The four teams start their search through the forest each constructing its own strategy.
"Alright Team Blue, we've got this in the bag don't we? We've got two of the best scouting members of our class in our team." Aoyama says pointing at Shoji and Koda.
"All we have to do is ask the animals in the forest about the missing person and follow their instruction while keeping an ear open for any dangers! This is going to be so easy!"
"Ha ha, the reward is going to be ours for sure!" Kaminari says as the five of them carelessly wonder into the forest looking for the missing person.
Team Green had a whole different plan.
Thanks to their enhanced mobility Sero and Tokoyami can swing from tree to tree to cover large areas of the forest in no time. The two will perform a zigzag search of the area going swiftly from one corner of the forest to the other while the less mobile Todoroki, Mineta and Hagakure are going to scout directly towards the end of the forest then backwards in order to cover as much ground as possible.
Team Red had a far bolder approach.
Bakugo was already going lose wanting to destroy the whole forest until there were no more places for the missing person or the villain to hide. The blockhead Kirishima and Sato are both in agreement of destroying as much as possible but the two girls stop them from doing that as the teachers would subtract points from them ruining the forest. Their best choice was another. Bakugo would act as a diversion lunching an explosion every now and then to confuse the villain of their location. If the villain would try to leave his position while they approach him, using Bakugo that way would create a diversion limiting the space where the villain might move when cornered.
Team Purple was taking it in a far calmer manner.
"It's nice that we're all on the same team again don't you agree Deku?" Ochaco asks Midoriya.
"Right, it's great! I mean... uh. What do you think Ida?"
"It's a great occasion to collaborate with my classmates and get to know them better!" Ever the diplomat Ida says while addressing Jiro and Momo.
"Do any of you have any plans on how to find the missing person?" Midoriya asks nervous. "We have food for 24 hours, the search limit is up to 48 so at a certain point we would either have to find our own food in the forest or risk going back for more. There's also the supplies we must keep for the missing person in case he's injured or hungry. We must also..."
"I can use my earphone powers to listen through the ground and search for the sound of beating human hearts. It is quite recognizable as a sound and if I hear two more people in the forest it got to be the missing person."
"I can also construct a stable long pole to climb onto it. If I create the base then rise myself with it I can see over the trees for any possible camping sites or smoke and fire at night."
"I can even use my powers to lift you up when that's necessary"
"That's great teamwork! When we discover the location of the missing person I can rush there to assess the situation then come back and inform you!"
"Or I can remove gravity from one of us and the two of you can intervene immediately while we reach you!" Ochaco finishes as everyone has a plan on how to use their powers.
"That's right. Everyone has a use of their Quirk, only I... I could jump into the air but that would damage my legs, and if it comes to a fight if I use my Quirk then that would damage me too meaning we'll have not only the possibly wounded hostage but also me!"
"It's going to be alright Deku!"
"Right, I was just."
"You were preoccupied with how to use your Quirk to aid us right?"
"Was I that obvious?"
"If you would have made a more stressed out face it would have stuck to us too!"
"Right... I didn't meant to, it was just."
"Let's not dwindle on whats and ifs, we've got a person to rescue!"
And so the four teams started searching through the forest, obviously the teachers weren't going to leave them alone for too long. Since team Red was the advantaged on they also got to meet a new hero first.
"Everyone gather around! The animals are scared! There's danger here!" Koda says as he starts looking panicked around.
"To the left, no, the right! There's... First it walked now it slithered along the ground. One enemy? Two enemies?" Shoji says as his ears start perceiving enemies all around them. "There!" He shouts. "In those bushes!" Shoji points, Kaminari and Ojiro jump in to attack. Out of the bush a giant crocodile mouth comes out biting, not hard enough to break his bones but hard enough to grab Ojiro by his tail and slam him into Kaminari who released electricity by instinct stunning him.
"How did he hid in that bush? He's huge!" Kaminari says as he sees a nearly three meters crocodile man covered in scales, hunched with a giant mouth and a very muscular body come out to fight them.
"My animals told me! He transformed. First he was a bird then a snake then a lion"
"There's no reason to hide it then. You're facing your worse nightmare, masked villain (pretender) Apex Predator is your opponent!"
"I think I've heard of him in that book about the wars in South America" Kaminari says getting up. "He's an old hero who fought in the wars. His Quirk is to take the shape and powers of all the apex predators in the world!"
"What do we do? He's a war veteran and lives to hunt in this jungle?"
"We show him how dazzling we are!" Aoyama says before readying his navel laser. The other students manage to cover their eyes in time while Apex is blinded by the light.
"This is our chance!"
"We attack?"
"No, we run as far away as possible!"
"I'll give you one hundred meters!" Apex shouts from behind. "There are predators that can hunt for eighteen miles without seeing their prey."
"Eighteen miles? That's more than twenty kilometres right? Can we even escape from him?"
"No, so our only option is, either to defeat him... or to find the prisoner and escape first."
Team Green was next.
"It would be unfair to attack them any sooner. So I'll wait for them to cross paths again. Hehehehehe" El Santo says as he watches from afar with a pair of binoculars. He waits for them and just when Sero and Tokoyami pass through the trees just above the other two.
"Did you find anything?" Todoroki asks as the two stop to exchange informations. Tokoyami uses his shadow to grab onto a branch but just as he was about to climb down El Santo jumps out of nowhere throwing his black cape behind revealing his shiny costume. He grabs Tokoyami by the arms and locks him in a wrestling move as he was about to crash the young student into the ground full force. Todoroki thinks fast and creates a block of half shattered ice to soften Tokoyami's impact and lessen El Santo's glitter bomb.
"Just four?" El Santo says as he gets up from the shattered ice. "I'll use just one hand, that will be fair enough." He puts one hand behind his back and rises his other above his hand ready to grapple the first to attack him.
"Keep your distance and hit him from afar!" Todoroki says as he backs up throwing a wall of ice in between El Santo and the rest.
"We have to limit his movements! Mineta cover him with your sticky balls! Sero, wrap him up with your adhesive..."
"You should be careful boy. Shouting your friends ability in front of the opponent before he sees them is not good practice." El Santo says as he appears immediately in front of Todoroki having smashed his wall with ease.
"He's strong!" Todoroki has only the time to think as El Santo's hand was about to reach his fist but when El Santo was just one step away from Todoroki he trips and falls to the ground.
"Now!" Mineta and Sero shout as they start covering him with balls and tape.
"There were never four opponent but five!" Toru says after she tripped El Santo to the ground. They pile up on him to stop his movements.
"Now that we have him locked up, do we make him tell us the locations of the villain?" Sero says.
"I'll tell you one secret that comes with experience. If you know your opponent's Quirk never underestimate it." El Santo closes his eyes and lets out a relaxed sigh. "I did hit the ground when I fell you know..." He says as light starts leaving his body. Tokoyami thinks fast and covers his body with shadow as everyone was within the blast zone. Sero pulls Tokoyami away after he took the brunt of the attack and the five start running away. While they run Todoroki pulls Mineta by the neck and rises him up. He whispers something to him before throwing him to his left. As Mineta falls to the ground he curls into a ball and numerous sticky balls fall to the ground creating somewhat of a landmine between them and El Santo. In the air Sero realises Todoroki's plan and starts covering the trees with his tape. They created a wall, if El Santo wants to follow them then he'll have to go through or around it.
Team Red is next.
"Alright team Bakugo, follow my instructions and we'll find the hostage in no time"
"Who called you team leader?" Tsuyu asks Bakugo as they all slowly look through the forest for clues.
"Wanna challenge me for the title?"
"No" Tsuyu answers but a third voice said yes.
"Who's there?" Bakugo asks as everyone gets in position to defend themselves.
"The villain is taking action attacking us!"
"I'll blow you to pieces!" Bakugo shouts as he readies his arms to destroy the trees in front of him but when he is ready to attack the ground beneath him collapses getting him stuck all the way to the neck.
"The opponent is in the ground, everyone get in the trees!"
"Hey don't screw around and get me out of here!"
"Keep quite or we'll be taken again by surprise by the enemy!" Two small... sticks made out of mud appear in front of Bakugo's nose and fills his nostrils.
"What the hell is this?"
"You should not panic in case you've been taken prisoner by the villain and look for a way to escape as soon as possible otherwise you could be in great danger." A hand appears behind Bakugo's head as a torso rises from the ground. A hero posing as a villain with a sack over his head tied with a rope appeared. Masked hero Coffin is their enemy and his Quirk, Burial allows him to sink anything he touches into the ground as long as it isn't an immobile object such as a house although he can sink objects even larger than one such as a passengers plane.
"What do we do? If we get down from here he'll bury use into the ground too!" Kirishima asks.
"Sato, if you go full strength and attack the ground can you cause an earthquake strong enough to free Bakugo?"
"I think I can but then the two of us will be stuck on the ground where he can attack us."
"Hm... Bakugo. Did you felt anything when he grabbed you?"
"What should I have felt? He touched my feet."
"Ashido, can you create a layer of non corrosive acid around Bakugo? We'll use it as a blanket to hold Coffin underground while we shatter it."
"Yeah, but will be very sticky if you jump on it."
"We'll just throw some leaves over it then, this way when Sato jumps to destroy the ground he won't get stuck and they'll be able to cross it towards the closest tree without getting stuck"
"Great plan Tsuyu!"
"Ribbit Let's get to it."
Team purple was not attacked for quite a while.
"No traps or anything. This is too suspect, too suspect indeed." Ochaco says.
"I don't feel any hearth beat. No one tries approaching us." Jiro says as she listens through the ground.
"Maybe the villain is planning on sticking together with the hostage so that he can be sure we won't find him before facing us." Midoriya says optimistic.
"I caught something!" Jiro shouts pointing towards the west. "For a brief second I caught a heartbeat before it disappeared."
"Disappeared! Is the enemy flying?" Midoriya says as Momo creates a rope from her body and Ochaco makes her float into the air.
"There's something weird in the forest! A... a field of corn inside a clearing in that direction!"
"Let's head there immediately but let's be careful. The enemy might be leading us into a trap." They approach slowly and they find a shocking truth. The corn has all been destroyed and withered in the few moments they took to arrive there.
"It must be someone from the village again..." A voice says out loud on the border of the corn field.
"Hey what's going on here?" Ida asks as the man crouching on the border of the field gets up. He is tall, lanky and his body is made out of segmented pipes held together by some weird greenish goo. Each pipe is roughly as wide as it is long, the one in front of them was the masked hero Channel and his Quirk, Burst Pipe allows his body to turn to jelly which he then uses to control pipes in order to create a strong malleable body to fight with.
"Oh, damn. I didn't realised you were here. Chm, Prepare yourselves, you've just fell into my trap! You children will now face the wrath of Channel! He makes a weird pose before throwing all the pipes forward and changing his shape from humanoid to an amorphous blob. The first he attack is Ida by gathering all his pipes together then launching them as a slingshot before making his jelly body follow them. Jiro is the first to attempt a counter attack. She uses her earphone lobes to create a shock wave using her heartbeats but it doesn't even phase Channel who continues attacking with his pipes. Momo tries creating weapons but at the first attack the weapons went right through his body.
"I got it!" Midoriya shouts as he immediately realised how to defeat Channel.
" Yaoyorozu, create a net with two handles like that of a volleyball field! Ida, grab one of the handles and get ready. Uraraka, get between me and Ida. Jiro, when he throws his pipes use your shock waves to separate one from the rest the best you can. We use the net to grab onto the pipes as he throws them at us, Uraraka, you make the pipes as light as possible and we keep them away from him until we manage to remove all the pipes from his body!
"Good thinking Midoriya"
"Good thinking indeed... I can still attack them with my jelly body but I'll give them the win if they manage to pull it off" Channel thinks to himself. The six thus initiate a long drawn out combat where Channel does his best to avoid their trap as they slowly strip away the pipes from his body. Once only a few pipes were left the pretend villain gives up on them running away while he still had a few pipes left in order to harass them later.
"He's getting away! Should we give chase?"
"No! If I were a defeated villain with a hostage I wouldn't rush right towards my last ticket out. If the heroes manage to catch up with me they'll both defeat me and free the hostage, if I keep the hostage hidden I'll still have one bargaining chip left in case I'm defeated. So... the hostage must be in the exact opposite direction!" Midoriya says as he thinks out all the reasoning behind a villain's actions.
Being the first team to have momentarily defeated their villain, Team Purple head out west in order to find the missing person.