Shoda and Ojiro moved through the training ground, the false city looming over their heads. Ojiro had one flag tucked into his belt, carefully placed so it would be easy to protect. Shoda followed behind him, nervously wringing his hands and glancing over his shoulder.

"How much time do we have left?"

"Only a few minutes. Why?"

"We haven't seen either of them yet," Shoda whispered, shuffling along. "Shouldn't we have seen them by now?"

"Monoma is probably busy trying to keep Toga with him. You know how she is."

"She's been really calm recently. I don't really get it, honestly. Like, the first few days she acted weird but then she started looking… healthier. And she started acting as close to normal as I've ever seen her."

Ojiro shrugged. "Maybe this rehabilitation thing is actually working."

A scream caught their attention, causing both boys to fall backwards into fighting stances, fists raised. Monoma came stumbling out of a nearby alley, trash and debri tumbling out with him. A metal garbage can lid rolled into the street, circling and collapsing between Monoma and Ojiro. Monoma's hair was disheveled and blood was smeared across his face. His typically pristine suit was rumpled and covered in dirt, as though he had been through hell and back.

He let out another shout, waving at the other two.

"Help! Help, it's Toga!" he yelled as he tripped towards them, nearly losing his footing.

Without hesitation, Ojiro ran forward, catching Monoma around the middle. Carefully moving the shorter boy's arm, he helped Monoma to drape his arm over his shoulder for support. Shoda was hurrying after Ojiro, his eyes wide with worry.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice bordering on hysterics.

"It was Toga. We were jumping from one roof to another and I… I miscalculated. Hit the edge and cut myself. She smelled my blood and she went feral!"

Ojiro frowned, raising his head to look back the way Monoma came, his eyes searching for the girl. "She didn't do that when Midoriya was bleeding earlier."

"She's used to his scent. My blood is new to her, so it set her off."

"And the teachers haven't stopped her yet?" Shoda squeaked.

Monoma scoffed. "You saw who was running this exercise. All Might doesn't care what happens as long as his precious 1-A succeeds and Midnight cares more about someone paying attention to her than actually doing her job. We need to move before Toga catches up, come on!"

"Too late!" came a sing-song voice from just above them. Before any of the boys could react, Toga dropped off an overhanging fire escape, landing on Shoda feet first, driving him into the ground. Her escrima sticks came down on his wrists; hard enough to hurt, but not hard enough to break bone. Shoda screeched, trying to kick her off of him. She quickly danced out of the way, giggling.

Her yellow eyes looked demented as she licked her teeth menacingly, her gaze locked on Monoma.

"You smell so sweet, Neito-kun. Can I have a little taste? Pretty please? Then, I can be just like you and we can be best friends!"

"I'm not your friend, you crazy bitch!" Monoma shouted, spit flying from his mouth with the force of his yell.

Toga pouted. "That's not a very nice thing to call me, Neito-kun. You should call me by my first name! That's what friends do, afterall!"

Ojiro shifted, pulling Monoma closer and shielding him with his body. "Toga, listen, this is just because you smelled blood. This isn't you. Let's go talk to the teachers, okay? We'll get you some help so you feel better."

She smiled at him, pointed teeth flashing. "But this is me! The blood just makes me… so… happy!" Toga giggled, skipping forward and swinging an escrima stick at Ojiro. It was a sloppy strike, as though she was so drawn in by the smell of the blood that she couldn't focus on anything else, not even the fight. Ojiro neatly dodged it, Monoma moving with him.

Shoda had gotten back to his feet, cradling his hands close to his chest as his wrists twinged painfully. Punching at her would probably hurt him more than it hurt her, but he still had his feet. Aiming for her knee, he swung a kick out only for her to knock him away, hitting his ankle to redirect him.

"Come on, guys! I just want a little taste!"

"Shoda," Monoma said, drawing his classmate's attention. "You run back to the observation room and get the teachers. Ojiro and I will take care of her."

The shorter boy nodded, turning and running as fast as he could. If Ojiro thought it strange that Monoma sent the slower runner to get help, he didn't say anything. He also didn't seem to notice that Monoma had sent away the one with the powerful combat quirk, evening the playing field.

"Here, stay back and try to stop the bleeding. I'll keep her busy," Ojiro said, letting go of Monoma and stepping in front of him, confidently facing Toga. "I can take her."

"Oh, can you?" she taunted.

"No doubt about it," Ojiro said, his tail twitching. And he was probably right. That is, if Monoma hadn't picked up the metal garbage can lid from the ground beside him and smacked Ojiro in the back of the head with it.

"Run!" Monoma shouted, taking off at a sprint down the street. Toga followed right after, their sneakers beating a rhythm into the pavement. She let out a giggle that sounded far less crazy than the one she had given moments ago.

"I thought you said you knew how to fight?!" Toga shouted.

"I do!"

"Then what was that? I thought you were going to do a cool kickflip or something. Anyone can hit someone with a trash can lid!"

"It's called using your resources!"

Toga continued to giggle as she caught up to Monoma, falling into step beside him. "Did you get it?"

He gave her a cocky grin and held up the flag he had snatched from Ojiro's belt. "Of course I did. You still have the other two?"

She pulled them out of her pocket triumphantly. "Is there much time left?"

Monoma took one of the stopwatches off his belt and gave it a quick glance. His smile only grew.

"Time should be up right… about…"

The sound of a horn rang out through the training grounds, signaling the end of the match. The two slowed to a stop, panting heavily.

" Monoma and Toga win with three flags! " All Might said, his voice amplified over the PA system.

Squealing, Toga threw her arms around Monoma's neck in a tight hug, dragging him down to her height. He let out an indignant squawk as he tried to push her away. "I already let you smear your blood on my face and dirty my suit! You don't need to make it worse than it already is!"

"But we did it! The trick worked!"

"Of course it did! I planned it!"

--

Todoroki followed Bakugou to their starting position in the training grounds, watching the blond carefully. As they had watched the previous matches, Bakugou had grown more and more tense, until it seemed like every muscle in his body was locked up.

"Are we ever going to discuss a plan?" Todoroki asked.

"Find the flags and kick Sero's ass."

"What about Midoriya?"

Without warning, Bakugou spun around fist raised and swinging at Todoroki's face. Todoroki quickly ducked, narrowly avoiding the blow.

"Don't you dare even think about touching him, got it?!" Bakugou roared, his voice carrying. "I've seen what your quirk can do and if you use it against him, you'll kill him!"

Todoroki had moved a few steps back, putting distance between himself and Bakugou. "I know how to control my quirk. I can just incapacite him with some ice. But we need to discuss what we will do should he attack. He may be quirkless, but he is smart. Given an opportunity, he could hurt us."

"Tch." Bakugou rolled his eyes. "It's just Deku. He might be different from when I last saw him but he's still the same nerd I grew up with. I'll handle him and then you and I can take care of Sero."

A siren wailed, signaling the start of the game. Bakugou and Todoroki quickly moved out, searching for any sign of the opposing team or the flags. As they turned down a side street, the rasping sound of unraveling tape caught their attention.

"Behind us!" Todoroki shouted, already turning with a hand raised to send a sheet of ice at Sero. Bakugou mimicked him, gauntlets rising. Before either could get a shot off, something hard and solid crashed into Bakugou's back, sending him stumbling. Startled, Todoroki tried to grab Bakugou's arm, but he was suddenly struck as well, knocking him away. Just before Bakugou hit the ground, a strand of tape wrapped itself around one of Bakugou's gauntlets. Bakugou's own momentum pulled his arm out of the gauntlet and in the blink of an eye, the gauntlet was whisked away, the tape reeling back.

Todoroki righted himself and turned to see what had hit him, only to find two loose bricks lying on the ground.

"Who the fuck threw this?!" Bakugou shouted, grabbing the brick and jumping back to his feet, looking around for where it came from.

A cackling laugh sounded from the roof behind them. Spinning around, they found Deku standing at the top of the building waving down at them.

"I can't believe it!" he shouted, laughing again. "I took you down with a brick!"

"What the fuck, Deku!"

"I aimed carefully, don't worry. I was sure to not hit you guys in the head."

Bakugou set off small sparks in his hands, snarling. "Get down here! Now!"

Deku didn't respond, simply flipping Bakugou off and then sprinting across the roof, jumping to the next building and disappearing.

"What was the point of that?" Todoroki asked, stretching his shoulder, wincing as he felt the tender skin from the brick twinge uncomfortably. He knew it was going to bruise.

"Deku probably wanted to weaken me or something," Bakugou grumbled, tossing the brick to the ground and glaring at it as though it had personally offended him. "That, or they saw us as they passed and decided to fuck with us. Come on, let's go find the stupid flags."

As Bakugou and Todoroki moved deeper into the city in search of the flags, Sero and Deku were hunkered down on the top of a building a few blocks away. When the two had met up at their rendezvous point, Sero had held up the gauntlet proudly.

"I got it!"

Deku smiled widely. "Perfect! And look what I found on the way!" he said, holding up a flag. "We've got everything we need for this to work."

The pair sat down, Sero handing off the gauntlet to Deku. Deku passed them the flag so that they could tuck it into an inner pocket of their uniform, ensuring it's safety. After turning the gauntlet this way and that, Deku finally settled on a place to crack the casing. Using the multi tool, he leveraged up a piece of the casing, prying it off.

Sero watched him work, a mildly nervous look on their face. "And how do you know how to do this?"

"I analyze quirks. A part of that is thinking of applications and support gear. I've had years to think about Bakugou's quirk. He designed these ugly ass things back when we were kids, so I already know exactly how they work too. With my knowledge of support gear, of Bakugou's quirk, and of more… underground type stuff, this will be a piece of cake."

A few snips of wires, reattaching them in different ways, and a few strategically placed pieces of tape later, the gauntlet was ready. Deku lifted it up in his arms, careful to keep it steady.

"It'll work?" Sero asked

"It should. How much time is left?"

Looking at their watch, Sero grinned. "About 5 minutes."

"Then it's time to catch up to them."

Sero led the way, swinging from building to building, Deku hot on their tail as he ran and leapt.

It was only a matter of time before they found the other group.

Meanwhile, Todoroki and Bakugou were searching for the last flag, having already found the other two. They were regularly checking the time, waiting for the game to end.

"Do you think they found the other one?" Todoroki asked, glancing over his shoulder and checking the tops of the buildings for any sign of the other team.

"It's possible. We just have to find them and beat the shit out of them until they give us the flag."

"If we see them, shouldn't we avoid them? We have two flags, which means we will win. We just need to run the clock down."

Bakugou snarled. "You trying to half ass shit again?! Fuck that!"

Before Todoroki could argue, a shout caught their attention.

"Hey dude!" Sero yelled, swinging down onto the street. "Try not to give Roki such a hard time."

"What the fuck are you doing here? Where's Deku?"

Sero shrugged, an easy grin on their face. "Somewhere. Did you guys find all the flags? Cuz I haven't been able to find any."

Reaching into his pocket, Todoroki pulled out the two flags they had found. "Only two. The third must still be out there."

"And we're going to find it! So go find Deku and keep a fucking eye on him!"

Sero cocked their head. "Aw, Bakugou let you handle the flags, huh Todoroki? That was sweet of him. Or was it that you found them both?"

Bakugou's face was growing redder by the second. His entire body was shaking with rage. "I fucking helped! I grabbed them and gave them to him! He's got to be useful somehow."

"Oh, you touched the flags too?" Sero said, their smile growing wider. "Perfect."

Suddenly, Deku came swinging down from a rooftop from a long strand of tape. He landed with a hard thud, falling to his knees. He let out a grunt, wincing, as he stood. Clutched under one arm was the gauntlet Sero had stolen from Bakugou.

Deku's smile was sharp, much sharper than Bakugou had ever seen it. His green eyes were wide and crazed, glinting in the light. For a moment, Deku almost looked like Toga.

Without a word, he yanked a folded piece of tape out of the hole in the casing. The tape had been separating two wires that had been taped together. With the folded tape in the way, the metal ends weren't touching. Once the folded tape was removed, the wires touched. As quickly as he pulled the tape out, he threw the grenade shaped gauntlet directly at Todoroki and Bakugou.

Using their tape, Sero pulled themself up and away from the other team while Deku dodged behind a nearby car. Startled, Todoroki and Bakugou didn't have time to react. The bomb would have struck the ground directly between them had it not exploded a foot over the asphalt. The two boys went flying, the explosion tearing up the street and sending rubble flying. The flames from the explosion caught on the nitorglycrylin on the flags, left over from when Bakugou touched them. Within a second, they were reduced to ash. Small explosions ran up Bakugou's arms as his sweat caught from the heat, sending him flying even further back. Neither boy was able to use their quirk before they struck the ground.

Bakugou wheezed, trying to clear the dust and ash from his lungs while also trying to catch his breath. Sitting up, both his head and his vision swam. Across the street from him, just at the bottom of a building, was Todoroki, who was lying in a loose heap.

"IcyHot!" Bakugou tried to shout, his voice coming out as a rasp. "You good?"

There was no response.

The sounding of slapping sneakers and boots on pavement came from somewhere in the cloud of hanging dust. Deku and Sero came running towards them, splitting so that Sero was facing Bakugou, keeping themself between Deku and Bakugou. Deku was hurrying to Todoroki's side, dropping down and pressing two fingers to his neck.

"What the fuck did you do, Deku?"

"Used your quirk against you," Deku said, never taking his eyes off Todoroki. "Your gauntlet stores up your sweat. I turned it into a real grenade. Explosion was bigger than I expected though."

"Is he okay?" Sero asked, turning their head slightly.

"Yeah, he has a steady pulse. Must have hit his head and it knocked him out."

Stumbling to his feet, Bakugou set off a handful of sparks, his teeth barred. "Were you trying to fucking kill us or something?! What the fuck?!"

"I told you the explosion was bigger than I expected. I underestimated how much you had stored in the gauntlet. But I knew that because of your guys' quirks, you wouldn't really get hurt by the fire."

"This is over! All of us are going back to the observation room!"

"Why would we do that?" Deku asked, finally looking up at Bakugou. "I have the only flag. We just have to wait for time to be up, which it will be soon, and we win."

"What?!" Bakugou shouted. He started to stomp forward, his red eyes gleaming with rage.

"Sero, get Todoroki out of here. I'll keep Bakugou busy. I can handle him," Deku said, already up and moving down the street.

"Huh?! You'll handle me?! Bullshit! Come back here, Deku! The game is over! Give me the fucking flag!"

Deku did not listen, of course. He took off running down the street, laughing loudly as Bakugou ran after, stumbling slightly and shaking his head, trying to get rid of his dizziness.

Sero picked up Todoroki, slinging him over their shoulder. They calmly walked towards the exit, knowing that they would get there just after the time ran out, exactly as Deku had planned.

And still in their pocket was the last flag; the only one not destroyed.