Explosive Surprises, of Both Kinds

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of Hailstorm Vol. 2! And for those who haven't heard, I've got a little bit of a poll going on for my story 'Armory of the Forgotten Hero', so check it out if ya get the chance. And a big shout out as always to you, my fellow readers, for supporting this story up to this point. Now since we've no review questions this week, let's dive on into the story!

Training Field Gamma

The fourth match of the joint class training session had begun and while Clay wouldn't admit it out loud, he was more than a little nervous. Jirou's team consisted of her, Sero, Sato and, unfortunately, Bakugou. On paper it was a well-balanced team, relatively speaking, which covered the bases in information gathering, trap laying and raw power. But, of course, lots of things looked good on paper or sounded promising in theory, but in practice were a whole different story. Case in point, Bakugou immediately blasting off on his own at the start of the match and expecting everyone else to be able to keep up with him.

'Well this is getting off to a fantastic start,' thought Clay sarcastically. Naturally he was keeping an eye on Jirou more than the rest of them, taking note of how she was quickly tapping different structures with her jacks to get a quick read before moving on. He also took the occasional moment to note the slight differences in Bakugo, Sero and Sato's moves. Or at least he was trying to if not for a certain someone.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Laughed Monoma, "you might have the upper hand, but we both know that one victory was only thanks to Shinso! And besides, you're all just troublemakers anyway as trouble is often brought about by the immature! Guess which class has caused the most-AAAAAAH!" He didn't get to finish his statement as Clay quickly knocked him over with a sweep kick before planting his foot on his throat.

"At least we were able to solve problems when they came our way," said Clay with narrowed eyes, "all you've been able to do since you got here is bark when you should be spending time with your team coming up with plans. So if you open your mouth again to spout irritating nonsense during this match, I won't just knock you out, I'll fuckin' suffocate you, am I clear!" Monoma's only reply was a wheeze before the cloud wielder took his foot off his throat and walked a short distance away where he could see the screen better.

"I know it's been more of a pain than usual putting up with him today," said Slade as he glanced at the downed Monoma who was being dragged away by Kendo, "but I get the feeling it wasn't just him you were mad at."

"Yeah, I guess I didn't hide it all that well," replied Clay as he looked back up at the screen, noting how Bakugou had actually stopped upon catching sight of the enemy and was waiting, impatiently, on Jirou to give an exact location. "It's only natural I'd be a bit more worried about her in comparison to the rest of the class. Just like how you are with Momo."

"Yeah yeah," said Slade as he glanced at the Creation Quirk user, trying to stop a small smile that was tugging at the corners of his mouth, "but it's hard not to be that way when she's so wonderful." Clay was about to respond to that when he noticed something off on the screen: Jirou's expression had turned to one of worry. 'Ah crap,' he thought as he looked at some of the other camera feeds, 'now I remember, at the training camp I saw Setsuna Tokage separate parts of her body.' And it seemed she could make those separated parts float too, allowing her to move them all over the training field to create intermittent noise to confuse Jirou's senses and swarm Bakugou.

The Explosive Quirk User was now actually on the defensive as he was moving around to avoid the numerous body parts while Sero reacted quickly and began spreading his tape over all the pipes around them, creating a type of protective fence to keep any of the pieces from coming at them. But this had been anticipated by Setsuna as one of her teammates, the orange-costumed Kojiro Bondo, released a mass amount of a glue-like substance from his dispenser-shaped head, soaking much of the pipework and Sero's tape in glue. This effectively trapped them in one location as they now couldn't move without risking getting stuck to something, a fact that Class 1B member, Togaru Kamakiri, took advantage of as he came leaping around in a similar fashion to the praying mantis he resembled before slicing through the pipework with the blades on his arms. His movements were a green blur thanks to the large, dark green cloak he was wearing.

The result of his assault was a tumbling, sticky mess of pipes and tape tumbling towards Jirou and the others. Even if none of them took a direct hit from the pipes, it was unlikely they'd be able to get out without climbing over them which would lead to immediately getting stuck to the glue covered obstacles. Sato obviously understood this and moved in front of his teammates to take the brunt of the collapsing structures. Just as they were about to land, though, an explosion blasted them away.

Clay almost did a doubletake when he realized what had happened. Bakugou had actually gone out of his way and protected his teammates. Even more astonishing, the normally irritable student blasted back towards them, kicking Jirou out of the way as he repelled Togaru with another explosion. The usual manic grin was on his face as he chased after and blasted the praying mantis student again, knocking him into some nearby pipework. "They got away," said Bakugou as he landed on a horizontal pipe, "start looking for them!"

"Right," said Jirou, quickly getting over her own shock at this turn of events as she plugged her jacks into the ground and pipework.

"I've decided that it doesn't matter whether it's class or not," said Bakugou, "I will have complete victory in every fight. Right now, that means 4-0 with no injuries! That's how someone who's really strong wins!" Clay thought really hard about pinching himself at that moment as he reminded himself of who it was that was currently talking, Bakugou. As in Bakugou the bully, Bakugou the prideful one, Bakugou the solo act, Bakugou the asshole, Bakugou the guy who could hardly work on a team if his life depended on it.

A memory flashed in Clay's mind then, from the night he watched Midoriya and Bakugou fight to a draw: '"If you were really sorry about what's become of All Might, you'd be looking at the reasons why you were kidnapped and changing accordingly."' Said apparent change in Bakugou's attitude didn't go unnoticed by the others either. "My eyes must be playing tricks on me," said Monoma, "because for a moment there it looked like he protected Jirou?"

"I mean he kicked her," admitted Kaminari, "but he did do it to protect her."

"He actually does stuff like that a lot," added Kirishima, "so don't worry, Monoma, there's nothing wrong with your eyes."

"ARE YOU SAYING HIS PERONSALITY CHANGED!" Exclaimed Monoma, actually looking angry at this revelation.

"Not exactly," said Clay, "I think he just finally realized the way he was doing things needed to change a little."

"This is the first time that he's so obviously put himself on the line," admitted Kirishima. 'Now let's see just how far he's willing to go with this new attitude,' thought Clay as he kept his attention on Jirou who was again listening for the enemy. She was having a difficult time given that the many pieces of Setsuna were all bouncing around to create noise in order to confuse her. He could tell by the look on the rocker girl's face that she was having to concentrate very hard to ignore all of it, but there was one thing he was certain of.

If Jirou was able to single out and concentrate on certain sounds, she'd be able to locate the enemy even with the excess background noise. Something she clearly realized herself as she reported the position of their opponents, prompting Bakugou to take off again. It didn't take long for the explosion quirk user to find one of them, the glue student Kojiro Bondo, who was quickly retreating on one of the factory walkways. But just as Bakugou was about to reach him, the welding student Yosetsu Awase, now donned in his hero costume which resembled a brown welding suit with some black battle armor, leapt out. He'd somehow managed to hide without making enough sound for Jirou to spot him, allowing the 1B student the moment he needed to ambush Bakugou by pulling out several pieces of metal piping which he welded to both Bakugou and the pipework he was inbetween within just a few seconds.

"That's some fast work," admitted Slade with a low whistle, "he's come a long way from being that scared guy at the training camp."

"Yeah, last time he was scared to get close to a Nomu," remembered Clay, "though I guess I can't blame him when his quirk works by him touching things to weld them together on the molecular level."

"It's really quite fascinating," said Slade as they watched Awase move away from Bakugou to avoid Sero's tape, "even if Bakugou breaks free, he'll still have that stuff stuck to his body." Though the big question at the moment was whether or not Bakugou was even capable of breaking free. As it turned out, that concern was put to rest when Sato leapt in and shattered the explosion boy's bindings, including his gauntlets, with a flurry of blows he called Sugar Rush. Bakugou wasted no time in launching himself towards the enemy team's location once more.

He was quick to catch up to Awase who responded by holding up something similar to a riot shield that he'd welded together. At the last second, though, Bakugou blasted himself up and away from him, leaving the confused 1B student to wonder what he was up too. The answer, as it would turn out, was Sero swinging in with Jirou who attached her jacks to her amplifiers, allowing her to manipulate them for a new attack: Heartbeat Surround! Awase was almost literally blown away by the attack as his armor and other implements were ripped to pieces by the powerful soundwaves which incapacitated him shortly afterwards.

The next one to go down was Bondo, who first tried outrunning Bakugou before realizing it was futile and lashed out with a large spray of his glue. It would prove useless against the 1A student as he blasted it out of the way with his own quirk before circling and raining down multiple small explosions on his prey, quickly overwhelming him before jetting off to his next target. Sato wasted no time in grabbing and restraining the incapacitated Bondo as soon as the smoke cleared. At about the same time, Jirou and Sero finished literally wrapping up Awase with tape before moving on to the next two opponents.

Jirou was having little trouble distinguishing the location of their panicked foes now as she pointed Bakugou to his next target, Togaru. He'd been engaging Sero, cutting through his tape with so much singleminded focus on closing the distance between the two of them that he didn't notice Bakugou until it was too late. The mantis student attempted to leap away and back into the pipework, but wasn't fast enough as Bakugou got a hold of him and used his explosions to spin around at an incredible velocity. He'd dubbed this move 'X-Catapult', its name meaning fairly clear as he threw Togaru several feet away into a wall with enough force to crack it.

'That's three down,' thought Clay as he noted the purple scale-suited Setsuna clearly starting to panic a little. She was literally attempting to regroup all of her missing parts, knowing full well she was no match for the entire team of 1A students. Her main focus, obviously, was to avoid Bakugou while also using her separated parts to keep making noise to throw Jirou off. What she didn't count on, though, was Sero's own ingenuity with his tape.

Clay assumed by watching what he was doing that Sero at least theorized that Setsuna's quirk wore on her after a while. The 1B student had a secondary ability that went along with her quirk which was to regenerate the lost parts of her body that stopped moving after a certain amount of time. But it appeared this ability wasn't something she could do indefinitely, which is why when Sero started wrapping up piece after piece of her detached body parts onto the pipework, some of them started returning to her. Had she the time Setsuna would just regenerate her limbs, but with the fast pace of this battle time was a luxury she couldn't afford.

And it was this sense of urgency that Sero also took advantage of by taping one of Bakugou's support weapons onto a piece returning to the 1B student. Upon seeing the 'gift' headed her way, Setsuan just barely managed to avoid the blast from the grenade-like object. Her relief would be short-lived, however, as Bakugou himself would pop up right in front of her. All Setsuna could do then, was lament how unexpected things had turned out before an explosion knocked her unconscious.

When Setsuna woke up next, it was to find herself in the other team's jail with the rest of her teammates, and the painful realization that their defeat had barely taken five minutes. This would also go as one of the few times that day where Aizawa gave a thumbs up to a team. "You didn't do any more damage than you needed too, and you quickly secured the enemy combatants after capturing them. With Bakugou as your focus and everyone else's support, you gave an impressive performance."

The students all nodded in appreciation, a couple of whom were doing their best not to jump up and cheer. Though that didn't stop Jirou from hurrying over, without running, to Clay the moment she got a chance. "We did it!" Exclaimed the Rocker Girl as she gave him a quick hug, "that went way better than expected!"

"Color me impressed too," said Clay, "you've gotten better at discerning sounds. How'd you manage to locate them with all of that noise?"

"I just picked out the mild differences by focusing on-," Jirou started to say before being interrupted by the Explosive Blond.

"What did you think of that, shit cloud?!" Exclaimed Bakugou as he pointed a finger at Clay.

"Didn't think you had it in you," he replied, "and look, you don't appear to be choking or in pain from swallowing your pride a bit."

"I told you I was gonna upstage you and I did," said Bakugou, "and consider that my way of evening the score from the training camp." He walked off then, spouting the occasional obscenity as he went. Clay was wondering what he was talking about for a moment until he remembered more of his own words from that night: '"I bet you haven't even spared those that got hurt because of you a second thought!"'

"What's he talking about?" Questioned Jirou as she looked up at Clay.

"Oh, probably just referring to everything that happened back then," he said with a shrug, "looks like he's been thinking more on the responsibilities he's supposed to taking."

"I'm just happy to know that it won't be like pulling teeth anymore to get him to work with others," said Slade as he crossed his arms, "though after seeing all that, I'm a little worried."

"About what?" Questioned Momo as she turned towards Slade. The Density Shifter would've answered right away except for the fact that someone else came walking up.

"That last match was great, wasn't it?" Said Midoriya, "Kacchan's gotten even stronger."

"Yeah, he has," admitted Clay, "I won't be able to fight him like I'm dealing with an angry bull anymore."

"But right now you should be more worried about what you're gonna do in your match," said Slade, "because who do you think they're gonna be targeting after seeing Bakugou fight like that?"

"I know," said Midoriya as he turned a bit more serious for a moment, "but after seeing Kacchan out there giving it his all, it's made me even more pumped to do the best I can too."

"Just avoid getting caught in any traps and you should do fine," assured Clay before whispering the next few words, "and if you break Monoma's jaw on 'accident', I don't think anyone will complain." Midoriya rolled his eyes a bit at that comment but smiled nonetheless as he hurried off to the training ground with the rest of his team. Or rather, the rest of his team minus Mina who suddenly hugged Jirou from behind.

"That was quite a match back there," said Mina with a smile, "I hope I can look that cool out there!" She lowered her voice and whispered the next bit. "And don't think I've been oblivious to what's going on with you and Clay. You might've impressed him this time, but I'll show him how a real heroine handles things."

"Uh, good luck then," said Jirou, not really sure how to answer her friend's, possible threat? It would just be something for her to wonder about as Mina released her and headed towards the training ground.

"Like Jirou said, good luck you guys," called Clay, getting a wave back from Uraraka, Mina and Midoriya.

"Now it's time," announced Vlad loudly, his spirits still high despite the fact even if his class won this match, they'd still lose overall, "the fifth match, the last one of the day, starts now!" And it began in earnest as Midoriya was quick to race out into the middle of the training ground using his quirk. There had been more than a little concern about One For All ever since last night, though so far it appeared to be acting normal.

"So, what do you think?" Slade whispered to Clay as soon as Jirou moved away from him to get a better view of the screen, and to correct Sero on what the 'scout' role was, "do you think his quirk will keep in check for this?"

"Honestly it's hard to say," replied the Cloud Wielder quietly, "we still don't know what triggered it in the first place. It's always possible it was just a response to a worse than usual nightmare, but I somehow feel like that's just wishful thinking."

"Well the real trouble will be whether or not Midoriya gets brainwashed," said Slade, "his quirk acted up a bit then too, didn't it, at the sports festival I mean?"

"He says he saw the vestiges for the first time when that happened," said Clay, "but as long as he avoids it, there shouldn't be any huge problems." Slade simply nodded to that as they watched the match unfold. Midoriya's team already figured out a way to communicate with basic hand signals and ensuring they could see who was talking before speaking, which just left luring out the 1B team. A task which didn't take long as the Green-haired Boy intentionally made his way into an open area. As anticipated, Monoma's team couldn't ignore him and made their first move with a flying barrel.

Fortunately, the One For All holder's reflexes were on point today and he easily kicked it aside. But instead of seeing the actual quirk's user, Yanagi, he instead spotted Monoma standing on the pipes. Midoriya wasted no time in firing a Delaware Smash at him, which he evaded. Monoma began to monologue then with three watches on his fingers. If Clay recalled correctly, his quirk copy ability worked by physical contact, but he could only use one copied quirk at a time and they only remained copied for five minutes.

It would explain why he kept on evading after Izuku started firing more air shots at him. Even when he occasionally went on the offensive by using Yanagi's quirk to send nuts, bolts, and other assorted junk at him, Monoma mostly kept to evading, and monologuing. The likelihood was that he'd copied Shinso's quirk and was trying to get Midoriya to respond to him. Something that Izuku, thankfully, wasn't about to do as he kept firing Delaware Smashes at his opponent who continued to evade.

Then Monoma asked the one question he hoped would get a rise out of the Green-haired Boy, how does Bakugou keep smiling after getting captured by villains and ending the symbol of peace? Clay could tell Midoriya had to bite his tongue on that one because Monoma had definitely hit a nerve. But all of that was forgotten in the next moment as something completely unexpected happened. Midoriya's quirk went wild.

Oh boy, it looks like One For All isn't so stable after all, but what's happening with it and what will the others do in response to it? We'll find that out next week, until then, feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as a decision is made on what to do about Midoriya's latest evolution of his quirk, and a glimpse of a new character. 'Til then.