They had trained for this. Ever since they'd been put together as a team, Tim Drake had done his best to be a leader. To prepare for every eventuality. Inside the fake city the school was using for their combat simulation drills, where the final round of the Joint Combat Exercise was taking place, Tim watched from the shadows. As he'd expected, Izuku Midoriya was with the rest of his team, walking down a city street, looking for Tim's team.
He could understand why the thought had occurred to Midoriya, why he might have thought staying together would be their best chance at winning. Considering the make-up of Quirks on his team, they definitely were stronger as a unit than as individuals. Which was exactly why Tim wasn't going to play that game with him. From the second they'd entered the city, the New Teen Titans had split up, each knowing who their target was. Even if Tim couldn't see all of them, he knew his team was nearby, watching this like he was, and waiting for their turn to jump into the fray.
Changeling started it off. Having turned into a mouse hiding on a nearby rooftop, he leaped from the building and quickly shapeshifted into large green pterodactyl, and before any of Midoriya's team could react, grabbed Jiro by the arms and carried her off into a different part of the city. While the UA students were still off-balance from that, Raven emerged from the shadows, and used her magic to hoist Uraraka with her into an alley. Cyborg's attack was less delicate, charging in and grabbing Shoji like the football star he'd once been, taking the boy with the strange Quirk off the field. Last to go was Kaminari, who was carried out of the way by Starfire.
That just left Midoriya standing in the street, and judging by the green lightning arcing off his body, he was preparing to go rescue his friends. That was where Tim came in. Throwing a smoke bomb into the street, Tim acrobatically jumped from a window, fired a grappling cable to swing down, and while the smoke was there threw out the gadgets he'd need to survive this fight. "Sorry about this, Midoriya," Tim said, breathing heavily already from just the idea of what he was about to do.
"One for All: Full Cowl 20%! Delaware Smash Air Force!" Seconds before the strike came, Tim had already jumped out of the way. Even that was barely sufficient, as a huge blast of air smashed through the area Tim had just been standing in, blowing away the smoke that covered the area. Just before it was completely gone, Tim hit a button on his belt to activate something important. It was because of that that, when Midoriya could see the street once more, there was not one Robin there, but a dozen. Looking between them, Midoriya no longer looked like the kind-hearted hero fanboy Tim had come to know. The fierceness in his expression took Tim's breath away, and for just a second he wondered if his plan would work. Looking between the various Tim's standing around him, Midoriya asked, "Holograms?"
It made him happy to see Midoriya was quick on the uptake. Letting out a quick laugh, one that came out simultaneously from all the various Tim's at the same time, he replied, "Yeah, they're a useful support item. And more handy than you might think." Underneath each hologram and the real Tim, there was a small sphere. The one under the real Tim was constantly scanning him, while the others were broadcasting what he did above them simultaneously. Their programming was more complex than just that, but it was up to Midoriya to learn that firsthand. Before Midoriya could prepare himself properly, Tim threw out a birdarang, something all his light-produced copies did as well. The throw was identical, but because all the Tim's were standing in different places, the projectiles were heading to different places. Midoriya used the second he had to jump away from where he'd been standing.
It was a miscalculation. Doing so placed him right in the flight path of the real birdarang Tim had thrown. Midoriya's reflexes were still good enough to avoid a head-on collision, but the support item still left a cut on Midoriya's cheek, blood running down the side of his face. Tim had known he'd expect the real Tim to throw the birdarang directly at him, meaning he'd dodge. Doing his best to aim for where he expected Midoriya to flee to was the only hard part of the attack. In the silence following the surround-sound Robin attack, both Tim and Midoriya could hear the fights going on elsewhere in the empty cityscape. Looking between the various Tim's around him, Midoriya grimaced. "So that was your plan? Separate us and take us out one-on-one?" It looked like he was calming down a little, and Tim felt like he could see the boy's brilliant mind running the numbers inside his head.
Pulling out his quarterstaff and leaning on it, and watching all his holograms do the same, Tim smiled. "It was the best strategy to take you guys down. One-on-one, my team beats yours, easily. But if you want to save your friends from a harsh fight, you can just surrender." That had been what Tim was really hoping for. After all, it got him a guaranteed victory, and there was no potential for anyone to get hurt. Plus, y'know, he still wasn't 100% sure about fighting Midoriya. But he did his best not to let that show as he offered the idea to his opponent.
Instead of answering it directly, Midoriya just took a deep breath and said, "One for All: Full Cowl 8%!" After tamping down his Quirk, the young hero dashed towards the nearest Tim and spun out a roundhouse kick. It would have been a devastating blow if it had connected, and if that had been the real Tim. But Midoriya didn't get to see either, because Tim dodged in a way that made all his copies do the same, taking the hologram Midoriya had attacked just outside of the attack's range. Just when Tim was feeling confident about his dodge, Midoriya moved faster than Tim expected and flashed out a punch. It went right through the Tim hologram's head. Taking a step back, Midoriya looked from that one to the rest of the Tim's in the street.
Rolling another smoke bomb over his fingers, Tim tried to suppress a shiver of fear. Even as inexperienced with the Quirk as Midoriya was, One for All was still a dangerous Quirk to go up against. "Looks like you found one of them out," Tim said, doing his best to appear cool and collected. "Let's hope you remember which one that was!" Throwing another smoke bomb gave him a little bit of time before Midoriya dissipated it. Time Tim used to circle Midorya, changing the positions of himself and all his holograms. When the smoke cleared, Midoriya had no way to no which one he'd already checked.
The fight continued for quite a while, though any good sense of actual time disappeared while Tim did his best to keep things going. There was no way he was going to actually beat Midoriya in hand-to-hand combat, so he had to use every trick he had to keep him from knowing which was the real Tim, and to keep him busy. It was a delaying tactic, one meant to give the rest of Tim's team time to win their fights then come help him against Midoriya. It was getting to the point where Tim expected one of his friends to come join him when suddenly there was a chirping sound coming from Midoriya's glove.
Tim's opponent grinned immediately, brightly with relief shining in his eyes. Moving his other hand to quickly hit a small circular button that blended in with the rest of his glove material, Midoriya was rewarded with Uraraka's voice. "We're ready, Deku! Now, it's your turn!" Tim froze. How had he missed this different addition to his costume? Had he been overconfident? Before Tim could think anything more than that, he had to watch as Midoriya powered up his Full Cowl and disappeared, moving so fast that Tim had no chance of tracking where he'd gone. The words that had come from Midoriya's teammate ran through Tim's mind, and he was forced to wonder as he ran through the street, turning off his holograms: what had Midoriya planned?
From the first second Izuku knew his team would be in the final round, and who they'd be going up against, he started his analysis. He got his hands on every scrap of information he could regarding every member of the other team, and ran things in his head, over and over again. It didn't take long for him to put together his biggest obstacle. Izuku trusted his team, and he'd trained with them a lot to do everything he could to make them a strong fighting force. But they had two major disadvantages.
First, they were facing a group far more experienced in teamwork. It was guaranteed they'd have more experience working together, more experience cooperating, and more experience operating tactically as a team. Second, on average, Tim's team was just stronger in a fight than Izuku's. The only one who could go toe-to-toe with most of them individually was Izuku himself, and that was how Izuku managed to figure out what Tim's strategy would be. He'd pick them off, one by one, and have them go mano-e-mano against heroes they didn't have a chance at defeating.
Finding a solution required them to get creative. After reaching out to Mei Hatsume from the Support Class, Izuku barely got the prerequisite support items installed in their costumes. They were team communicators and locators, and they would be how he worked around Tim's plan.
Soon after the exercise began, things started to play out like Izuku had expected. One by one, his team members were taken away from him, leaving him to fight Tim. Izuku guessed the Quirkless hero was waiting for his team to come and back him up, but in a way Izuku was playing the same game. He could easily escape from Tim whenever he needed to, but he had to get the signal from his team first.
That was why, when the electronic chirp came from one glove and he heard Uraraka give him the agreed upon signal of "We're ready, Deku! Now, it's your turn!" he called upon One for All and sped off.
Since it was clear to Izuku what Tim would do, he had to plan a counter strategy. If his team didn't stand a chance in one-on-one, then they'd need to even the odds. As soon as they could, each of his team members had been instructed to find a way to stun or otherwise escape from their opponent. Then, they could use the support tracker to find each other. With the four of them together, they could signal Izuku and get to work.
Having quickly used Full Cowl to scale a building and scan the skies, Izuku found who he was looking for: Starfire, in the air and looking for Kaminari. She was the other team's heaviest hitter, and keeping her away from them was Izuku's top priority. Before she caught sight of him, Izuku charged up one leg at 20% and called out, "Detroit Smash!" while kicking her. Any human being without a Quirk to enhance their toughness would have been hurt by such a kick. Starfire wasn't human, and while the blow sent her flying, Izuku was pretty sure there was no chance of that having taken her out of the fight.
Sure enough, soon she was flying back towards him, flinging Starbolts and keeping her distance. Luckily, Deku's speed helped him dodge, and his specially designed gauntlets helped him fire back air blasts to counter her. They kept at it for a little while when another message came from his glove for him, this time from Kaminari. "That green kid is out!" That made Izuku let out a sigh of relief. Changeling's versatility made him a scary foe, getting him out of the way first was imperative.
But Izuku wasn't able to rest easy for long. While still fighting Starfire, only peripheral vision and quick reflexes helped him avoid a birdarang from behind him. Sure enough, Tim had climbed up to the roof as well, and a quick scan around confirmed that Cyborg was also on a nearby roof and heading closer. Soon, Izuku was surrounded on every side, and Tim shouted, "Titans, together!"
It was only thanks to the year he'd been having that Izuku was able to succeed in this insane idea. Now, he wasn't attacking except to push his opponents back and parry them before they could strike. He was entirely on the defensive, avoiding their myriad of projectiles as nimbly as he could. He'd had to dial back his Full Cowl to just 5% to avoid burning himself out, but already he was starting to get tired. It was only after a few minutes of avoiding the team of Titans that Starfire looked worried. "Where is Raven and Changeling?" That made the other members of her team widen their eyes, and the question was soon answered by another communication from Izuku's team.
"Raven's out of the game!" Jiro said, a smile in her voice clear to be heard by everyone even over the device's tiny speaker. The Titans still in the exercise blanched at hearing that, and refocused their attack onto Izuku once more.
When properly combined, the Quirks of Izuku's team made for a perfect guerrilla strike squad. Jiro's earphone jacks were great for locating targets and with her support items she could stun people for short amounts of time. Shoji was a great grappler thanks to his strong physique and extendable limbs. Uraraka's ability to make people float was a strong neutralizer of their offensive abilities, and when combined with Kaminari's new targeted electricity attacks it was the one-two punch needed to quickly make work of surprised targets.
Of course, the four of them would have a hard time if they were attacked by one than one of the Titans team at the same time. That's why Izuku was there, on the rooftop, drawing attention and fighting as many of them at once as he could. The more they focused on him, the less of a chance they had to ruin things for the other group. Still, now all their targets were up there with Izuku, so after dodging a sonic blast from Cyborg, Izuku sent a message to his team. "Everyone else is with me, at the rooftops." He'd hoped he said it quiet enough not to be caught by Tim, but just to make sure they didn't stray away, Izuku upped his game back up to 8% and went on a renewed attack.
He was getting close to his limit, while having to switch back to dodging, when all of a sudden he heard a shout from behind him, Cyborg's voice. Before the rest of his team could do anything, Cyborg had been surprised by Uraraka and was floating in the air. A quick fire from Kaminari's support item, and an insane amount of electricity flooded the robot man's circuits, overloading his systems and sending him sprawling to the concrete roof, unable to lift himself.
Now, it was down to two on five. Well, more like two on four. A quick look at Kaminari confirmed he'd finally bypassed his electricity limit and was too goofy to continue battle. "Uraraka, I need a boost!" Izuku called, and in seconds she was there, using her Quirk to send him up into the air. Using small blasts of One for All, Izuku was able to get around in the air pretty well, something they'd practiced over the last month. It wasn't quite as natural as Starfire's flight, but it allowed him to push as hard as he could against her while the rest of the team went after Tim.
The aerial fight was dizzying, to say the least, and it was genuinely hard for Izuku to mount much of an offensive. His opponent was much more natural in the air, and even without support from teammates she was a fierce fighter. Izuku didn't want to go too far and risk breaking a bone again, not after he'd gone so long without doing it. Luckily, just as he was worrying about not being able to dodge anymore and being hit by one of Starfire's savage punches, he heard Tim shout, "We surrender!"
Looking down, he'd been grappled by Shoji, with Uraraka and Jiro ready to fight further against him if necessary. Letting out the breath he'd been holding for so long now, Izuku waited for Uraraka to release her Quirk, so he could fall to the ground and just let go. He didn't even hear the announcement of his team winning, nor was he conscious afterwards to hear the congratulations from some of the teachers, including All Might.
Regardless of whether he heard it then or later, either way Izuku's plan had worked.
UA had won against the Titans.
