On the day of the second training exercise, Avery Ho was the first awake, and she made sure that her team was the first to the classroom they'd been told to meet up at. They were all glaring at her with varying levels of annoyance at being awake on a Monday at 6am, but Avery couldn't do more than give them a vague apology. She was practically vibrating on the spot, excited for them to be the first to complete the next test.
It was crazy to think it had already been a week since they'd all arrived in Japan. Avery had been having a pretty great time, and fresh off her win in the Combat test, she wanted to kick ass in the investigation as well. After all, she and her classmates had done tons of these exact kind of simulations, while the UA students had next to no practice with investigating, from what she could tell. Another thing to lord over Iida once she'd gotten a better score than him.
Over the next hour, the other teams from both schools and their homeroom teachers, as well as Ms. Clay, had all assembled in the assigned empty classroom. Sitting on one end was what Avery had expected. It was a set of five cylindrical chambers, just large enough to hold a person, the inside covered in cushioning and with restraints put into the walls. On one end, there was a chair with a headset hanging above it, and all of it was connected to a portable supercomputer. The last piece of the set-up was the monitor, large enough for everyone in the class to get a good view on what happened.
All the Japanese kids in the class were looking at this set-up like it was something crazy, but Avery and her fellow Titans were well acquainted with the device. Luckily, Mr. Grayson stepped forward and cleared his throat, ready to explain. "Morning, everyone! Today is your second Joint Training Exercise, and this time you'll be focusing on Investigation. Now, I'm aware that UA spends a lot less time on the subject compared to Titans University, and that's part of why we do this exchange." Then, he paused, and Avery noticed he was looking at Iida, focused and alert, with his hand raised. "Yes, Iida?"
With accompanying hand motions, Iida began to speak. "Excuse me, but I have a question! As Profession Heroes, are investigative skills going to be required? After all, the police department will be handling that aspect of criminal justice, will they not?" There was a lot of murmurs of agreement from UA students at his words.
Their own teacher, Mr. Aizawa, took the floor to answer the question. "You are correct that, in comparison to American heroes, we do leave more of the investigation aspects of a case to the police department. We work hand-in-hand with the police, while in America they largely leave Quirk-based crimes to heroes. That said, I can testify from personal experience that knowing how to read a situation and do your own investigative work can mean the difference between the life and death of innocent civilians." The teacher said all this with the same cold, detached tone Avery normally heard him use, and it made even her nerves of steel bend, as she shivered a litle in her seat.
"Thanks for that explanation, Eraserhead," Mr. Grayson said with one of his charming, easy smiles. "Now, you might be wondering how we can practice or test your investigation skills, right? I mean, I enjoy a game of Clue as much as the next guy, but it's not really real-world experience." There were a few chuckles at that, but only a few. Unperturbed, Mr. Grayson turned to the large machine. "That's why Justice League telepaths developed this baby here. Anyone with any kind of telepathic abilities can use it to create a sort of controlled shared dream for the people in the tubes. We use it to put you all in developed, based in the real world, situations and see how you all do!" Then his eyes met Avery's. "Since they were so early, why don't we let Team Hard and Fast show you all how it works!"
From there, Avery and her team patiently went through all the necessary steps a lot slower than usual, so the whole class could see and understand them. Getting strapped in, Ms. Clay getting set up with her headset, them getting sealed in, then anesthetized, and then...
Suddenly, Team Hard and Fast were all in a hero agency building, their own personal hero team room at the school, and they were in their hero uniforms. There was a file on the table, and Avery quickly picked it up to read through it and explain the situation. It was weird, how easily and seamlessly their consciousnesses transferred from the real world to the dream one. It was similar to the transitions in dreams, how the setting can shift and change without the dreamer ever really noticing.
"Alright team, it seems the Legion of Doom have hidden high-yield explosive devices somewhere here in Coast City, but we don't know where, just that they look like this." She held up a photo from inside the file, showing a device that looked like a bright red briefcase, but covered in weird super science gizmos. Stephanie looked like she was about to suggest something, but Avery cut her off. "Well, I got this one." Then Avery gathered the Speed Force inside her body and zipped away.
When she was moving max speed, it was like time slowed down for her, allowing her to run through every building in the city, one by one, until she found the device. The found the darn thing in an abandoned building after less than a minute, which felt like about an hour in her relative time, then carried it with her to the team. "Got it! Investigation done, get us out of here!" With that, they were all brought back into reality and released from their chambers. Avery was feeling chipper about the record-time finish, but Mr. Aizawa was glaring at her, and even Mr. Grayson looked pretty annoyed.
"Congratulations on the quick finish. You just committed over a hundred counts of breaking and entering, considering you didn't get a warrant before searching those people's homes," the sleep-deprived teacher told her, clearly unhappy. "Speed is not everything, Ms. Ho. As heroes, we expect you to carry out tasks effectively and responsibly, not rashly."
Avery wanted to reply that is was a stupid simulation so that shouldn't count, anger and shame burning in her heart, but her own teacher started on her next. "Avery, you need to think about your teammates." Looking over at them, she saw they were all looking upset as well. "Stephanie has amazing skills with technology, and Jaime's xenotech could have helped as well. You're their leader, and you need to remember to take into account what they can do, instead of trying to do everything yourself." Then, he let out a long-suffering sigh and finished, "Head back to your seats, you'll get a full analysis of your simulation results in a few days."
"Everyone's in place, Midoriya. Should we send in Kaminari?" the message came, relayed from Uraraka to Jiro. She and Izuku were standing at the front door of a bank, where a villain and his crew had about twelve civilians and employees as hostages. Well, they were technically all just simulated people made by Ms. Clay, but that didn't matter. Izuku's mind had been racing since they were informed about the situation in the dream world, and instead of rushing in, he took his time.
He'd looked up the floorplan of the bank, which turned out to have an exit on the ceiling. He'd looked up the information they had on the villain, the Rainbow Raider. He was the eighth villain to take the name, and his Quirk allowed him to make rainbow bridges that he and allies could use to escape on. Clearly, he was hoping to use the rooftop exit, and would likely have one of his estimated six henchman stationed there.
Once they'd arrived at the bank, Izuku had told everyone the plan, and they worked on getting it ready together. Uraraka used her Quirk to send herself, Shoji, and Kaminari up to the roof, while Deku stayed outside the front entrance, and Jiro used her earjacks to listen to what happened inside the building and what was said on top of the roof by plugging into a wall. There were no criminals on the roof itself, so it was Shoji's turn. He used his tentacle arms to send an eye down a roof pipe, and from there he could see inside the second story hallway. There were three criminals there, guarding the door.
All of them, like their villain leader, were armed with pistols. This would be dangerous...but they were heroes. And Izuku had a plan. "Send Uraraka the sound signal, it's time to start." He'd been working with his team in the last week, training to figure out how everyone's Quirks worked, and finding new applications where he could. Jiro's earphone jacks could not only be used for surveillance, they could transmit small sounds to specific area when needed.
Suddenly, there was the sound of breaking glass, and Izuku knew the next part of the plan had started. Uraraka had made Kaminari weightless, which he had then used to descend slowly to the second story window and smash in, sending electricity flying in every direction, knocking out all the guards. Sadly, he was too zapped afterwards to open the door for everyone else, so Uraraka would have to float down herself and Shoji next, then tap out a signal on a wall. "The henchmen are out cold, and securely tied handcuffed. I can hear the villain inside too, he's about to send more people upstairs to check on the noise."
That was what Izuku was waiting for. Now, the villain's forces were weakened, distracted, and about to become divided. Once he sent up another signal, that more henchmen were on the way, Izuku had to believe that Uraraka and Shoji could take them out themselves. Just when the time was right, and he hoped the villain's focus was off of the hostages, he let One for All flow through his body, Full Cowl mode, and kicked the door down with his enhanced strength. Giving his best smile, without doing a full All Might facial impression, Izuku yelled, "Everyone stay calm, I am here!" Before barreling towards the villain, who was wearing a coat that looked like a rainbow had thrown up on it.
Both the villain and his remaining henchman tried to aim their guns at Izuku, but he was too fast for them, easily able to knock the guns out of their hands and handcuff them before either could stop him. That done, he and Jiro started escorting the hostages outside, and before too long Uraraka and her squad met up with them, bound henchman under control. The simulation ended once all the hostages were safe and the criminals given to the police.
Suddenly, Izuku was back in the confined tube, being taken out by Mr. Aizawa, who looked more bored than anything else. Still feeling the high of the adrenaline that had been flooding his body, Izuku shakily walked over to his seat, but with a smile on his face. The rest of his team looked happy with how they did as well. "Excuse me," came the nasally voice of Mineta, breaking Izuku out of his mental review of the simulation. "That wasn't an investigation! It was, like, a regular hero mission!"
As was a usual sight in their class, Mr. Aizawa looked at Mineta with great displeasure. "What Midoriya's team just went through was actually one of the most common types of investigations for Japanese heroes: he was given a situation, had to gather information, and put together a plan under a tight timeline, with lives on the line. He did adequately as well, though he will be getting feedback on areas to improve in his detailed report."
Izuku was amazed, as for Mr. Aizawa that was high praise. Pride was welling up inside him, for his team and for himself. Most of the teams for Titans did well, but of the fellow UA teams, only Bakugo's team got anything resembling praise from the teachers. While his solution for finding a villain's hideout had been destructive, it also followed the letter of the law and achieved success quickly. Momo and her team had been captured by their villains, and Iida had run out of time in his simulation. The last team to use the simulation was Tim's, the New Teen Titans. They were facing a villain serial killer, and Izuku watched, attention rapt. He could see why Tim had a reputation for being a great detective: he was able to quickly get the information he needed, lure the killer into a trap, and capture him with no damage to anyone on the team. Once the class was dismissed, Izuku spent the rest of the day talking about investigation with Tim, wanting to perfect this skill. As the next holder of One for All, as the future Symbol of Peace, it was another area he needed to work on.
