and spun his head with wide eyes. Bakugo was not in his line of sight though, so after a second Zach felt fine with smiling while knowing it would not piss him off. It wasn't, but I didn't think you'd ever agree with that. Thanks, Bakugo.

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A/N Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! I put You Say Run on a loop while I wrote this chapter and imagined the fight in my head, anyway I just had a fun time. Hope y'all thought it was intense and liked the battles as well as Zach's talk with Bakugo at the end. Delved a little more into Zach's Quirk here and it's been a few months (story-wise) since we've really seen it with Zach training it the whole time and training his body too. Leave a review below telling me what you think of the chapter, predictions for upcoming ones, comments, questions, suggestions, etc. Have some fun arcs in mind coming up, and I just finished the next arc from 50-53. Review responses:

10toaster chapter 48 . 15h ago

I really liked your take on the quirk laws in this chapter. I hadn't really thought too much about what changes could be made to the hero society, but I think you did a great job finding a solution to the problems found in BNHA's society. I've been following this fic for a few weeks and I have to say that it's probably my favorite fan fiction of all time, so keep up the good work!

Thanks! I hadn't really thought about it much either, but I had the idea for Zach talking about this kind of stuff and decided on the report idea so he'd have a reason to go into his thoughts on it. I've thought there were some things off about the Quirk society since I started watching Boku no Hero, 'cause if I was in that world I'd be using my super-power all the time which would get me in trouble but I mean, how do you not? I'm really glad you've been liking and keeping up with the story, and knowing it's one of if not your fav fanfiction really pumps me up! Gonna get to work on Ch. 54 right now, but anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for the review!

Guest chapter 48 . 11h ago

With the end of material, are there plans for original story arcs, or just focusing on character development. I'm personally fine with either.

Both! Time for some new arcs, but it'll keep developing for sure. Feel like big events and arcs can be great at affecting character development instead of just normal school life, so expect 'em both in the coming chapters! Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you enjoyed!