"Again!"
With a small grunt of effort, Katsuki Bakugo rose from the training room floor, shouting to the partner he'd been assigned.
They'd been sparring for the last hour, and though Katsuki's tank top was drenched in sticky explosive sweat, he didn't pay any attention to that. They still had time before class, and he needed this.
At first, he'd been annoyed with the girl, but it had only taken that first day for him to realize she was the ultimate challenge.
Said partner was currently still floating in the air, looking at him with concern on her green face. It pissed Katsuki off.
"Alright," M'gann M'orzz replied, her chipper voice tempered with reluctance.
With that consent given, Katsuki got into proper position, leaning forward with his hands behind him, and set off an explosion using his Quirk to fly through the air in her direction. The Martian girl reached out with one open hand and for a moment Katsuki felt an unseen force begin to take hold of him.
Just before it could really grab him, Katsuki extended one hand and let out a smaller blast, sending him out to one side and away from her telekinetic grasp. A few more explosions were needed to keep him airborne and on the move; she needed a good idea of where he was to use her power, so he had to keep agile.
All of this was taking its toll, and Katsuki could feel the strain he was putting on his body. But that was just the price of getting stronger.
Finally, once she was having an issue keeping an eye on him, he detonated one last blast and did the unexpected: retreating behind one of the room's rock columns.
Once out of her sight, Katsuki fought the pain flaring throughout his body, concentrated in his sweat glands. He wasn't an idiot, he knew his Quirk had at best one explosion's worth of sweat left in him right now, but Katsuki also knew how to use it.
His route took him all over the room, circling back on his old trails until finally he saw M'gann floating in the air, her back to him. Smirking in victory, he let out one large blast to send him at her, ready to tackle M'gann and pin her to win the match.
But before he'd even crossed half the necessary distance, she turned around and grabbed him with her mind, immobilizing him mid-air.
[M'GANN M'ORZZ/MISS MARTIAN! NO QUIRKS WITH HER, BECAUSE SHE ISN'T HUMAN! THAT'S RIGHT, ALIENS WALK AMONG US, AND THEY'RE SAVING LIVES AND LOOKING REALLY CUTE! THANKS TO HER ALIEN BIOLOGY, SHE CAN FLY AROUND, READ MINDS, MOVE THINGS WITH HER BRAIN, SHAPESHIFT, AND TURN INTANGIBLE! BUT DON'T FEAR, OUR NEIGHBORS FROM THE NEXT PLANET OVER HAVE A PRETTY BIG WEAKNESS: FIRE! -Present Mic]
Unable to help himself, Katsuki started swearing like a sailor as he was gently lowered to the ground. I'm sorry Bakugo, it was a really good try.
M'gann's voice was in his head, and without thinking first he snapped at her. "I told you not to do that!" The shout made her flinch, which just made Katsuki angrier.
It wasn't that he hated her or anything, Katsuki just found the idea of someone being in his head...uncomfortable. "How'd you know I was there, anyway?" he asked that in a more measured voice.
Katsuki was trying his best not to make her think he was more upset than he actually was. Apparently that was an issue he had with people, something Katsuki could only chalk up to other people being freaking morons for not being able to read him better.
M'gann perked up right away, following Katsuki as he started to walk out of the training room. "So, at first I had no clue where you were, but then I reached out with my mind...not that I read it or anything, because you told me you don't want me to do that! But I could still feel it, and that's how I knew where you were. But if I hadn't thought of that, you definitely would have gotten me for sure!"
The babbling was weirdly familiar to Katsuki, only realizing as they left the building that she was reminding him of damn Deku. Talked like crazy, green, way too concerned for Katsuki...definitely similar.
Ever after Katsuki's fight with the nerd, he was still trying to actually understand and internalize that Deku had never been pitying him, that he had actually just cared about Katsuki and looked up to him.
That was why, regardless of how hard it was, he was avoiding repeating the same mistakes with M'gann. As much as she pissed him off sometimes, she was also a pretty great choice for him, even if he didn't want to admit that out loud. Her telekinesis and flying was a perfect counter to Katsuki's aggressive style of combat, making close combat much more difficult.
Of course, Katsuki had to be careful with his explosions. It was made clear to him by Eraserhead and Nightwing that if the heat from his explosions was too high, he could actually hospitalize M'gann, or worse. Small explosions were still okay, and they worked wonders at countering her damn overpowered intangibility, but for the most part he had to rely on his hand-to-hand skills in close quarters. When he could actually get that close.
That all added up to sparring every day. It gave Katsuki a chance to fight an unusual opponent whose powers made his usual approach less viable. It gave M'gann someone who made her think on her feat and react quickly.
Students from both classes were given free reign to use the Quirk Training Room as much as they wanted to make the best of their time together. But as far as Katsuki could see he and the Martian were the only ones taking real advantage of it.
More evidence that everyone else were complete idiots.
Class was almost over for the day, and Tara Markov couldn't be more ready. It wasn't like these teachers were worse than the ones back home or anything, class was still class.
Mr. Grayson was teaching them for the last period, and she hadn't been paying attention...until he spoke up and said, "Attention everyone, this is something you'll actually care about."
Whatever else that could be said about Mr. Grayson, Tara did have to give it to him that he was pretty relaxed, and understood how little some of his class cared about regular schooling. Probably because he was still so young himself. "Tomorrow is the first of your joint training activities with the UA kids, so your classes will be cancelled from noon onwards."
That got people muttering, but with no one else speaking up, Tara raised her hand. "Mr. Grayson, can you let us know what exactly this activity will be?" She gave the question the works: fluttering eyelashes, the perfect head tilt, an innocuous expression. She was giving him the picture of a curious, if a little vapid, student.
From the friendly smile she got back from him, Tara was sure she'd succeeded. "Great question. All I can say for now is that it'll be combat related, and you'll be working in your teams-" Just as he got the last word out, the bell rang. "Well, looks like that's all we had time for anyway. Have a good rest of your days, train hard! Get a lot of sleep! Always use protection!"
That got a laugh from the class, and hearing them all laugh made Mr. Grayson's smile a little brighter.
Tara had barely gotten out of the classroom when she heard, "Hey Tara!" from behind her in a bright, bubbly voice.
Keeping a smile on her face while letting out a sigh internally, Tara turned to see her assigned partner walking up to her, still wearing her school uniform.
Well, maybe 'see' wasn't the best word, considering said girl was invisible.
"Ready to head out?"
Tara nodded, wishing desperately she could say no.
Toru Hagakure had set it up beforehand: that Wednesday afternoon they were hitting the city after school: shopping, going to an arcade, dinner at a ramen place, the works. Hagakure was pretty forceful with her kindness in getting what she wanted.
Tara smiled through the whole thing, not letting the girl see for a moment how much she hated her.
As the sun was setting and they walked back inside the school grounds, Tara could hear in Toru's voice that she was smiling. "That was so fun! You're the best partner ever, Tara!"
"No, you're the best, Toru!"
From day one, the girl had insisted to Tara that she should use her first name, that was how quickly she'd imprinted onto Tara.
As they went back to their dorms, Tara feigned shock. "Oh man, I just realized I left a notebook in my classroom! I should go get it before they're all locked up!" Toru believed the lie hook, line, and sinker, and once Tara saw the uniform without a body heading back towards the dorms, Tara let the mask drop, a scowl settling on her face.
It hadn't taken a lot of investigating to find where the school stored the hard copies of its records. Namely, in the basement. It was almost like they were begging Tara to break in.
Once Tara was outside the main school building, she walked the perimeter until she found an area with bare soil on the ground, and no security in sight. With an effort of her Quirk, Tara opened up the ground beneath her feet and fell into the hole she'd made, then sealed up the entrance behind her, so no one could tell it had been disturbed.
[TARA MARKOV/TERRA! HER QUIRK: GEOFORCE! WITH THE ABILITY TO CONTROL THE STUFF THE EARTH IS MADE OF, SHE CAN THROW HUGE BOULDERS AT HER ENEMIES, FLY AROUND ON A ROCK SHE'S STANDING ON, OR TUNNEL THROUGH DIRT! -Present Mic]
She had to be careful as she slowly moved forward.
Not only did she need to open the path up ahead of her as she closed it behind her, while also holding the dirt above her to make sure it didn't collapse, but she also had to open up small holes to the surface every so often, to let in enough air for her to breathe.
It took less than ten minutes for her to locate and reach the cement wall barring her entry from the records room. Luckily for her, cement was earth-y enough for her to manipulate. She opened the wall up like a door and used some of the dirt, hardened and flattened, as a rock to float on.
Without touching the floor, Tara went through the filing cabinets, using her phone camera to photograph every page. It took a few hours just to do four cabinets worth of documents, but there was no need to rush.
After all, she could continue the next night. And the night after that.
Using a throw-away email address, she sent the photos to her boss and deleted them, before leaving the room without even a trace that she'd been there. It genuinely made Tara smile to think that not a single moron in her class, or UA, knew the sweet little blonde girl was a mole for the Legion of Doom.
