Route 3 was in essence a glorified hike to the top of Mt. Moon where one would pass through.

What made Route 3 difficult to traverse was that the lowlands outside of Pewter City sloped abruptly, turned into a forest, back to lowland, and then to an incline that led to the primary opening of most trainers and Cerulean hopefuls passed through.

The terrain made it hard for Brock to patrol as Rock Pokémon didn't exactly do subtle things when it came to traversing forests and grasslands. On the flip side, he absolutely dominated the part of the route that led up to Mt. Moon. Many a criminal and the occasional hiker could attest that a Geodude rockalanche was not fun to get caught up in.

The Pokémon on the route contained the usual Kanto suspects of the Pidgey and Rattata lines. Though if one looked carefully they could bump into a Jigglypuff or a rare electric type in the grasslands. The forest area offered the chance to find the nocturnal Hoothoot or the sturdy yet explosive Pineco and Forretress. Closer to the mountains gave trainers the chance to find a ground type such as Sandslash or the mysterious Baltoy. Izuku knew Uraraka had her eyes on them because they were space-themed. Maybe he'd catch her one if he saw it?

"Midoriya, you're mumbling again, kero,"

"Oh. Sorry Tsu," he said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.

"It's okay, I'm used to it,"

Tsuyu trailed slightly behind him, having been chosen to accompany him to Cerulean. Further behind, Heracross and Poliwhirl were doing some kind of training where Poliwhirl would send bubbles into the sky and Heracross would fly up and do his best to pop them via Bullet Seed. Budew tottered close behind struggling to keep up on its small legs.

"Poli-li-Poliwhirl" Poliwhirl cheered as Heracross popped the last bubble.

"Heracross" the horn Pokémon responded jubilantly in its descent to the ground.

….On the other hand, it was probably a game the two had constructed on the fly.

"Hmm, what's your plan for Misty, Izu-kun? You have plenty of time to train between now and Cerulean."

"Well, Budew is going to be doing most of the heavy lifting since it's a water gym. There's not really that much Heracross can do besides hit really hard. Bullet Seed isn't that consistent yet in terms of both control and power."

Tsuyu glanced back at the playing Pokémon. "Is that what they're doing? Seems more like playing than training."

"I guess in their case, playing is training. And I don't think throwing them into the fire like we were….." Izuku paused and shuddered "…..is a good idea for building trust."

Tsuyu put a finger to her chin in thought. "I think you're right. After the USJ incident happened, we never really had the time to just be regular teens. Mr. Aizawa was more concerned with keeping us alive. It's good they have a chance to be who they are for now,"

Midoriya looked back at the group. Budew had joined in and was now firing spurts of stun spore at the bubbles Poliwhirl produced. It filled him with a strange sort of joy, watching them play.

While the gym challenge was a good cover, it also was supposed to be a way for him to relax and get away from hero work while keeping his mind sharp. Something Aizawa and Ryuku agreed on in the aftermath of dealing with Overhaul. Ryuku in particular tried to nudge her interns into joining as well but both Tsuyu and Uraraka were content in watching him for now.

"Do you think your Budew is close to evolving?" Tsuyu broke the silence. "The bud on its head is pretty wide now,"

He perked his head up at her words.

"I'd hope so, Roselia learns both Leech Seed and Mega Drain pretty soon after evolution. Not only that it's able to produce vines from its flowers to use as whips. It'd be a really big help in the next gym. Misty is known for using Bubble Beam so the whips would help mitigate that,"

"It's almost scary how you know that much that fast, we've only been here for about a month and a half,"

Midoriya fished out a notebook from his backpack and beamed at his travel companion. "Well, it's all so interesting Tsu, in this world, every creature can use 'moves', it's just like Quirks but better, since moves are seldom exclusive to only one line, and there are no 'move less' Pokémon like there's 'quirkless humans'. So I've reformatted my notebook to include research notes on all our Pokémon and how they could help us in hero work. In addition, I've also been writing notes on notable trainers such as gym leaders in case we…." He felt his face twist into a scowl "….bump into them…"

Tsuyu quickened her pace to match his. It was hard for him to get a read on her at times thanks to her quirk. However, remembering what Uraraka said yesterday, he had a pretty good idea of what she was feeling.

"That's why I'm here, kero. For when you run into Misty,"

Midoriya sweat dropped, "There isn't an 'If' in that scenario?"

Asui gave him a look he could only describe as smug "With you, Midoriya? Nope."

A subtle twitch of her lip was his only indication that she had switched over into serious mode.

"I refuse to let you go off on your own again after Kamino. I was so worried about everyone, about you, Deku,"

"Tsuyu, I promise, I'll do everything I can to stay safe,"

She stopped walking, and grabbed his scarred hand, her thumb seemed to be tracing each scar as she looked him in the eyes.

"It's not about what you did. It's about what I did, I wasn't there for you. I don't know if I could have even done anything, but I let you run off. So now I'm staying with you as much as I can,"

He forced himself to look away from her big doe-like eyes "I-I-I-" he stammered, fighting a rising blush.

She gently let go of his hand "It's just something I wanted to say,"

Midoriya lost the battle and felt his head go completely red. Black Whip activated on its own, the pitch-black tendrils momentarily scaring the Pokémon, though Tsuyu showed no reaction.

"C'mon kid give her some reassurance! Something!" A gruff voice sounded in his head. Izuku was unable to respond back as his brain had yet to reboot.

"Graaah, kid! If I'm going to be coaching ya since All Bright isn't here, we'll have to work on getting you some self-confidence. Mrs. Creepy-Smile would probably be better at it than me, but you haven't unlocked her quirk yet."

The sound of a thud rang out in his head. Followed by the sound of someone rubbing their head.

"Ow. Despite you not seeing and hearing her, she can still hit me. And where the hell did she get a board from?! Anyways, I'll shut up now for the time being before she gets worse,"

"I agree with the Fifth here, Ninth," A second voice said. "Without my brother and his protégé here, you have a lot more room and time to breathe and grow. There's no harm in taking the chance to improve yourself," Both voices then went silent.

Tsuyu tilted her head "That reminds me kero, but how's your progress with Black Whip going?"

Midoriya snapped out of his stupor and flexed his hand, letting Black Whip flow freely, much like the first user of the quirk: Daigoro Banjo did when he first met the funky-looking man in the vestige realm.

"It's actually going really well. Thanks to you, I can use it to move around now. Also, I wouldn't have been able to get away from Brock without it,"

Ever since its activation, Tsuyu had been coaching him in how to use the whip-like quirk from her years of experience using her tongue. Something that made him even more grateful to the frog-quirked girl.

"That's a relief. It was really touch and go there for a while. It's still amazing your quirk evolved when it did Izu-kun,"

"Ha-ha yeah, it surprised me too," he said nervously, hoping to play it off. Tsuyu's lack of expressions made it hard to gauge if it was working or not.

"She's not kidding when she said it was touch and go. I lucked out that One for All hit the singularity point when it did." He started to think back on how Blackwhip first activated.

Overhaul lay defeated in a crater, his eyes rolled up in his head. The rest of the hulking monstrosity he called a body, composed of his various underlings, was motionless.

Deku however, had no time to revel in his victory or slap the anti-quirk cuffs on the villain. Eri, the young girl on his back, had lost control over her quirk.

Deku was forced to keep One For All at a full 100 percent to keep up with the potent strength of Rewind. His body screamed in agony as the immense strength of his quirk broke his body. The only thing he could do was to keep still and hope Eri burned herself out. The alternative was…..he tried not to think about it.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the others who had arrived on the surface from the underground base.

An unconscious Lemillion was being carried by Nejire and Amajiki.

Froppy had what looked to be an unconscious Eraserhead in her arms.

Uravity was in front, helmet discarded, looking on in worry.

Over Eri's screams, he could vaguely hear Ryuku behind both groups, advising them not to get any closer.

He tried to push himself up but felt his arm sink. He looked down and his arm was almost elbow-deep in purple mist.

"K-Kuro-Kurogiri!"

He figured that he was the only possibility from where the mist was coming from. Kurogiri was the League of Villains warper and transport. All for One probably wanted Eri's quirk to eventually use on himself.

Like hell he'd let that happen.

He struggled with all his might to pull his arm out of the void, yet even the immense strength of a 100% One For All couldn't get him free. It felt as if he was stuck in a quicksand made from molasses.

Strangely enough, it felt like his arm was in emptiness and a TV static-like fuzziness surrounded it.

From what he theorized about Kurogiri's quirk he should have been directly connected with another coordinate, most likely the new hideout the league was using. Which also begged the question; shouldn't someone or a Nomu be attempting to pull him in from the other side?

All these questions and more flew through his mind within the span of a second. He felt his legs starting to sink in the murk. His eyes caught on a golden ring around the border of the mist. One that was rapidly expanding.

He then caught sight of movement. A pink blur was heading towards him.

"No—No! Stay! Away!" He screamed as all four of his limbs were now lost to the darkness. He felt Eri's short arms cling even tighter to his neck. Her hysterical screaming over her quirk had rapidly died down to a simple scared whimpering.

"Don't worry Eri, I'll make sure that it'll all be okay!"

Eri made a small whimper in response and buried her head in his neck.

Suddenly he felt his quirk shut off just as Uravity's hand grabbed him under his armpits.

"Aizawa-sensei must've come to." He thought

Given that he didn't see her boots sinking in next to him he figured that she was floating above him, using nothing but pure upper-body strength. It did little good as he kept getting sucked in now dragging her in as well. At this point, he could only keep both his and Eri's head above the mist. He was forced to look up at Ochako's face, her eyes closed in stark concentration as her own hands and arms were now below the surface.

"Just let me go! I'll keep Eri safe wherever we end up. It'll all be okay!" He felt tears form in his eyes as he tried to beg his best friend to go back to safety.

"I—won't—let—you—go! Not again!"

He heard a wet snapping sound as he saw Tsuyu's tongue wrap itself around Ochako's torso. He also saw one of Nejire's wave motion loops also surround the brunette.

A chorus of grunting rang out as Ryuku and Suneater joined the group effort.

Whatever he was caught in he decided was simply not of this world. Its sheer strength was slowly overcoming the might of 7 heroes.

"E—Eri! Hold your breath!" He commanded the little girl as their faces were about to go under. Izuku saw Ochako was preparing as well, struggling to keep her head up as her chest now met the surface of the mist plane. Her face was now so close to his that each labored breath they took hit the other. His hands were now latched onto her forearms now that they were under. Her face was caked with sweat but at that moment he never thought she looked more beautiful.

For a split second, he considered kissing her to pass on OFA via saliva but wiped that thought out when he reminded himself she was caught in whatever the hell this was too.

He closed his eyes and mentally sent a prayer to whoever would listen that they somehow make it out of this alive.

Suddenly he felt something grab his torso—something big as it had most of his lower body from the chest down in its grasp.

"Hey! Something's got m—"

His body was jerked downwards underneath the plane. Thankfully he still had enough wherewithal to maintain a hold on Ochako's hand, unintentionally dragging her along, and going by the screaming, the others as well. For some reason holding onto her became easier, it felt as…. if something had tethered them together. Eri too. She felt completely secure on his back despite moving at such a fast rate.

He opened his eyes and looked down and saw a gigantic purple hand had him and Eri in its clutches. The hand holding him as if sensing his attention on him, quickly turned translucent and disappeared, leaving him in free fall.

"Deku, what's going on?!" Ochako cried as her eyes darted back and forth.

He then looked and saw what exactly he was falling through. The void was huge and expansive, with various numbers and pixels floating by in a seemingly random fashion.

"I don't know! I'd guess we're being warped somewhere!"

"We're about to find out soon! Look! Below us!

He did as she said and looked down to see daylight rapidly approaching.

From above him, he heard the sound of joints popping and the sound of wings flapping. Multiple pairs.

He then saw Ryuukuu swoop below him in a controlled dive, Froppy and Eraserhead in her claws.

With a thud, the trio landed on her back. Shortly followed by the big three, thanks to a combination of Suneater's osprey wings and Nejire's wave energy.

"Oooh, what's that black stuff you're all wrapped up in? Is it hot? Is it cold? How are you guys doing it? Are you dating now?" Despite the situation, Nejire immediately started spouting one question after another.

Now that he was on stable(?) ground. Deku scanned his body and indeed did see he was wrapped up in some kind of black energy. That was somehow coming from him! He then looked up and noticed Uraraka's whole face was red and then he noticed exactly how close they were bound together. They were practically hugging! He felt his own face turn red as he tried to pull away from her, but it had the opposite effect. It seemed to bound them tighter together.

"Calm down! You're making it worse, Deku!" Uraraka said, trying to contain Deku's nervous thrashing. Miraculously she somehow kept her quirk from activating "You're scarin' Eri!"

That sentence instantly made him stop as he finally became aware of the small whimpering on his back.

"I-I-I think we have bigger problems coming up," Suneater said as he pointed below them, holding onto the unconscious Lemillion.

Ryuku passed through the second ring into a dazzling twilight sky above a forest which she rapidly descended into. Absently, Deku noticed that the birds flying by were of no species he had ever seen in Japan before.

With passengers on her back she had no luxury to undo her transformation, so Ryuku was forced to eat the full brunt of the branches and tree trunks snapping under her draconian skin. It was all she could do to cross her arms and fold her wings to keep her passengers safe from harm.

Deku felt the slimy sensation of Suneater's tentacles wrapping around everyone in an effort to keep the group together during the bumpy ride.

Eventually, he felt the dragoon hero come to a stop and he saw her wings unfurl. The sight that greeted him was a minor trail of destruction.

Nejire was the first to recover out of everyone as she used her quirk to slice her way through the tentacles. "Ouch, that smarts… " She cried as she brushed leaves out of her hair. "Hey, Suneater, your tentacles are harder to cut through now. Anyways, how totally awesome that was! Ryukyu, you went like SWOOP and those trees went like CRACK!" the blue-headed third-year bounded around in the air as she endlessly commented on the situation.

"N-Nejire-Chan is everyone okay up there?" Ryukyu called out in the raspy voice her transformation gave her.

"Umm….Yeah, I think so!" Her gaze then shifted over to her first-year counterparts for appraisal. Izuku could only stare in amazement at her capacity to seamlessly jump from subject to subject, tone to tone with no pause. It must have been a byproduct of her quirk forcing her to stay at full throttle all the time.

"We do need Eraserhead to do his mojo here. Deku's quirk is going out of control, and it has him and Uravity wrapped in some kind of black energy stuff. Kinda reminds me of my quirk. They actually look cute like that, but they can't move so we probably need to get them unstuck."

Ryukyu sighed and then began to shrink, her passengers easily slipping off her back. Suneater made sure Lemillion's body didn't get jostled.

"Are you sure you can't turn your quirk off Deku?" she said with concern while dusting her crimson qipao.

"N-N-No Ma'am," He said while trying to swallow a new wave of anxiety, "I don't know how to turn it off. It just happened!" He felt both Uravity and Eri squeeze him to try and ease his worry. He knew Eri meant well, but he could help but feel weak as Eri was comforting him and not the other way around.

Ryukyu gave them a brief one over then went to help Froppy get Eraserhead in position to use his quirk. From Deku's understanding of Ryuku and Froppy's mumbling, the erasure hero was hit with a slow-down quirk that had yet to wear off.

His eyes went to Froppy who had begun to ribbit nervously. Her face was still as placid as ever, but he could tell she was close to tears. A fist clenched over his heart as he thought back to when she broke down after the Kamino incident. Somewhere in the back of his mind he idly thought some over her motivation to be on an internship in the first place was to make sure he and Kirishima didn't do anything reckless.

"Please…I hope this isn't a mutation-type quirk!" Ryuku muttered as Froppy began to raise their teacher's head. The last thing he saw was a flash of red before his consciousness was pulled into a void.

XXXXXXX

He came to atop a cliff with a pitch-black void surrounding him illuminated by nine stars of different colors. He suddenly became aware of someone snapping at him.

"Hey! Hey, Kid!" A gruff voice came from in front of him.

Izuku looked down and saw two men in front of him. On the left was someone he could only describe as funky looking. He was very tall, almost comparable to All-Might in height. He wore a black leather jacket with yellow shoulder pads openly with no undershirt underneath. Across his bare chest was a bandolier Izuku hoped didn't have ammunition in it. To complete his look he had yellow goggles that sat atop his bald head, and the scruffy start of a goatee on his chin accompanied by his already delinquent-like face.

The man on the right was downright simple in comparison. His height was only moderately taller than Izuku's, but his stature and physique could only be called sickly. This was not helped in the slightest by his long white hair. For clothing, he only wore a ghostly teal jean jacket with a white undershirt and black slacks. To be honest with himself he looked like how Izuku thought he might've turned out had he not met All-Might.

The taller man decided to speak first. "Your mind is inside One-For-All. Also, might I add, rude. Do I look like I have a gun on me? This bandolier is purely for medicine and supplies, Kid. Something you might want to look into given how often you get hurt."

"And we didn't have Hero training in my time, Ninth. Not that either my brother or my body would have let me, that's why I look as you put it 'sickly'." The other man added on.

Izuku immediately blushed. Crap. Were they listening to his tho–

"Yes, we are," The tall man huffed out "How the hell else are we supposed to communicate with you? You're kinda lacking a mouth right now,"

Izuku looked down and indeed he was right. Most of his body save his lower legs and his right hand was obscured by a black fog with a green outline that matched the background they were in. In a panic, he started to try and grab at it and rip it away, yet he made no progress as his hand seemed to slip right through.

The tall man gave a brief but boisterous laugh at his expense. "Ain't gonna work kid, so you might as well cool yer jets,"

The second man picked up where the first left off. "Yes, as you master One-For-All more and more of your body will become uncovered. In terms you can understand Ninth, your current max percentage is how much of your body you can use here. But that's not what you were brought here to discuss."

Fifth? Ninth? Was he referring to?

"That's exactly what we're going to talk about. My name is Yoichi, the first wielder of One-For-All. And the 'funky-looking' man next to me is Daigoro Banjo, the fifth user of One-For-All and also known as the Pro-Hero Lariat."

Wait. Lariat!? He knew about that guy. Damn, if only he had his notebook on him; his information was very hard to dig up… He was a part of the earliest group of heroes that were first formally recognized by the government after the implementation of the Rhode Island law. His quirk was Blackwhip which allowed him to shoot energy tendrils that allowed him to climb and swing around like Spiderman out of the comic books. Huh? Energy Tendrils…..Just like…..what….just…..happened.

"BWAHAHA!" Banjo burst out laughing even louder than before as he grabbed his gut and smacked Yoichi on his back, sending the older man stumbling to the ground in a heap.

"Color me, impressed kid! You told me he was smart Yoichi, but I didn't think he'd piece it together instantly. He's almost as dangerous as that Nezu character we've been seeing among the last three holders. Makes it even funnier a gorilla like Allbright picked him, and Nana was the first to approve,"

He then took a moment to catch his breath and wipe a tear from his eye. "Phew, that was a good laugh. As you pieced together kid, that was my quirk: Black Whip you were using back there. It came from the strong idea of 'capture'. No matter what happened, you wanted to stick to those two girls and keep them close to you as you fell through that void. Which might I mention, was friggin weird as shit."

"Yes, it was,"

Yoichi said as he recovered, then dusted off and straightened his jacket.

"OFA wielders are no strangers to weird situations, but yours is by far the weirdest, Ninth. As a result, I was forced to speed up the singularity process. You will now start manifesting the quirks of the previous wielders,"

Yoichi began to scratch the back of his head. "It was by pure luck the Fifth's quirk popped up. The emotions you were feeling were so strong, Ninth, that the Seventh's, Second's, or the Third's also had the possibility of manifesting as well. In a different world perhaps they may well have."

Multiple quirks?! For a quirkless kid like him, it was a dream come true until he realized how much trouble he's had trying to control the strengthening aspect. Throw in potentially six other quirks on top of that!

Banjo's eyebrows raised. "Ninth's worries aside, Nana's I get, but really? The Second and Third? Those two self-absorbed assholes had a chance of appearing too?"

Yoichi flipped his bangs out of his eyes. "They wouldn't have had a choice. None of you technically do. I don't want to be like my brother, so I give you and the others some degree of autonomy and democracy, Fifth, but when it comes down to it, myself and the current wielder have an undisputed say and can veto and ignore your opinions at will. In a do-or-die situation like the one the Ninth faced; I would have wholeheartedly forced their quirks through regardless of their feelings. It just so happened that the need to capture melded with his feelings for the brunette girl which gave you the edge to manifest first,"

Banjo nervously clenched and unclenched his fist as Blackwhip flowed freely between his fingers. A bead of sweat made its way down his bald head.

"That's…..That's kinda scary,"

Izuku had to agree, among the bombshells that were being dropped on him, that was one of the biggest. Yoichi said that gave them autonomy given this history of the quirk, without it these people would essentially be living batteries just for quirk usage. At that point, OFA would be no different from AFO. Making lives miserable just because the person can. For some reason that made him sad, knowing people could and were being used that way. All of a sudden the sickly man in front of him seemed much bigger than the burly man standing next to him.

"You're a kind soul, Ninth, truly worthy of wielding this quirk." Izuku looked up to see both Yoichi and Banjo smiling at him.

"To assuage your fears, that is exactly why I let the other vestiges do as they please. This quirk is meant for the good of everyone, so everyone who uses it has a say–for better or worse,"

He sent a weary, almost sad glance over his shoulder and Izuku got the feeling he was seeing something he couldn't. "The Politics of our quirk isn't everything we need to talk about and our time is running short Ninth,"

"Yeah," Banjo agreed "We have to tell you….We don't think you're in Kansas anymore, kiddo,"

Kansas?

"It's an old pre-quirk expression, Ninth. What he means is that the connection to the Eighth has gotten significantly weaker. It's actually barely there at the moment. Not to mention I can't feel my brother at all. Ever since we became re-aware of his existence, it's been a faint niggling or buzzing due to quirk resonance, but now it's completely gone."

Izuku thought back to the birds he saw during their crash landing. They resembled Passerine birds, but the markings and coloring were remarkably off from the brief glimpse he saw.

Banjo rubbed his bald head "Kid, I honestly don't know who is scarier right now, you or him?" He said while gesturing to Yoichi "Is there anything you don't have some kind of egghead knowledge about?"

Yoichi interjected before Izuku could fire a mental retort. "Well it's useful information nonetheless, and it only deepens my suspicion. For now, Ninth, me and the Fifth are going to watch how this situation unfurls. I may have to make some adjustments to compensate for the absence of the Eighth and thus a lack of guidance on how to use OFA since it just hit the singularity point."

"Like he said we don't have too much time left so I'll say this one last thing, Kid. Remember that feeling when you first used my quirk? It's okay to tap into your anger, frustration, and desperation to use it. That's actually what makes it stronger compared to if you were just confused or somethin'. Just keep in mind Black Whip has been augmented by OFA as well. It's way stronger than it was in my time, and that holds true for the others too."

Suddenly the two men seemed to be getting farther and farther away.

"With great power comes great responsibility, Kid! We'll see ya soon!" Banjo shouted as he waved his hand.

"Really," He heard the unimpressed voice of Yoichi drone out with his hands on his hips.

"What? It's a good line, the kid already likened me to Spiderman,"

Yoichi only replied with a weary sigh.

The scene then faded to black and Izuku became aware of himself coming to consciousness in the waking world.

When he opened his eyes he immediately met three pairs opposite his own, one black, one brown, and one red. Two belonged to the two girls he called classmates, and the other belonged to the little girl for whom he risked everything, and he would gladly do it again.

"Oh, thank goodness you're okay!" Ochako cried as she latched onto him in a hug, followed shortly by Tsuyu and Eri.

"We were so worried, kero!" Tsuyu croaked.

Eri just blubbered and cried in relief as she tried to grab as much of him as she could.

"I'm okay, It's okay now," Deku could feel his own Midoriya clan tears start to leak out as the day's tension finally left him.

"Deku, can you tell us what happened with your quirk? I don't think Erasure has the capacity to cause people to pass out," Deku managed to raise his head over the pile to see Ryuku looking at him with a degree of concern as she gestured to Eraserhead who was sitting abnormally still in his yellow sleeping bag against a tree with his trademark deadpan stare. It was actually pretty amazing he brought that to a yakuza raid. Underground heroes took sleep where they could, he guessed. Or maybe it was just him.

Knowing him, he probably found it too troublesome to move while under the effects of the slowdown quirk. Or maybe he just didn't want to deal with anybody right now.

Mirio still remained unconscious next to him.

"I still don't know I think I might've awakened a new aspect of my quirk, my quirk stockpiles my strength inward, so I guess it finally projected that strength outward?" As Kaachan would put it, Deku was spewing pure bullshit at this point–not that he had a choice. He couldn't just up and tell them about the secret One For All. It would put everyone in danger and make them targets.

He flinched back when he saw Ochako stare up at him inquisitively. Something told him she didn't entirely believe his quick fib.

Without looking behind her, Ryukyu clamped her hand over Nejire's mouth right as the girl opened her mouth, no doubt to start spouting an endless torrent of questions. "Ah, whatever…..Quirk science really isn't my thing. We've got bigger problems here to focus on now that you're awake. To bring you up to speed, our situation is—"

*ROAR*

As if on cue a deafening roar rang out in the forest, causing more of those birds he had seen earlier to fly from the treetops.

*FWOOSH*

Even more worrying he saw some trees off in the distance spontaneously combust, followed by the sound of rushing water offering a quick douse.

"T-T-That's been going on for the last 15 minutes," Suneater spoke while rubbing the side of his head. "There have also been lightning strikes and a couple of other light shows happening in between as well. S-Someone is fighting pretty hard over there." Deku noted that Suneater didn't even dare look in the direction of the fighting.

"We thought it was a Nomu at first, so I was going to send an alert through Hero Net but…."

Nejire ripped her face away from Ryukyu's hand and interjected. "All our phones are kaput! I even tried yours!" Nejire said while she held up his All Might themed phone.

"Not to mention, all the animals look like Nomu around here. There was this pink jiggly puffy thing that floated by awhile ago now it went 'Puff!'" Nejire puffed out her cheeks in imitation. "Then it floated away! It was pretty adorable!"

"We might've landed in some kind of Nomu breeding farm," Suneater remarked worriedly.

"I think it's okay to give his phone back to him now," Tsuyu turned her head back and said to Nejire.

"But it's so cool, I don't think I've ever seen this particular brand of All Might casing. Where did you get it?" she said as she gingerly handed him his phone

"I-It's custom-made. I had it based off the vinegar river incident. It's one of the reasons I got to work with Sir Nighteye….."

At the mention of his name, the faces of a majority of the people present darkened, though Deku couldn't put his finger on it.

"...We…..Should get moving. The sun's going down and we have two people who currently can't defend themselves.

Ryuku then turned to the direction the noises were coming from, much to Suneater's horror.

"Can't we just stay here and wait for someone to show up?"

"We don't even know where 'here' is, maybe we can get some kinda information from those people fighting over there,"

With a grim nod, Suneater then went over and strapped Lemillion to his back using his quirk. Deku did the same and together with Froppy, they picked up Eraserhead.

"Hey. Izu-kun, you were spacing out there for a bit…" Tsuyu said while waving her hand in front of his face.

"Sorry…I just think what's actually amazing is how these creatures already trust us to fight according to our commands as hard as they do." In his effort to change the subject, he turned towards the Pokemon, immediately Heracross sensed its trainer's intentions, and ran to leap into his arms.

Midoriya held his arms extended ready to catch his Pokémon, but instead it latched onto his face.

"Cross Heracross"

"Yeah love you too buddy," he said as he pulled the jubilant bug-type off his face and it retook to the sky.

Tsuyu put a finger to her chin in thought. "Yeah, it seems a sense of loyalty is encoded into them for the most part. Frogs are pretty tame as pets for the most part which is why I caught Poliwhirl."

"At the rate you're going, you might end up becoming a water-type trainer," Midoriya chuckled as he thought about her second pokemon.

She gave him a simple shrug in return "I think a lot of them look cool, and they fit into my hero theme, kero." She then continued on with her original point "But I didn't think it'd immediately start obeying my commands." To illustrate her point she commanded Poliwhirl to use Water Gun on Heracross, which it did so obediently, knocking the single-horn pokemon out of the air.

Midoriya watched his pokemon splutter as it got to its feet "...Was that really necessary?"

Tsuyu shrugged again, "Ochako isn't the only one who can beat you in a battle."

"Them's fightin' words!" The voice of Banjo yelled in his head.

"It's not my fault she has a good match-up against me!"

Her eyes went half-lidded as she tilted her head "Or maybe….. You're just bad. Aizawa sensei always told us you're not always going to have the advantage,"

He was slightly taken aback seeing her taunt him all of a sudden "Is that a challenge?" He gripped his fist in response.

She smiled at him "Maybe it is. We could both use the training,"

He returned her smile "You're on!" He lept back creating space to work with as Tsuyu did the same.

"Ninth is strangely fired up about this," The voice of Yoichi chimed in, as the two pokemon leapt to their trainer's sides, followed by Budew who slowly tottered its way over to Midoriya's other side.

"Wouldn't you? You've seen the kid's memories. He's always been on the backfoot compared to his classmates when it comes to hero trainin'. This is a fresh slate Yoichi, everyone is on equal footing now. This is his chance to show 'em who's boss. Give her hell kid!"

Midoriya gained a surge of confidence at Banjo's belief in him. "Alright Tsu, is this one-on-one or two-on-two?"

She looked up at the late morning sky and popped her back. "It's not even noon yet, so we have time for two-on-two,"

"Alright then," he nodded. "Heracross you're up first, buddy," With a shout of its name Heracross flew in front of him, ready to act on command.

Tsuyu turned her head towards Poliwhirl. Wordlessly, the tadpole Pokémon took the field.

"So, who gets the first move?"

"My mother always told me to let the lady go first,"

"How sweet. Your mom raised you well, kero." Midoriya blushed at her statement "Poliwhirl, let's start with Bubblebeam, aim for the wings."

At her command, a compact stream of bubbles and foam came bursting forth from the swirl on the Pokémon's belly.

"Counter it head-on with a Horn Attack!"

Heracross' giant horn began to glow with white light as it used its wings to propel itself forward. Each bubble of the viscous stream burst harmlessly off the reinforced appendage. Finally, Heracross got into point-blank range, and stood stalwart, his opponent began to sweat under the strain.

"Alright, now throw them into the air!"

Heracross then quickly slipped below the stream and dug its horn firmly into the ground beneath Poliwhirl, and with a cry launched both its opponent and a huge chunk of earth into the sky.

"Follow it with Aerial Ace, then Night Slash!" Heracross swiftly flew up to the opponent that was trying to right itself.

"Pound."

In mid-air, a glowing fist met a claw crackling with dark purple energy. The sound of a hard impact rang out and both Pokémon were sent flying toward the ground.

"How about that Tsu? Give up yet?"

Tsuyu hummed as she watched the Pokémon pick themselves up, Poliwhirl noticeably in worse shape than the virtually untouched Heracross standing across the field from it. Her eyes had a gleam in them that Midoriya could only equate to mischief.

"I guess you have that gym badge for a reason," She pointed at the dull gray gleam of the Boulder Badge that came from the inside of his jacket. Midoriya could only rub his head sheepishly.

"Seems like we'll have to kick it up a notch. Poliwhirl use Mud Shot."

Instead of the clear stream from before, this was a dirty mucky brown.

"Dodge it and get in close!"

Heracross slipped and weaved under the stream like a professional boxer

"Hit it with a Water Gun."

Poliwhirl ended the slow mire of Mud Shot and switched to the clearer, faster, Water Gun. The speed of the attack allowed it to finally hit the bug Pokemon but it did little to phase it, thanks to its thick carapace.

"You'll have to do better than that to beat us,"

"I wasn't going for the knockout blow Midoriya,"

"What?"

"You see, you're not the only one who knows how to research Izu-kun. I found out that my Poliwhirl's ability is Swift Swim." She gestured to her Pokemon that was currently doing runners lunges "Under certain conditions, it gets a speed boost, and there's nothing frogs like to swim in more than mud."

His eyes widened at the revelation as he surveyed the wet and muddy battlefield. "H–Huh what?!" he spluttered out as a response

"Now Poliwhirl you get in close."

With blazing speed, the tadpole zoomed through the mud, creating waves in its wake as it made its way to its target. Midoriya shouted for Heracross to move, but the bug-type could barely take a step. He shuddered when he realized Mud Shot's secondary effect had kicked in–It lowered the speed of anything hit or caught in the resulting quagmire. To put it in comparison it was like Ingenium shifting into top gear against someone tied to a parachute.

"Now hammer it with Ice Punch."

Poliwhirl then slammed a chilly fist into Heracross' lower gut, making the Pokemon cry out, and like a crumpled boxer, dropped its arms from over its face. It was followed by another blow to the side of its head taking advantage of the opening and another to the back. Tsuyu gave blunt instructions on where to target, and Poliwhirl filled them as if they were a soldier and general.

"Use Night Slash to block them just like during the gym battle"

He had commanded Heracross to use the same tactic he used against Brock. He had middling success here, but Poliwhirl's speed was on a completely different level. Heracross was only stopping two out of every three punches.

Midoriya frantically wracked his brains as he helplessly watched his Pokemon get pummeled. It was only a matter of time before his pokemon froze over ending the battle. Despite its portly stature, it aimed its punches like an archer shooting an arrow, deliberately and methodically hitting the chinks in Heracross' armor. Fighting in the battle himself was one thing, but passively commanding others was another.

The sound of laughter echoed inside his head. "Kinda funny the man with a million notebooks didn't see this coming," The smug voice of Banjo said.

"Well, it's like the Ninth said. Coaching and playing are two different things. Not a lot of kids his age are expected to tell others what to do or hold a position of authority in general."

"You got that right, Yoichi. Brock was a hothead, not to mention he got unlucky, but this girl…..She's coaching circles around you, kid."

"Wait, that's it…..Circles!" He thought to himself

"Use Night Slash, and spin in a circle!"

Heracross immediately obeyed the order and spun, claws wreathed in purple. Heracross almost instantly caught Poliwhirl by the arm and dragged it along for the ride.

"Fling it!"

With a mighty heave, the Rhinoceros Beetle look-alike tossed the poor Pokemon across the battlefield, scattering mud everywhere.

From beside him, Budew chirped and cheered as he seemingly regained the upper hand.

"Poliwhirl!" Tsuyu exclaimed to her Poliwhirl that was lying face down in the mud.

Both Pokemon were heaving heavily. Parts of Heracross' exoskeleton were covered in frost and Poliwhirl was almost agonizingly slow to pick itself up. Midoriya could tell, this was a deciding moment in the battle, the next hit would KO and give the trainer a huge 2v1 advantage. An image of Bakugo flitted through his mind—Yes he could do it! He could win here!

….And he didn't hate the feeling. He clenched his fist in anticipation. He could feel the trust his Pokemon had in him as it awaited his next command.

He was so close, now he had to follow through.

"Alright. Finish it off with—"

*ROOOAAARRR*

Tsuyu jumped in fright at the sudden sound.

"What the–" Midoriya's eyes widened as he took in the sound, then a small trill-like one after it. "That sounds like–"

*BOOOOM*

The deafening roar and the subsequent explosion was immediately followed up by a shrill scream. Without thinking, Midoriya abandoned the battle against Tsuyu, recalled his Budew, and ran to where the noise came from, Heracross in close pursuit.

"Not surprising. Good things never last with us," He heard Tsuyu call out from beside him. Hopping to keep pace with his running speed.

"I'm pretty sure someone is being attacked by a fully evolved Pokemon,"

Tsuyu raised her eyebrow, at least as far as he could tell between hops "What makes you say that?"

"I heard an air intake charging sound. My dad would have to do something similar to use his quirk. I don't think there are any fire types native to this area so that only leaves one option; Hyper Beam."

"Hyper Beam?"

He pulled out a notebook from his bag labeled Pokemon moves, and started to frantically flip through the pages. "Hyper Beam is one of the most devastating beam attacks a Pokemon can learn. It's a move that can normally only be learned by fully evolved Pokemon. The only exception in this part of Kanto is the Dratini line, and neither Dratini or Dragonair have that kind of power.

"Any ideas on what it could be, Midoriya?" The frog girl seemed mildly impressed.

"Umm…. Dragonite or Gyrados,"

Tsuyu suddenly stopped, then wrapped Midoriya's waist with her tongue, halting his progress and jerking him backward. He gave a cry of surprise as his notebook flew out of his hands and he landed on his butt.

"Ugh, Hey! What gives?" He said as he rounded on his companion and was surprised once again as Tsuyu glomped him.

"I…. think it's a Gyrados," She said in an almost hushed whisper.

He turned to look at her and saw her radiating pure fear "Why…do you think that?" He was almost afraid to know the answer despite having charged in.

She slowly pointed to something off in the distance over the hills. and Midoriya saw about half a kilometer away, a sky blue head and gaping maw thrashing about fighting something.

"Yeah…That's definitely a Gyrados." He shook his head. "Are you okay, Tsuyu? You normally don't freeze up like this." Even Heracross who had just caught up looked at the girl with worry.

He watched as her eyes swam about as much as they could with her limited range of expression. "It's my quirk, kero," She admitted. "Rationally I understand that you're here and wouldn't let anything happen, but my quirk recognizes a predator is nearby, and is screaming at me to hide in a pond or a puddle of mud somewhere,"

That definitely explained why she was currently using him as what he now recognized as a human shield. It was the bare minimum she could do to sate her instincts. He mentally kicked himself for not taking that into consideration.

"C–C–Crap, I'm–I'm sorry, Tsuyu." He fumbled over his words, searching for something to say. "You don't have to come with me, I can take care of it,"

"No." She said firmly and clutched the sleeve of his jacket. "I already told you, I'm staying with you. I'm not going back on my word that easily," Midoriya could see the light within her eyes harden with resolve.

He gave her a soft smile of encouragement. "Just stay close to me, okay?"

She gave a small nod of consent.

"Ninth is a quick learner, maybe he doesn't need you, after all, Fifth," Yoichi said with a hint of amusement. Midoriya could have sworn he felt a mixture of pride and embarrassment emanating from Banjo.

Ignoring the voices in his head, Midoriya stooped down, shifted his bag to his stomach, and presented his back to Tsuyu, which she then hopped on piggyback style.

"Are you sure you can handle me on your back like this?" She asked as she laced her arms around his neck. He could've sworn there was a hint of teasing there too.

"I've given All Might piggyback rides before. You weigh nothing compared to him."

"...I would like to know the story behind that later…..But thanks anyways,"

Oops, he may have said too much. In the back of his mind he wondered if it was really worth it holding onto the secret now that he was away from AFO and Shigaraki.

"Maybe you're a little bit too smooth, kid" The embarrassment was still there, but Midoriya felt the pride turn to disappointment,

"We don't have any more time to waste, there's a Gyrados we need to stop!"

Hero Notes Gym Leader Notes

#1 Brock

"The Rock-Solid Pokémon Trainer!"

Age: 19

Type Specialty: Rock

City: Pewter

Badge: Boulder Badge

Supervisors: Erika, Bruno

Subordinates: Hikers, Youngsters, Black Belts

General Analysis:

Brock is the gym leader of Pewter City and has held the title for about half a decade now after taking over for his father Flint. His Younger brother, Forrest, serves as a backup should something happen to him.

Contrary to the expectation of Rock-type trainers being paragons of stoicism and patience, Brock is the exact opposite. He's more like the boulder rolling down a hill, picking up speed and never stopping until it slams into something stronger than it–or by pure luck, it runs out of momentum. In short, Brock is very hotheaded and aggressive and hates anything that relies on luck.

In the Gym Leader pecking order, in terms of strength, he's in the bottom half. I'd firmly put him in 7th place out of 8. In Kanto-Johto entirely, he's middle of the pack, he would probably be 10th out of 16. Make no mistake though, when going all out he's a force to be reckoned with. His Tyrannitar and Rhydon can sweep through teams by themselves and that is the main reason most trainers would rather face him earlier than later when taking the gym challenge.

In terms of a command hierarchy, one could argue he's Erika's, right hand man, making him the second in charge. Clair would be his equivalent on the Johto side. He also has to periodically report to Bruno alongside Lt. Surge, Chuck and the Goldenrod leader on the state of their gyms, who doesn't seem to care—or has been seen for months.

He's responsible for patrolling routes 2, 3, and Mt. Moon, which he does so on a rotation, leaving the other two areas and Pewter itself to his subordinates. Pewter City virtually sits on top of a hill and the adage about the boulder and hill applies here as well. The crime rate is about as low as it can get for Kanto anyway–Non-organized crime at least. The only area with a lower crime rate is currently Celadon City.

Brock's weaknesses are fairly obvious. Firstly there's a large population of Mankey, Primeape, and Machop to the west of Pewter. If one were able to command them somehow and mobilize them…..There's not much the Rock-type reliant Brock and subordinates could do. In order to pull this off you would need some sort of apex fighting-type like Machamp they'd listen to without question, despite not having an owner.

Second, I would target the museum. The museum is just too valuable a location to lose as it's the only place that holds fossils in all of Kanto and Johto. Attacking the museum would cause a big commotion that can either be used to trap Brock or misdirect him if the target is elsewhere.

Lastly, as per safety standards, Fire Hydrants can be found every so often on the streets. Using these can offer up a quick super-effective blast. It's a crude but effective method that I've used myself.