Hello crazy, beautiful world! It's me, the Scribe, with a full sized chapter, right on schedule this time! (Beware, I might be partaking in another LARP event in a couple weeks so schedule conflicts may occur.) Happy Father's day! Take the time to appreciate the parental figure in your life that fits that role and be glad that they are not as horrible as the ones in this story!

Borderlands is owned by Gearbox and 2KGames and My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Funimation. Please support the official release.

Please rate and review!

"This means someone is talking."

'This means someone is thinking to themselves.'

This means it's a flashback.

This means it's a sound effect!*

Angel in a Gilded Cage

"Yeah! Let the good times roll!"

"Has anyone seen my box of travel pocky?"

"The heck is travel pocky?"

"Apex! Your turn!"

"Xenobimorphism!"

"That's not a word!"

A cacophony of jubilant, young voices echoed off the walls and tall windows of the bus as it trundled on. Picturesque, forest covered mountains towered over both sides of the road, casting long and scattered shadows over the vehicle.

Amidst the chaos in the bus's cabin, Angel leaned on her fist as she gazed out the window in awe.

It was a few days after the mall incident at the Kiyashi-ward. Thanks to the close call with Shigaraki, the school had decided to change the location of the trip to throw off the League and any other criminals with any smart ideas and withheld the new destination until that morning. All the secrecy felt unnerving to Angel(due to how familiar it was), but ultimately she was just glad that the trip hadn't been canceled altogether.

So after spending the morning getting ready and going over the safety precautions associated with the wilderness, the students finally boarded the coach bus. Class 1-B took their own bus, much to Angel's relief. She didn't hold anything against the other class as a whole, but she really didn't want to deal with that blonde boy more than she had to on this outing.

As soon as the doors closed and the wheels started to turn, her classmates began to chat animatedly, telling jokes, playing little games, blaring loud music, it all made for a great time which Angel participated in.

After the first couple hours, she started feeling burnt out and decided to relax by taking in the scenery, acoustic rock playing in her earphones while she was blown away by the untamed countryside, being deprived of it all her life.

Back "home", the closest thing to nature was the small potted shrubs sprinkled throughout the complex, their branches pruned into diamonds. They were put there more to fit the geometric aesthetic of the company rather than any attempt to contribute to the environment. Not that she could enjoy them in person at the time.

But here, she had never seen so much green. It was amazing. There had to be hundreds of thousands of trees and all manner of animals living under their canopies. All of it passed by in a blur as they drove further away from the cities.

The only real point of comparison she had was from almost eight months ago by now, the "roadtrip" she and the Raiders took out of the United States into Mexico. Though that had been by stowing away by train, a boat and a stolen moving truck. Not a single part of that journey had such untamed, verdant wilderness of course, so Japan won by a landslide.

Her smile dropped a bit remembering that time and the people she had spent it with.

'Hope they're doing alright.'

"Hey." She felt her bus buddy(as Ashido called them) Jiro gently nudged her from the aisle seat, prompting her to turn and pull out an earphone. "Who're you listening to?"

Angel smiled and held it out.

A half hour later, the bus eased to a stop.

"Rest stop! Everybody off!" Aizawa called out.

The cabin echoed with groaning and sighs of relief as the students stood up from their seats and stomped down the stairs.

"Aw man, about time."

"How much longer till we're there?"

"Anyone see a bathroom?! I REALLY need to pee!"

"Told you to lay off the juice Mineta-kun."

Angel stretched her back, feeling it pop. She winced and held a hand up to block the glaring sun as she exited through the doors. She paused and frowned.

"This is a rest stop? There's nothing here." She stated, stepping out and glancing about. The bus had parked itself on a cliffside overlook. Just a wide space enclosed in wooden fences, a forest valley stretching out before it, interspersed with a few mountain ranges.

It was a nice view though.

"She's right! There's nothing here!"

"Where's class B?"

"W-Where's the b-bathroom..?"

Angel turned to the only adult around. "Aizawa-sensei, what are we doing here?"

"Consider this a little detour. There's someone here to meet you." He answered.

"Heeey! Eraser-buddy! Long time no see!" A new, female voice called out and everyone turned.

"Look upon our eyes shining with righteous vigor!" One newcomer cheered, spinning and posing. She had a bobcut of brunette hair, a headset sitting on her head with two prongs that resembled pointed ears. She was dressed in a cherry red and white sleeveless top that ended above her navel and a matching frilly skirt held up by a utility belt laden with pouches. She wore furlined, high heeled boots and bizarrely, a pair of large cat paws and a long tail extending from her behind.

"Puuurfectly adorable and youthfully strong!" Another woman sang along. She wore an identical outfit colored light blue with a striped tail and had longer, blonde hair. She pranced about, giving the class a wink from behind her visor.

"We are..!" The two women posed. "The Wild Wild Pussycats!"

No one spoke a word, stunned into silence at the absurdity of the situation. The two women just stood there, holding their poses as the wind whistled by.

"Everyone, I'd like to introduce the pro hero team, The Pussycats." Aizawa declared, gesturing at the two women who were starting to sway.

"Holy smokes!" Midoriya gushed on Angel's right. "They're one of the four hero teams that founded the Heroic Union Affairs Committee! They're rescue specialists famous for their work in emergencies in mountains and wilderness! They've been around for about thirteen ye-erk!"

The blonde zipped over and gripped the boy's face with her big, cat gloves, giving him a threatening look. "I'm eighteen at heart and that's what matters, got that runt?!" She told him, holding a claw up to his neck.

Angel swallowed. 'Looks like someone has an age hang-up.'

"Let him go Pixie-Bob. He doesn't mean anything by it." The other heroine chastised her partner, then turned to the class. "As for me, I'm Mandalay, pleasure to meet you all! Welcome to our reserve! We basically own everything you see around here. We will be hosting your training camp for the next week!"

Angel gaped for a moment. These Pussycats must be quite successful if they owned so much forested property. They seemed a bit eccentric, but otherwise, she could believe that they were good people.

A spot of movement caught her eye and she glanced to the side. She had been so flabbergasted by the heroes' performance, she had missed a smaller individual next to Mandalay, a young boy. He was dressed in a light button up shirt, shorts, boots and a ball cap decorated with two brass horns covering his head of spiky brown hair. Most distinguishing was the look of sheer boredom on his face, though there was another emotion in his narrowed eyes that she couldn't quite place.

'Who's that?' She wondered, but couldn't dwell on it as Mandalay continued her exposition.

"The other two members of our team are greeting the other class as we speak. Soon we will start heading for the lodge which is over there." She explained, pointing a hooked claw at the base of a mountain far off in the distance.

"Jeeze! That's so far away!" Hagakure whistled.

"Wait a sec…" Uraraka murmured. "If the camp is over there, then why did we stop?"

As soon as she said that, Angel froze, overcome with an encroaching sense of Déjà vu. This was Yūei they were talking about, the fact of which put her on high alert.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." She muttered, taking a couple of steps back as her fellow classmates started putting two and two together, the mood shifting.

"It's about nine-thirty right now. If you're quick, you should make it around lunch time." Mandalay said in an overly-innocent tone, her wagging tail(was that part of her quirk or electronic?) betraying her intentions.

"Everybody run! Back to the bus!" Kirishima yelled, the students whirling around and sprinting back to the vehicle. But it was too late, as Pixie-Bob crouched and slammed her paws on the soft earth.

"Sorry kids, but I'm afraid your training has already begun." Angel could just barely make out Aizawa's statement as the ground churned and surged. It roiled and grew into a giant tidal wave of soil and she and the rest of class A were engulfed. They were swept over the railings and thrown over the cliff, where they began to plummet to the forest below.

"Consider yourselves free to use your powers here as you see fit!" Mandalay called down to the falling, terrified teens. "Use everything you have to get to the lodge by traversing through the Land of the Monsters!"

Much of those words were lost on the screaming teens who chose to focus more on how to reach the ground at a more temperate speed.

"Waaah! Somebody help!"

"I've got you Toru-chan!" Angel cried out, grabbing onto her helpless friend's shoulders and sprouting her wings to act as a parachute. She hissed from the heat where her wings burned holes through her shirt, but remained focused. She slowed their descent as the rest of the class figured out their own strategy and after a moment, everyone had reached the forest floor.

"Whew… thanks! Looks like I can't hide from gravity!" Hagakure joked nervously, wiping her brow (or at least Angel assumed so).

"No problem." She said, catching her breath as she took in their surroundings. They were at the bottom of the steep cliff, the branches of the towering trees forming a ceiling overhead from where barely any light peeked through. It felt like something out of a dark fairy tale, though that might have been The Pussycat's intent.

"So this is the "Land of the Monsters"?" She questioned aloud.

"Guess we should have expected Yūei to pull something like this." Midoriya groaned, dusting himself off.

"Sitrep!" Iida called out. "Everyone must be accounted for! Report any injuries so that Yaoyorozu-san may help you get treated!"

Members of the class started voicing their condition and thankfully, everyone was present and relatively unscathed.

"With that done, maybe we should get moving." Sato pointed out, the large boy standing up and cracking his back. "If the camp really is across this whole valley, we have a heck of a walk ahead of us."

"Y-Yeah, though we're going to stick together, r-right? I've watched enough horror movies to know what happens to people who go off on their own." Ashido pointed out, looking uneasy towards the dark forest. "Maybe-eep!" A short, purple blur shot past her.

"Finally! I managed to hold it in! I'm going to make it!" Mineta squealed, frantically running towards the forest clutching the space between his crossed legs.

A sudden booming halted him in his tracks, everyone gaping as a huge, brown quadruped creature stepped out from behind the brush. It was the size of an elephant, with tusks to match, jutting out from its low hanging jaw filled with jagged teeth. It had no visible eyes, ears or nostrils to speak of, but it seemed to be able to see just fine as it turned to the grapehaired boy and let out a roar.

Screams of "MONSTER!" filled the air. Koda ran forward and waved his arms.

"Mighty beast! We mean no harm! Please let us pass!"

But the behemoth showed no inclination of hearing the animal-whisperer's plea or caring, as it raised its three toed claw.

Angel's wings were already back out as she leapt into action, launching herself at Mineta standing like a deer in the headlights. Despite how he made her skin crawl, she grabbed him and in one fluid motion drove the tip of her glowing foot up the underside of her target's chin. The energy gathered over the surface of her shoe burst, sending the attacker staggering back amidst a spray of its brown hide that rained down over her head, its jaw completely broken off.

Before Angel could freak out about causing something bodily harm (even if it was trying to kill them), a shard landed in her hand. On a curious whim, she squeezed it only for it to easily turn to a dry powder. A familiar one at that. Then it hit her.

"This thing isn't real! It's made of dirt!" She yelled out.

As if emboldened by this knowledge, Midoriya, Iida, Todoroki and Bakugo shot past her. Simultaneously, each one struck at one of the monster's limbs or torso, blowing it to pieces which promptly crumbled away.

Angel let out a breath at the dependability of her peers, that for the moment they were safe. Now they just needed to get through the rest of the forest.

She was rudely pulled out of her thoughts as an offending odor reached her nose. In a moment, she became aware of who she was currently holding, as well as the current state of the front of his pants.

"You saved me! Oh Angel-chan, I knew you cared!" Mineta sighed, rubbing his face against her chest, making her bristle.

"Ugh." She unceremoniously tossed him on the ground.

"Ouch!" He cried, but she didn't find it in herself to care, stepping away and desperately wiping herself down for pervert germs.

"Okay, so obviously this is a test made by Sensei and the Pussycats, right?" Uraraka asked, getting a nod from Angel.

"Which means we're probably going to have to deal with more of these things all the way to the lodge." She affirmed.

"Well?! What are we waiting for?!" Kirishima questioned. "Let's show these pros not to mess with 1-A!" He yelled, throwing his fist in the air.

"RIGHT!" They chorused.

Thanks to Kirishima's infectious enthusiasm, the entire class gave it their all battling the earthen constructs as they traversed the deep forests. Said monsters were enough to deal with individually now that the initial shock had worn off, but groups proved to be a credible threat. Not to mention they came in an assortment of different shapes and sizes based on specific animals. There were hunched gorilla-esque behemoths like the one they first encountered, to more specialized types like bulls that charged them while knocking over whole trees, smaller and more agile units that resembled jungle cats and even ones that flew like pterodactyls.

Combined with the untamed abundance of wilderness surrounding them, it turned the supposed two hour journey into a slog. When they weren't searching for ways around the wide trees and thick brush they were beset by more enemies, constantly keeping the students on their toes. The entire morning passed by before they knew it and the afternoon quickly followed. Their pace slowed even further as their bodies were wracked with hunger pangs and the downsides of their prolonged quirk usage set in. It was not until the sun hung lazily low in the now orange sky that they finally spotted a clearing with a large outdoor facility ahead.

Everyone groaned in relief, they had finally made it. Angel's head stung from every little movement and touch, like her skull would shatter if she used anymore energy. Her stomach kept twisting and turning, she figured it would tie itself into a knot she was so hungry. The back of her shirt was completely charred, leaving a blackened hole between her shoulder blades. She was just glad that her cotton school shirt simply burned instead of melting like the polyester jacket she wore to the entrance exam, she didn't want to deal with first degree burns in a place with no Recovery Girl.

"About time! It's just after five! Guess it didn't really matter if we threatened to take away your lunches after all!" Pixie-Bob laughed as the teens exited the tree line, trudging towards her, Mandalay and Aizawa akin to a horde of zombies.

"T-Two hours?! Like hell we could make that!"

"So… hungry… need… sugar."

"My feet hurt… my EVERYTHING HURTS!" The students whined and moaned.

"Two hours is our team's average for the trip. Sorry that we didn't take that into account." Mandalay apologized in a very unapologetic tone.

Angel was leaning forward with her hands on her knees, hanging her head so they didn't see her scowl. Of course they'd say that, they were pro heroes. Heck, she probably would have made it in half that time if she had flown, but she wasn't going to leave her friends behind.

"Aww, don't be like that! I honestly thought we wouldn't see you kittens for another three hours, tee hee!" Pixie-Bob giggled. "You dealt with my earth beasts so quickly! You guys are no joke, especially you five." She pointed at Iida, Midoriya, Todoroki, Bakugo and then at Angel. "You kids jumped into action almost instantly, leading the charge without a second thought. Something you picked up from recent events, I take it?"

Angel paused. She hadn't thought of it, but the pro had a point. She never realized it, but she had reacted swiftly when they had been thrown off the cliff and when the monsters had shown up. Not three months ago, she had hidden in the trunk of a car at USJ. Now? After that incident, the Sports Festival and Casino Raid, she had forgotten her hesitation and just acted.

It made her feel proud that she had come so far, shedding some of the doubts that had built up on her over the last decade. It was another step forward.

Her musing came to an end when Pixie-Bob tittered in excitement. "That coolness and maturity, you boys are going to be so handsome when you grow up! I'm coming after you four in three years, be ready for me! Dibs, dibs, dibs!" She squealed, spitting at the boys amidst a plethora of confused and disgusted protests.

Angel's nose curled at the display. 'Gross. Taking the cat motif a little far don't you think?'

Aizawa seemed to have the same problem, turning to Mandalay. "Is this something we should be concerned about?"

"Please forgive Pixie. She's at that age where a woman starts to worry about not getting a man." The brunette explained as if that made Angel feel better.

"Speaking of age-" Midoriya piped up, just to get a paw in his face again.

"LET'S NOT!" Pixie-Bob hissed.

"I-I-It's nothing about that! It's j-just… whose child is that?" He asked and pointed.

It was the small boy from before, looking just as surly as he had back on the cliff.

"Oh, this is Kota! He's my nephew. Hey, Kota!" Mandalay waved him over. "Come and say hi! You will be hanging out with these kids for the whole week." Begrudgingly, the boy slowly made his way over until he was looking up at Midoriya.

"Uh, hello!" The verdette greeted, leaning down to offer a handshake. "I-I am Midoriya Izuku! I'm studying hero studies at Yūei! Nice to meet-"

*POW!*

He never got to finish that sentence as Kota strode forward and delivered a haymaker straight between his legs, making him squeal in pain and crumpled over.

"Izuku-kun!" "Midoriya-kun!" Angel and Iida both cried and knelt by their friend's side.

"Are you alright?! Do we need to call an EMT?! An injury to a man's family jewels can result in serious long term damage!" Iida fretted.

"I-I-I'll l-l-l-live…" Poor Midoriya croaked. Angel grit her teeth and glared in outrage at the rebellious child who had turned and was now walking away.

"What the heck is wrong with you, kid?! What did he ever do to you?!" She demanded, making him stop.

"Why should I care about some dumbass big kids who want to grow up to be shitty fake heroes? Get real." He spat, shocking everyone with his crass vocabulary and the sheer vitriol in his tone.

"Excuse me?!" She sputtered.

Kota huffed and looked back. "I said-!"

But then his eyes met Angel's as she stared back. She blinked as he stiffened and turned red. "J-J-Just! Shut up!" He shouted and with that he ran away.

"What… just happened?" She said, baffled.

Behind them Bakugo snorted. "Little twerp thinks he's a big man just because he learned some swear words."

"Sound familiar?" Todoroki muttered under his breath.

"What was that Icy-Hot?! He's nothing like me! At least I'm not an emotionally stunted emo!"

"That's enough." Aizawa cut in. "The bus is around the corner. Grab your stuff and settle in the dorms. Once you're done, we'll be eating, then you'll get washed up and hit the hay. We've got a big day tomorrow. Get to it."

Angel leaned down to her friend's ear. "Izuku-kun, can you stand?"

"I-I think so." He winced, pulling himself up onto his wobbling legs.

"Here, let me help you." She offered, lifting him up from under his arm.

"I shall assist as well." Iida said, taking him by the other side.

Together, they began to hobble along, following the rest of their class to retrieve their luggage. All the while, Angel's thoughts lingered on the unruly grade student. She had never interacted with children younger than her, but she had assumed that they weren't supposed to be so angsty. Not to mention he seemed to have some kind of grudge against heroes or something of that nature. Didn't kids look up to heroes, watching them on television and dreaming of becoming one themselves? Then there was his reaction at the end, when his face went red and he ran. What was up with that?

'What a weird kid.' She thought, putting one foot in front of the other.

Shortly after collecting her luggage and bringing it to the girl's dormitory (and getting Midoriya some ice for his bruised unmentionables), Angel and company sat down in the mess hall. Waiting for them was a bountiful feast of freshly picked vegetables, perfectly grilled meats and mountains of white rice, which they devoured with gusto. All of it was delicious, whether it was indicative of the Pussycats cooking skills or from her skipping lunch, Angel didn't bother asking questions, instead choosing to shovel as much food in her mouth as possible. As sore as she felt(figuratively and literally) about being thrown off a cliff and forced to hike what felt like miles, she was thankful to their pro hero hosts for making up for it with the banquet.

But all of that bliss evaporated in the face of what came next as Angel was presented with her most daunting trial yet.

Shared, open air bathing. On the far side of the lodge was a series of natural hot springs, flowing with clean, heated water. A series of pools dotted the area amidst a rock garden, the surrounding area enclosed by tall wooden fences as well as one dividing the girls section from the boys.

The other girls swam about, most of them choosing to merely float and soak in the steaming water while a couple merely dipped in their legs. Most importantly to Angel, they were almost or completely naked.

She shivered in the cool air of the summer night, dressed in nothing but a white towel that she clutched to herself out of fear of getting exposed. Her face was completely crimson, trying to figure out how all of her female friends could act as if they weren't as nude as the day they were born. She still wasn't used to changing around other people, even if they were girls, let alone just lounging in the buff like this.

"Aaaah…this is so nice." Uraraka sighed, sinking down to her shoulders. Then she looked up and noticed Angel standing overhead. "Come on Angel-chan! The water is perfect!"

"Why are you standing up there anyway? Aren't you cold?" Hagakure asked as she floated nearby, her invisible body leaving a human shaped void in the water, truly a bizarre sight to see.

"I-I-I don't k-know. T-This f-feels so weird to me." She answered anxiously.

"Oh right, people don't do shared bathing in America, do they?" Jiro pointed out, then dumped a bucket of water over her head.

'They don't but that's besides the point!' Angel thought.

"Don't worry about it! We're all girls here! It's only weird if you make it! You can wear the towel in if it'll be easier for you." Ashido told her from where she sat on the edge of the pool, her magenta body left open to the world to see.

Angel glanced back down to the water. It DID look nice and she was beginning to freeze.

Taking a dry swallow, she lowered her foot in. She jolted at the stinging heat, but it didn't actually hurt. Taking that as a good sign, she leaned in deeper. As soon as the water reached her thigh, she practically melted and slipped in all the way.

A deep, satisfied moan escaped Angel's lips. The water was soothing on her aching joints and sore muscles, all of the pain disappearing in an instant. She had felt nothing like it before. Before she knew it, she had sunk all the way to her neck.

"See? Isn't it great?" Ashido asked.

Angel didn't give her a coherent answer, just a hum and a small nod, immersing herself in the sensation of the warmth sapping away the aftereffects of the long journey, the steam rising up her head combining with the cool air to give her an invigorating chill.

"A nice, hot soak after that hike and a hearty meal. It doesn't get better than this, kero." Tsuyu said on her right, her long hair pulled into a bow.

"Man, the sky's so clear tonight! Look at all the stars!" Uraraka gasped, drawing their attention upwards. The moon hung overhead like a spotlight, illuminating the Earth below. It didn't detract from the thousands of pinpricks stretching across the black canvas, a beautiful portrait that mankind could only hope to recreate themselves.

"It's so pretty. You can see so many constellations from here!" Yaoyorozu pointed, as if connecting dots in the sky.

"Hey, Angel-chan!"

"Hm?" She turned to Uraraka sidling up next to her, who remained a respectful distance so as to not make her uncomfortable.

"What are the stars like in America? Better or worse?"

"Dunno." She shrugged. "I lived in the center of Silicon Valley for most of my life. The light pollution made it too difficult to see anything."

'Even if I ever got to see the sky.' She thought bitterly, but pushed that aside as a more pleasant memory came to mind.

"But there was this one time I went on a trip through the Mexican Desert."

"Ooo~! What was that like?" Ashido shifted closer along, the rest of the girls showing interest.

"Absolute misery. I felt like I was a piece of bacon frying in a skillet. But the nights… gosh. They were amazing." She smiled wistfully. "Basically take all of this." She gestured at the stars. "And multiply it by a hundred. It's like someone through an entire bucket of them across the sky."

"Wow… that sounds amazing. I wanna go there!" Uraraka sighed.

"You really don't." Angel snickered. "This one time, a guy that was driving for us accidentally sat on a scorpion. He had to spend a couple days traveling on his front because he got stung in his butt!"

The girls erupted in a chorus of laughter and pained groans.

'Sorry Roland. I couldn't help it.'

"Shh!" They all froze, turning to Jiro who was scowling towards the dividing wall. "Looks like "someone" is trying to get a free show."

Three guesses as to who.

At that moment, a shrill voice echoed from the other side. "I WILL VENTURE TO THE HOLY GARDEN OF FORBIDDEN FRUIT! THIS WALL WILL NOT DENY ME! PLUS ULTRA!"

"Mineta-kun! Don't you dare misuse our school motto and stop climbing that wall!" Iida called after him in vain.

Angel immediately started to panic, pulling her towel back around her body. The girls were one thing, but a boy seeing her like this?! And Mineta of all people?! In her desperation, she silently pleaded to whatever deity that would listen to intervene.

As luck would have it, said deity was wearing a horned ballcap. Kota's head popped out from inside the wall on a ladder.

"Maybe you should find a school that will teach you how to be a decent person before you aim to become a hero." The kid growled and pushed the encroaching pervert off the wall.

"YOU LITTLE PREPUBESCENT SHIIIT!" Mineta shrieked.

"Whew! Thanks for the save Kota-kun!" Ashido yelled out, giving the little boy a thumbs up from where she sat on the pool's edge.

Big mistake.

Kota turned to answer and immediately froze at the sight before him, the very thing he had denied Mineta. His gaze flicked over to Angel and his face instantly turned an even more brilliant shade of red than before. His eyes rolled back and he toppled over the other side of the wall.

"HOLY CRAP HE'S FALLING!" Students on both sides screamed. All the girls shot upright.

Yaoyororzu pounded on the wooden barrier and cried out; "Is Kota-kun alright?!"

"Yes! I caught him! I'll take him to Mandalay" Midoriya responded, all of the girls breathing a sigh of relief and sagging back into the water, Angel included.

Even if the boy had acted so abrasively, she didn't wish harm upon him. She was just glad that her friend wasn't the type to hold a grudge. Not to mention he also saved her from Mineta's leering eyes.

'Still, that's the second time that's happened. What's up with Kota?' She wondered, submerging herself up to her nose as she ruminated.

Shortly after, the class retired to their dorms and were out like a light. All in preparation for what tomorrow would bring.