02.02.2020

Hey it's two-two-twenty-twenty. I find this date funny, don't know why. Maybe it's currently 2 AM and I'm writing instead of sleeping? Naaah...

Also, a big shoutout (or at least as big as can be without waking everyone up) to:

hiraishin101 - I'm glad that you like the story and I hope that I won't dissapoint you ;D

and Scarease - Broken english but hey! no one is perfect! I very much appreciate your ideas. Also... Villain with Magnetic or Hacking Quirk? I think that something along those lines could be arranged ;D

Enjoy the chapter everyone!

"Have you finished analyzing the data we collected via the neural link?"

"Yes boss, but… you're not gonna like it"

Two people, both wearing white lab coats were staring at a computer screen. The one sitting in front of it opened a folder and pulled up a few photos.

"On the left is the MRI image of a brain belonging to a person with an active Quirk. On the right, is the MRI of our lab rat"

The images were similar, since they both came from males of human species. But the brain on the left had a few additional neural pathways.

"I thought we hardwired the needed neural connection during the last surgery", mused the scientist, who currently was pacing around the room.

"We did, but the brain, and our subject, seem to not notice the pathways. They are there, but inactive. I could go in detail about all of this, but I know that you like short answers, so I will go straight to the point. He is NOT going to awaken the Quirk on his own", the last sentence was spoken as their eyes met.

"How is the mutated tissue doing?"

With a heavy sigh the seated scientist spun back towards the screen and closed the photos, before pulling out a chart. "Given the condition it was in when we implanted it, very well. From our point of view? Not good. I would give it about… a week, before it starts to die off or worse, assimilating the cells around it", the man stood up and walked over to his colleague. "We have no time Richie, the boy has no time, we need to act. Have you forgotten the bigger picture?"

"No, no I haven't. You know that this is not by any stretch of the imagination a good idea or even legal, right? I guess… we really have no choice. If so, then let's kill two birds with one stone", he pulled out his phone and dialed a number. The call was about to go into voicemail, when a tired voice answered.

"Who the bloomin' fuck is this?"

"Is that the way to talk to your superiors?", he had an important matter to discuss, but respect was something he earned and he would do everything to keep it by reminding those who seemed to forget.

"N-no sir. S-sorry boss. Is there anything you need my help with?", there was a muffled scream and a curse before the other man started speaking.

"Actually, yes. Our Magnum Opus is running out of time and you're the one who will push it forward"

"R-really? I'm grateful for the opportunity!"

"Don't be. It's not an opportunity, it's a challenge. Fail and there will be consequences", and with that he ended the call. "Just you wait Izuku Midoriya, your path to greatness shall soon make itself known…"

The Hero Course students entered their classroom without much energy. Christmas holidays were only two weeks away and the atmosphere of it all was very noticeable around the campus. Their upperclassman have already started decorating their dorms. The most decorated one was the building that housed 3-A and 3-B. The freshmen had no idea why the left side was lit up 24/7 with blue, yellow and purple lights, but the effect was kinda neat, so they didn't pay too much attention to it.

What they did pay attention however was their homeroom teacher entering the classroom. He seemed more lively than usual. Most of the time it wasn't a very good sign.

"Are we going to do a week long hellish training montage with lifting weights and running up the stairs of some public library?!"

"Do they plan to make it so that we won't have energy to celebrate Christmas at all?!"

"Why are the girls in our class so hot?!"

Just to name a few of the questions that lingered in the students' heads. Aizawa took a seat at his desk and spoke up.

"I have news for you kids. Tomorrow we're going to the USJ", he announced and waited for the denser students to react. He loved crushing childish dreams. Damn… That's… kinda fucked up, not gonna lie.

"Universal Studios Japan?!", yelled Kaminari and immediately stood up, his chair landing on the floor in the process.

"I meant the Unforeseen Simulation Joint", his maniacal dream was clearly visible, even through his capture weapon. "I love my job…"

"Why didn't you start with that?!", shouted Kaminari again and sat down. But he kinda forgot that the chair was on the ground and was brutally reminded of that fact, when he joined it on the floor.

This quick show of stupidity got a few laughs out of the 1-A students, but they soon settled down and focused on what Aizawa had to say.

"Glad to see some improvements. Back to the topic. The USJ is a special facility on campus, where most of the specialized rescue training is held. It was built specifically for this purpose and aims to simulate all the random situations you might find yourself in at some point in your hero carrier"

Aizawa made a quick pause and pulled something from his pockets. It was a small tube with some liquid inside. It turned out to be eye drops, if the fact that he put some of it in both of his eyes was anything to go by. He also muttered something along the lines of 'stupid eyesore' and shoved the item back into his pocket. By this time Kaminari managed to get up from the floor and sit on his chair.

"The USJ is divided into several zones, each one simulating a different disaster. There's the Downpour Zone, Ruins Zone, Landslide Zone and Conflagration Zone, just to name a few. Up to this point all you were doing was growing in strength and improving your skills. You had the chance to see what your Quirk can do in a fight. Now is the time to learn how to precisely control your Quirk, so that you would be able to safely use it in case of an emergency. That's all for today. Go to your classes. We meet here tomorrow at 9 AM. Don't be late. We are not American Marines. We leave people behind"

With the monologue finished, the hero trainees started standing up and making their way out of the classroom. Midoriya who was furiously writing in his notebook was one of the last people to leave.

"Hey Izuku", he heard a voice to his right, so he turned his head in its direction and saw Momo standing next to him.

"Hello to you too, Momo", since the charity ball a week ago they got quite a bit more relaxed around each other. They would usually walk together to or from school, unless one of them had something to do. Which with Midoriya visiting Hatsume quite frequently was a common occurrence.

He paid her a visit yesterday, still had no idea how she managed to get the keys to the workshop on Sunday though, and ended up staying a bit longer than he should. Which in turn led to him being almost late to class today. Almost.

"Sorry for not joining you in the morning, I overslept", he admitted and scratched his cheek with a smile.

"It's not a big deal", she answered and changed the topic. "What were you writing in your notebook?"

"Well, I've heard about the famous USJ, but never actually read anything about it, so I made some notes on Aizawa's lecture to see if I can somehow prepare myself for the exercise", his eyes sparkled a bit at the question, which he was more than eager to answer.

"Always prepared?", Momo joked and chuckled.

"Well, I need to use every opportunity to get ahead of you guys", he said back and smiled before standing up. "Let's go, we don't want to be late to Midnight's class"

The time flew for the teenagers as the news about a new aspect of their training seemed to invigorate them quite a bit. With newfound energy, they breezed through the rest of Monday and went to sleep in order to be well rested and ready for the challenge that awaited them tomorrow. They met with Aizawa in the classroom where he told them that they can take their costumes with them if they wanted.

Midoriya personally had nothing against taking his, since he could always take off the coat and the reinforced pants, boots and shirt could me useful in case anything wanted to fall down on top of him.

He saw that some of his classmates had similar thoughts as they grabbed their cases.

Class 1-A followed Aizawa outside where they realised something. It was going to be another joint training session between the members of 1-A and 1-B. Vlad King was already going over his list of students when Midoriya and his classmates joined the crowd.

"I see some confusion among you, so let me clarify something. In the last exercise you were pitted against each other, so we decided to let you cooperate this time, since in UA there's no place for some petty grudges", the Underground Pro Hero explained and then checked one last time if everyone was present.

After that, the students left their hero costumes in the trunk of the bus that would take them to the USJ, since apparently, walking there would take up valuable time and Aizawa was having none of that. In this moment a sudden realization crashed down upon the freshmen.

"How big is the UA campus if you need to travel via bus?!"

Very, very, VERY big. At least in this story.

The Class Representatives were tasked with keeping their classmates in order during the boarding. It didn't go well, so both Midoriya and Kendo basically settled for 'let them sit wherever' as they got on board themselves.

As luck, fate or the author of this story would have it Izuku found exactly one free sit next to Momo and they engaged in small talk which lasted the whole way to the USJ.

The students almost poured out of the buses as soon as they stopped. All of them excited for today. After they grabbed their cases they were led inside by their homeroom teachers. As soon as they were inside Uraraka let out a happy squeal.

"What happened?", asked Tsuyu, who was walking alongside her.

"It's the Space Hero: Thirteen!", she shouted and pointed forward with a wide grin.

They looked ahead and sure enough, there she was. Standing in the middle of the hallway in her hero costume.

"Hello students! My name's Thirteen and I'll be the leading teacher for today's exercise. Please, follow me inside where I will go into details about what we will be doing here", she then turned around and went down the hallway with students and teachers closely behind her.

When they entered the USJ proper they were utterly gobsmacked. It didn't look that big from the outside, but now it seemed comparable to the battle zone from their joint training exercise. It could even be bigger!

They immediately spotted the Conflagration Zone that Aizawa told them about yesterday due to the raging fire in the area. They also spotted the Ruins Zone which looked like Mt. Lady had a fight with her evil twin in a middle of a business district, the kind with high skyscrapers and densely packed buildings.

When a sudden thunder sounded right next to them they looked in its direction. There was a dome with the words 'Downpour Zone' written on it. Apparently the name was a bit misleading and there were also storms involved. Neat.

"So", Thirteen started and gathered everyone's attention. "let me welcome you officially to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint! It's no doubt the biggest facility on campus and for a good reason! It's here where our alumni's trained in the art of dealing with the aftermaths of natural disasters or exceptionally destructive Villain encounters", then she walked a couple of steps down towards the central plaza and motioned for the students to follow her.

"I'm sure that your teachers have already told you bits of information about the different sites in this facility, so we will divide you into groups and then start the exercise. You can feel free to ask questions if you have any", but, before anyone had a chance to say something the speaker system of USJ came to life.

"I have one, why is the most prestigious hero school in all of Japan and one of the most prestigious hero schools in the world holding out on security?!", the voice sounded all over the place thanks to the speakers placed around the USJ.

"Who are you?!", Aizawa shouted as he started looking around for the trespasser.

"You can call me High-Tech. With a dash in between the High and Tech", the person introduced themselves.

"Why won't you show up?!", the Erasure Hero shouted, still unable to spot anything out of the ordinary around him.

"With pleasure"

Then, a grey mist started gathering in a central point, just a few meters in front of them. When it reached a certain mass it started spinning, creating a circle of mist that started expanding until it was about two meters in diameter. From the mist stepped out a person in all black armor with various lights and switches on different spots of his suit. His face was covered fully by a grey helmet that had a glowing red visor and a screen where his mouth should be with a thin, green, horizontal line in the middle of it.

"Hello again, I'm High-Tech", the person spoke and the green line moved as he did so. "And I came here on a special mission"

"Oh yeah? You and what army?!", shouted Kaminari while standing most of his classmates.

"Glad you asked", the man said ominously and the portal behind him started expanding once again.

From the mist emerged new intruders, everyone clad in black armor with lights in various colors. What made them look differently from High-Tech was the lack of 'mouths'.

"You just had to say something, didn't you?", Jirou whispered to him as she smacked him with one of her jacks.

"We are the Technocracy and we wish to change the world for the better!", the leader announced as his minions took combat stances. "But let's make this more entertaining", he mumbled and looked to the intruder directly to his right, one that had a grey visor and lights on his armor.

Without even a single word, the mist behind them left its formation and fell to the ground. Not even a single second later the mist made its way rapidly towards the students. They had no chance of escaping it.

The last thing Midoriya remembered was a grey light.

The mist soon vanished, leaving only the members of the Technocracy standing. "Spread out and find them. Sleeper, you have a special assignment. Find Izuku Midoriya and drive him to the edge"

The intruders spread out quickly and went off in different directions in pairs. That left only High-Tech and his grey colored companion in the square.

"Now, let's see if this project has any future…"

Yay! the bad guys are here!

I mean, oh no! the bad guys are here! I hope you like the initial design for the Technocracy. Also, who is after Midoriya and why? I guess you'll have to come back another time to find out ;D

Until then, share your thoughts, opinions and ideas, while I finally get some shut eye! ;D