Ignited Spark

by 3PeopleInACoat

When Midoriya Izuku was four years old, his quirk finally manifested - not a combination of his parents' quirks, but an entirely different mutation of its own. With the ability to blast lightning out of his body, a horrible accident convinces Izuku to give up his dreams of becoming a hero. But with the help of two girls, Izuku finds the inspiration to fight and become a true hero!

15. Storms (Part Two)

"Move your ass, dunceface!"

"Don't call me a freaking - gah!"

Denki let out a panicked yelp as he ducked underneath another large fist being thrown at his head, quickly running away as the villain let out a maniacal laugh at his cowardly fleeing. The blonde boy quickly hurried back over to Eijirou, watching as the redhead got struck by another large tentacle from the villain that he had been fighting for the last few minutes, although thanks to his hardening he didn't have much trouble with blocking it and absorbing some of the damage from the blow.

On the other side of the room of the building they had been warped in, Katsuki sneered as he threw explosion after explosion against the villains trying to surround him, although he was starting to get more than a little annoyed by all the insane cackling from the assholes ever since they got hopped up on whatever drug they just took, but at the very least it presented a challenge - he'd be bored if they just kept throwing themselves at him just for him to blow out of the picture, at least he could show how badass he was by curb stomping the crazies.

He hadn't really been paying attention when the villains had stopped attacking them a few minutes ago to listen to their idiot boss over the walkie-talkie, and he had taken advantage of their distraction to blow a few across the room. However, once they jabbed themselves with those weird needles from their pockets, pushing the green liquid into their bodies, everything got a lot more intense. The moment that weird rug got into their systems, Katsuki, Eijirou and Denki had watched as the villains twisted and transformed, their teeth growing larger, their arms bigger, their animal quirks becoming more deranged, energy from their hands going from lightbulbs to fucking campfires.

With one little injection of that syringe, they went from pretty much cannon fodder to fucking monsters. And Katsuki was probably having more than a lot more fun with this unexpected challenge than what would be appropriate.

"What the hell is going on?!" Denki whined as he dodged out of the way of another blast of energy, the villain cackling as she chased after him. "These guys weren't so tough before, what the hell did they inject themselves with?! Fucking steroids?!"

"Gotta be some kind of quirk booster!" Eijirou punched another villain that had been charging him away, only to yelp when another villain tackled him from behind. "How else would they get so tough?!"

"It's one hell of a booster, then, it made them all go freakin' nuts! That one nearly took my head off with her teeth! How does someone try to bite a guy's head off so casually?!"

"Would you just shut the fuck up already?!" Katsuki screamed at Denki, throwing out the hand still covered by his grenade gauntlet to slam into the nearest villain and send him flying away with an explosion. "You're giving me a damn headache, dunceface, learn how to shut up for once!"

"You're one to talk!"

"WOULD BOTH OF YOU JUST SHUT UP?!" One of the villains roared from his spot near the back of the group, and opened his mouth wide, his jaw unhooking like a snake. Several long black tongues immediately shot out straight towards Eijirou, the redhead letting out an 'Ew!' and quickly ducking underneath the writhing tentacles. With a growl, Katsuki blasted off where he had bounced off the wall, jumping over another giant villain roaring and leaping at him only to miss and slam headfirst into the wall, and then twisted in the air to hop out of the way of a chameleon villain jumping at him. Once he had made it to the tentacle villain, Katsuki snarled and used his knee pad to slam directly under the villain's jaw, snapping his teeth over his tongues and sending him sprawling away while howling in pain.

Alright, forget what he said about it being fun - this was getting fucking ridiculous, Katsuki growled as he used the one grenade gauntlet he brought along to blast himself away. He could hear Eijirou and Denki continuing to whine about running away, or leaving to go help the others, but he merely barred his teeth and leapt back into the fray of the freaks, all of them giggling gleefully with their tongues turning black from their quirk booster, and more than happy to throw themselves at him. And he at them, Katsuki gritted his teeth as he threw another explosion at them. There was no way he was gonna run with his tail beneath his legs - he was gonna stay, and he was gonna make these assholes shut the hell up.

First he'd take down these freaks by himself, then he'd go after that warp bastard. Not just because he made Katsuki look like a fool, but he knew that the warp gate asshole was the villains' way in and out. Take him out of the equation, and these assholes would be stuck here and have to run home, and that would give him more than enough time to find that cloaked guy who called himself the leader and take him down.

Take down the leader of this invasion, and there would be no way any of these asshat teachers who kept looking down on him could ignore that. The glory that got stolen from him in the battle trial would finally be his. And there would be no way All Might could ignore him if he were to -

"Dude!" Eijirou shouted, knocking Katsuki out of his thoughts, and he quickly looked around just as Eijirou reached out and gave him a shove with both hands. Katsuki yelled in anger at him as he lost his footing and was sent off to the side, about to open his mouth and fully ream him out - and barely noticing a muscular arm barely missing where his head would've been had he not been shoved, the redhead grunting as he took the hit full force and was sent flying across the room.

Snarling like an animal, Katsuki whipped around and threw his hand up to blast the villain aside, barking at Eijirou, "Don't get in my way! I didn't need your help!"

"Obviously you did, since -!"

"Guuuuuuuys!" Denki whined a bit more, continuing to run and duck underneath another villain with elongated fingers as a few more crazies chased after him. "What are we supposed to do?! Nothing we're doing to them is keeping them down, they just keep getting back up!"

"Cool down, bro!" Eijirou hopped away from the slash of another villain as he tried his best to assure Denki, "If this is a quirk booster, that means that there's a time limit for how long they're like this! We just gotta wait them out, keep dodging, and eventually this stuff will wear off on them, and they'll crash!"

"Fuck that!" Katsuki sneered as he landed hard on the back of a villain and drove him into the floor, punching him squarely in the back of the head and exploding another villain at the same time, "I'm not taking the fucking easy way out of this! These asshats wanna pick a fight with me, I'll put them into the ground!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Kirishima!" Denki hopped over another fallen villain. "We don't know how long this booster's gonna last! There's no way we can just avoid them forever!"

"Finally! The first fucking smart thing you've said, dunceface!"

"Whoa, whoa, I'm not agreeing with your idea either! Your idea's even stupider than his!"

"Hey, not cool, bro -"

"I don't see you suggesting anything, sparky! How 'bout you actually use your quirk instead of running around and whining?!"

"H-hey, come on now -"

"SHUT UUUUUUUP!" The villain from before screamed at the top of his lungs, leaping at Denki as the blonde yelped, pinned against the wall and having nowhere to run to - but fortunately for Denki, another villain who had been charging after him collided into the first villain, both of them grunting with pain and rage as they slammed against each other.

As Denki quickly ran back to Eijirou, the redhead grabbing him by the arm and pulling him over, both villains growled at each other's interference and shoved against each other, rage building in their eyes - and then the one villain grabbed the other by the throat and started throttling him, roaring in anger.

The three boys blinked in surprise and alarm as the villain slammed the other into the wall, snarling in his face as the throttled villain punched and kicked him. There was the sound of more blows being thrown and connected, and they looked over to see another one of the villains launching themselves at an ally, giggling with glee as he slammed him against the ground, and, as though they were all inspired, the others began howling and throwing themselves at each other.

"Are they ... fighting each other?" Eijirou tilted his head, feeling confused by the sudden violence.

"Of course they are," Katsuki smirked, "dumbasses. They took that psycho serum, no shit they'll eventually turn on each other."

"Uh … guys, they're still coming at us!" Denki panicked, pointing wildly and making the other two boys look around to see some of the other manic villains not as concerned with beating each other up, snarling and hissing at them as they began plowing through the fighting villains to get to them.

Gulping, Eijirou shook his head and glanced at Katsuki, seeing him sneer in challenge and get ready for the next onslaught. It was clear that he wasn't going to run away, which would've been pretty manly if it hadn't been obvious that they were clearly outmatched here. Even if some of them turned on each other, the rest of the villains that were focused on them were still dangerous, and in such an enclosed space, it wouldn't take long for one of them to strike a lucky blow.

So maybe …

"Uh … hey, Bakugou, man?"

"What?" He didn't even look back at him, eyes laser focused on the villains.

"Maybe … uh … okay, maybe you have a point that we shouldn't run away -"

"We shouldn't?!" Denki squeaked.

"- but - but we can't fight these guys in here for much longer! It's too cramped!"

Quickly, Eijirou turned and punched a hole into the nearest wall as hard as he could. Thankfully, it looked like the building wasn't as well fortified as a regular building would, probably due to whatever exercises Thirteen did here, as it burst open into a wide hole to show the outside, showing the other broken buildings of the ruins zone. Trying to smile his brightest grin, Eijirou turned to gesture outside.

"C'mon, Baku-bro! There's a lot more room for us to fight out here!"

Katsuki didn't look back at him at all for a moment, staring at the other boosted villains growling or fighting each other or trying to get through the riot towards them - and then he turned back to Eijirou, frowning.

"You're fucking awful at manipulating people. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know," Eijirou slumped his shoulders while feeling disappointed in himself, while Katsuki merely shook his head and huffed.

"But I guess you have a point, even if it's fucking stupid. Fine. Let's go, Shitty Hair. Dunceface."

"I told you, my name's not - gah!"

The last little squeak, of course, was due to Katsuki suddenly reaching out and gripping Denki by the shoulder in tight grip, a feral grin on his face, before letting out a loud yell and throwing Denki across the room as hard as he could towards the hole. Eijirou quickly yelped as he hurried over to catch Denki before he could be thrown straight out the hole, managing to grab him and grunting as he skidded dangerously close to falling out of the building.

Laughing, Katsuki threw his hands back and let out another large explosion, blasting his way out of the hole. Several villains screeched in rage and exhilaration as they chased after him, the tongue-villain charging right out of the hole with his various tongues quickly sharpening into blades and stabbing after Katsuki. With a gulp, Eijirou grabbed Denki around his waist, pulling him up under his arm like he weighed nothing, and after taking a moment to hype himself up, quickly charged out of the hole after Katsuki and leapt out of the building.

Trying to ignore Denki screaming like a little girl as they plummeted through the air, Eijirou was quick to look around at their surroundings, hardening his body so that they could survive the fall. From the looks of things, they were in the ruins zone of the USJ, the absence of light in the facility making the broken city come across as very creepy, especially when it was illuminated briefly by a flash of lightning from above. Unlike some of the other zones, thankfully, this area wasn't covered by a dome, letting them look up and see the dark and stormy skies - actually, maybe that wasn't too lucky, that looked freaking morbid.

After a few seconds of falling, Eijirou grunted as he landed on the ground, bending his knees slightly to absorb the impact, and quickly looked back down at Denki under his arm, seeing him shaking and looking absolutely horrified.

"You okay, Kami-bro?"

"Give me a sec, Kirishima, my life's still flashing before my eyes."

"Great!" Eijirou quickly put him back down on the ground, ignoring Denki immediately kissing it and promising never to leave it behind again, and looked back around for where Katsuki went. Sure enough, he wasn't hard to spot - he was blasting around in the air, smirking as he fired off blast after blast at the villains emerging from the building they had been fighting in as whatever quirk booster they took continued to mutate them, the villains letting out a loud chorus of screams and laughter as they fought against the teenager.

"Oh, man," Eijirou shook his head despite himself, unable to suppress an impressed smile, "Bakugou's really going all out on them, huh? Gotta say, that's real manly."

"Yeah. Manly." Denki finally got up on shaky feet, wiping some of the dirt off his pants while giving the redhead a sideways look. "Real manly, throwing me out of a six-story building."

"Nah, he didn't! I caught you before you fell out."

"Yeah, you're right! You caught me! And that's the only reason I'm not dead!"

"Anyway," Eijirou looked around the broken city, biting his lip slightly, "we should probably think of getting out of here, right? I think I can see the stairs over there, we can hurry over and see if there's anyone left!"

"W-what about Bakugou?" Denki pointed up at the other boy, showing Katsuki still flying around and blasting at the villains still attacking him as he landed against the side of one slanted building, "He can't fight them all, can he?"

"Of course I fucking can!" Katsuki barked from his spot on the building, turning his attention to the two guys on the ground to shriek at his classmates. "You cowards can run if you want, but I'm gonna stay here and make sure that none of these -"

"Bakugou, look out!" Eijirou shouted as he pointed at something in front of him, and Katsuki felt his brow wrinkle. Glancing up, though, his eyes then widened, and he was forced to blast away from his spot as one lizard guy, wings spread under his arms and several rows of teeth opened wide to bite at where Katsuki's throat had been, nearly slammed into him, instead smacking into the wall of the building Katsuki bounced off of.

If he had been injured by the hit, though, he didn't show it, letting out a hiss of laughter and looking around as Katsuki blasted through the air with a growl.

"Sssssstay ssssstill, brat," He giggled with glee, "gonna bite your head off!"

"You fucking wish!" Katsuki bellowed in rage, and threw the hand covered by the grenade gauntlet up.

BOOM

As another explosion lit up the dark ruined city in the USJ, and several more empowered villains began crawling out of the hole Eijirou had made, both boys on the ground stared up in slight terror and exasperation as Katsuki eagerly flew right into the horde, laughing as crazily as they were as he continued throwing explosion after explosion at the overpowered villains. And then they glanced at each other.

"He's really gonna try to fight them all, isn't he?" Denki asked in a tired voice.

"Probably." Eijirou slowly nodded.

"He's totally underestimating them, isn't he?"

"Yeah, definitely."

"We're ... gonna have to make sure he doesn't fucking die, right?"

"... yeah."

With that, the two boys on the ground let out challenging yells as they ran towards the crazed villains, Denki sweating up a storm as he charged himself up with electricity and Eijirou hardened his body up to throw himself back into the fight.

---

"WHERE DID THEY GO?!"

"COME OUT, COWARDS!"

"WHEEEERE AAAAARE YOOOOOOU?!"

Throughout the conflagration zone, the roars and shrieks of the villains echoed around the flaming city, all of them too hopped up on Trigger to even make sense of their surroundings. Several of the villains stomped their feet and slammed their arms against the sides of the buildings, not even minding the burns they would get as their pumped up bodies passed through the flames as they bellowed in rage. At the front of the group, Mummy let out a small sigh as he shook his head, already over the temper tantrums and tempted to just wrap them up - but no, that would defeat the purpose of giving them the Trigger, so at the moment he would stay his hand.

They had taken their eyes off their targets for a single moment to insert the Trigger into their bloodstream, and when they had looked back up, their quirks now more powerful than ever before … they weren't there anymore. They had quickly climbed up to the rooftop where the three students had been hiding, but they had been nowhere in sight. As though they had just vanished into thin air. And that had tripped up all the villains who had taken the Trigger with the sole purpose of putting them through unimaginable pain, and sent them right over the edge.

"DAMN IT!" One of the villains bellowed, slamming his enlarged fist against the side of one of the buildings with enough force to crumble the wall and send it falling back into the flames, the other Trigger henchmen screaming their heads off. "WHERE DID THEY GO?!"

"Patience," Mummy shook his head, looking back at the other empowered villains that were currently freaking out and narrowing his eyes, "they couldn't have gotten far - you've already blocked the exit with your quirks, that's why we brought you to this specific zone. Just keep a clear head and find them."

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Another villain from the back screamed at him, rage completely filling his vision as he threw his fist back and filled it with enough fire to blow apart a small building -

- and then grunted when several of the bandages wrapped around Mummy suddenly shot out, wrapping around his body and pinning his arms to his sides as he roared in confusion and rage.

"WHAT - STOP - DON'T -!" He tried to break free of the restraints, roaring in fury as they completely wrapped over him like a mummy, his screams briefly being muffled - and then there was a small burst of bright light that made the other Trigger villains look away in pain from the brightness, and when they looked back, they were shocked to see a large, red shape resembling the villain, only wrapped securely in Mummy's wrappings. They watched, intimidated, as it began slowly lumbering down the street, looking around for the children who escaped while Mummy controlled it from his hand.

"Anyone else want to get testy with me?" He raised an eyebrow, pleased when none of the roaring villains stood up to him. "Now then - as I was saying, concentrate on finding the children. This zone isn't that big, they couldn't have gotten far. And there's very few places they can hide."

As the villains quickly nodded and began searching a lot quieter than they had been before, a bit of a ways down the street, Izuku gulped from their hiding spot on the rooftop. His eyes trailed down to the one villain who didn't take the quirk boosting drug, the gears slowly turning in his head as he analyzed the situation.

It was clear that this villain was in charge of the gang, and the reason he didn't take the drug with them was to keep them in line - if someone lost control, he would wrap them up and put them back to work. That … was pretty bad. Some of the villains were acting like wild animals, but with this guy there to keep them in line, it would be harder to get around them.

Quietly, Izuku slipped back down to where Pony and Yosetsu were also hiding beside him, both of them sweating nervously as Pony made sure that her head was down - her horns would be a dead giveaway for where they were, so it had been quickly decided that she would keep out of sight while the boys stole a few peeks.

"This is bad," Yosetsu muttered, using his bandana to wipe at his sweaty face from both the intense heat and nerves, "what're we supposed to do? There isn't any way we can fight them, can we?!"

Izuku let out a small sigh, slipping down to kneel beside their small group, and quietly put his hand on his chin to think.

"I don't think … okay, yeah, I don't think we'd stand much of a chance in a head-on fight," He admitted in a low voice, grimacing, "no way. There's no way we can charge in without them noticing us immediately and blasting us apart. But we should still talk about our options." He glanced over at Pony, seeing her large, doe-like eyes squinting from all the smoke, "Tsunotori, your quirk does have offensive capabilities, right? From the battle trial, you were able to launch your horns at Kacchan."

"Yeah, but I can only do it two at a time," She explained, shaking her head as she tapped on one of the long horns protruding from her hair, "and they're useless if I try to summon more, they'll just fall to the ground like the ones I used to get us over here. I can probably stab 'em in the villains if we sneak up on 'em, but that'll probably give me away, I can't be too far away."

"Okay … and how many can you control at a time?"

"Just the two right now! So I gotta stop, fire, and fly away if we need to, and that takes time to let my horns regrow. So, uh … I … kinda … suck," Pony slumped her shoulders. "Sorry."

"And before you even ask," Yosetsu sighed, also slumping on the wall as Izuku looked over at him, "my quirk just lets me stick stuff together. I have to get in close to do it too, since my quirk's based on physical contact. I'm useless at this kinda thing."

"So… uh … we're fucked?"

"Yeah. We're fucked."

"I - no, guys, come on!" Izuku tried to pump them back up, squeezing his fists together as he tried to look between his two clearly defeated classmates, "Your quirks are awesome! They just … they might not be fit for a direct confrontation with these guys. And that's okay! We'll just have to -"

"Dude, you come on!" Yosetsu threw up his hands, eyes looking tired as he looked over to his slightly more enthusiastic classmate, "Let's be real for a second - even if we did have offensive quirks like yours or Bakugou's, there's no way we'll be able to defeat those guys. Do you even know what shit they just put in themselves? That's fucking Trigger!"

"Trigger?" Pony blinked in confusion, while Izuku straightened up, his eyes widening slightly as he peeked back over the rooftop, "What's that?"

"Oh, right, you're from America, they don't have that kind of - yeah, it'd be more contraband over there. It's like a - well, it's a quirk booster," Yosetsu explained to the horse girl as Izuku continued to watch the villains, seeing them spread out and shriek for the teenagers to reveal themselves, "it started out as an illegal drug before they managed to create a legal version of it, but it's mostly used to stop baldness and … uh …" He paused for a moment, glancing left and right while his face went noticeably red, and muttered, "... and erectile dysfunction. My uncle uses it for his head."

Pony paused for a moment, mentally trying to figure out what Japanese word Yosetsu just used - and then her face scrunched up in disgust.

"... ewwwww."

"A-anyway, those are - those are like controlled doses. This - this ain't that. I saw something like this on the news a few years ago, Trigger's some kind of - y'know, a villain drug that thugs take to boost their powers. And these guys took a big fucking dose, so now their quirks are going overboard and we have no idea when the fuck it's gonna wear off. There's no way we could stand up to them even if we wanted to - it'd take freakin' All Might to stop them at this point!"

At that last sentence, though, Izuku blinked. He briefly stared down at the screaming, rampaging villains - and then the dots connected, remembering what they had heard on the walkie-talkie a few minutes ago from their supposed leader.

"Ingest it, and enjoy yourselves as you tear the children apart. And then be ready. All Might will be here soon."

"... that is what they're doing."

"Huh?" Pony blinked, looking back up at Izuku when she heard him mutter. "You say something, Midoriya-san?"

"That's their plan," Izuku looked back down at them, horror filling his eyes as he realized what they were up to, "it'd take All Might himself to stop them - and that's what they're counting on. These guys - the Villain Consortium, they came here to kill All Might. That's - that's gotta be how they're planning to do it - they made their henchmen take all the Trigger, and when All Might gets here -"

"They'll swarm him," Yosetsu finished for him, his own eyes widening, "But - but wait, if that's the case, then All Might'll kick their asses, right? He handled Trigger guys a long time ago as well, he beat the crap out of them!"

"Y-yeah!" Pony quickly nodded, bunching her fists as she looked hopeful, "He'll come and save us!"

Izuku slowly nodded in agreement, although his frown did deepen as he glanced back over the side, letting out a small sigh as he thought quietly to himself. Indeed, All Might had been capable of fighting against Trigger villains - he'd also seen the reports from years ago, when Trigger was rampaging around Japan and his mom and Miwa had warned Izuku and Ochako in serious voices never to accept anything from a stranger - but there was one thing that no one but he, Ochako and Itsuka knew.

"Truth is, kid ... I can only work as a hero for about three hours a day. And then I'm stuck like this until I recover enough strength to buff up again."

All Might was injured … and he didn't show up today when they arrived. Aizawa had specifically said in the classroom today that he and All Might would be helping Thirteen, but the pro hero was nowhere to be found when they had arrived. And he hadn't been able to hear them, but he had seen Aizawa and Thirteen muttering to themselves before they went inside the USJ - she had held up another hand, showing him three fingers.

Which must've meant … that All Might was either running on little time, or completely out of time right now. It was possible that he wouldn't even be able to get here even if he wanted.

Besides that …

"Anyway, we should probably keep hiding," Yosetsu continued saying to Pony, "there's no chance of us taking them down, so let's just wait for All Might to come and save us."

"That's not possible," Izuku shook his head, moving back to kneel beside his classmates and seeing them look around at him, "even if we waited for All Might, they're looking for us right now. And some of the villains are tall enough right now to see over the rooftops. We can hide and run, sure, but - but they'll eventually find us."

As Yosetsu and Pony glanced between each other fearfully, Izuku sighed and sat down on the rooftop, taking a second to smack himself in the face to try and clear his thoughts, and think. The odds were stacked heavily against them - Izuku had offensive power, sure, but he was still hesitant to use it against other people. He knew that no one would judge him for using his quirk on these overpowered villains, but that was the main question, wasn't it? Could his lightning even hurt them, or would it just tickle them?

And he couldn't exactly ignore that they were outnumbered thirty-to-three, and the villain in the red bandages was clearly keeping them in line if they got distracted. Not to mention their surroundings, flaming buildings and the hot atmosphere, would work against them as well, with little places they could run in case things got too hairy. So a frontal assault, or a straight-up fight? Not possible. They'd die if they tried directly confronting the Trigger villains.

So …

His eyes narrowing slightly, Izuku turned his gaze from his feet to the large roof of the zone they were in, the gears in his head continuing to turn as he considered their limited options. If confrontation wasn't possible … then escape was their only choice. They'd have to figure out a way out of this heated death trap, before the Trigger henchmen found and killed them, or the smoke from the burning buildings would eventually cause them to pass out - and they'd be dead anyway.

But how? That Mummy guy clearly mentioned that they had blocked off the entrance, and they were probably smart enough to leave a few villains there to wait just in case. So that wasn't an option. In that instance, the only option would be to …

… to …

As he continued to stare at the roof, Izuku gulped, and then looked back down at the Full Gauntlet on his arm, the little needle still in the red. The idea he had … it wasn't the best one, of course, and there was a chance it could backfire - but he, Pony and Yosetsu needed to get out of there. And to do that … well … it was probably going to hurt, but he could deal with that pain later, his eyes narrowed as he clenched his fist.

Ochako and Itsuka were still out there somewhere, and probably in trouble. He knew that they could handle themselves, but he couldn't deny how hard his heart was hammering at the thought of them in danger, especially if they were dealing with villains boosted up on Trigger right now. He needed to get to them, and make sure that they were okay.

So he could deal with a little pain.

"Okay," He breathed, looking back from where he had been studying his hand to the other two teenagers as he nodded, "okay. We won't fight, but we still need to get out of here."

"How?" Pony glanced up at him, shaking a bit, "They said that they got the entrance blocked."

"That's true. But Tsunotori - you were able to fly," Izuku pointed out, leaning forward a bit, "that's how you were able to catch us when we first fell in here - you can use your horns to fly?"

"Uh … yeah?"

"How does that work? Can you go fast? Or - you know?"

"W-well, I can go fast, but not at first," Pony explained, rubbing her horn a bit as she thought, "I can't just jump on and start zooming around, I gotta build up a bit of speed first. Usually it takes about a minute to get to full speed, and even then, I'm not fast like - y'know, Iida or Hadou."

"Okay … and Awase," His gaze snapped to the other boy, seeing him look back at him in confusion, "you're able to weld things to each other. If you were to - y'know, weld my arm to Tsunotori's back, I wouldn't fall off?"

"Uh … yeah? But it's not like that just removes your weight, you'd still be freaking heavy."

"Right … right … but theoretically, you'd be able to do it, right?"

"Yeah," Pony nodded, still unsure, "but like I said, I'd need a minute to get to full speed, and the villains would notice us by then, wouldn't they?"

"They would," Izuku agreed, raising his hand to smack into his fist as he nodded, "but don't worry - I think I have a plan."

---

In hindsight … Nejire's plan seriously sucked.

"Eep!" She squeaked as she soared just above the water, narrowly avoiding another large hand made of - well, water - from swatting her out of the sky. Feeling her quirk go into slight overdrive, she blasted out at another weirdo villain who had leapt out of the water after the hand missed her, his shark quirk evolving to form multiple shark heads from his body and giving him even more scary teeth. Luckily her blast caught him right in the chest, sending him skidding across the water like a rock before sinking beneath the surface, although she hummed in worry when she saw him immediately start going after her again.

She didn't have much time to worry about that, though, seeing as she had to duck under another villain leaping out at her from the water with a yelp, the guy's hands barely missing her long hair as she flew as fast as she could.

"Get her!"

"Drag her into the water! Drown her!"

"Make her shut up!"

"You shut up!" She shot back weakly, dodging another hand being thrown out at her before she began to float up higher into the air, needing a break from her distraction while the villains continued to circle around her like … well … sharks, but they weren't sharks, just one guy was. The other guys were just kinda creepy. No, scratch that, very creepy.

Anyway, this sucked majorly, she pouted to herself as she dodged another hand construct that shot up at her to knock her out of the sky. She thought she could fire off a few shots to get their eyes on her and off Tsuyu and Yui climbing down the slide, and it had worked! But then they inserted those icky syringes and now they were super duper powerful! No way she could take on all of them!

The best she could do was fly away from the slide, keeping all the crazy villains' eyes on her while her friends escaped or at least got to safety. But now she had a big problem with all these guys now being super freaky, super powerful, and super wanting to drown her.

Which was bad. Really, really bad. Plus the fact that she couldn't really see the water either thanks to the stupid lighting meant that they could pop up from anywhere! What was she supposed to -

"Eeep!" She squeaked again as another villain launched himself out of the water, with a lot more force so he went a lot higher, and after quickly turning to the side to dodge him, Nejire decided to quickly fly up to near the top of the USJ, just for a small break. As she floated up in the air, she quickly stole a glance over to the slide and felt relieved to still see Tsuyu and Yui carefully making their way to the bottom. Plus, they were much closer to the bottom of the construct now, so if either of them fell in it wouldn't be like it was concrete they were landing on, which would be very bad. No, they'd be able to crawl down and swim to safety at this rate!

The problem, though, was that there was still a lot of distance between there and the shore. Sure, Tsuyu might be able to swim really, really fast thanks to her quirk, but Yui was also kind of heavy - Nejire didn't mean that in a bad way, of course, her figure was really nice, but she still had weight that Tsuyu needed to drag along in the water, and would slow her down. And she wasn't sure if all these bad guys were looking at her - maybe there were still a few bad guys lurking around the slide, waiting to attack Tsuyu if she went into the water!

So in that case, she needed to figure out a new strategy, and fast. Nejire thought for a moment as she floated up in the air, staring down at the villains and seeing a big piece of ice being thrown up into the air and straight at -

- wait. Big piece of ice?

With a small shriek of surprise, Nejire quickly flew out of the way before the large chunk of ice from the slide could hit her and knock her right out of the air, falling back down and hitting the fake mountain that the slide was attached to. Shaking her head and feeling her eyes widen, she looked back down to see the villains grabbing a few more pieces of ice, whatever drug they took giving them the strength to chuck them at her.

With a pout, Nejire threw back her hands, brimming with yellow spirals of energy, as she tried to push her thoughts aside and concentrate on a conversation she had with Izuku a few days ago.

"So your quirk draws on your stamina? And if you use enough energy, you get tired?"

"Yep! If I use too much of it, I get really sleepy."

Frowning, Nejire slowly raised her hands, feeling her quirk's energy continue to spin out in the cute little spirals she loved. She didn't feel too tired right now, but she knew that it would only be a matter of time before her Wave Motion ran out of vitality to drain from her. She'd eventually get tired, and be forced to fall into the water all sleepy - and then she'd either drown, or get eaten. And she didn't want to get eaten! She didn't taste all that good! She was sure she smelled good, at least, she put on lots of perfume this morning, and had on some deodorant -

- wait, wait, she was getting distracted again, refocus, Nejire.

She could use twenty percent of her quirk safely without falling asleep - anything more than that, she'd have a high chance of knocking herself out. So keep her output to twenty percent, and she'd be fine! She'd distract the villains, Tsuyu and Yui would get back to shore, and then she'd go and find Izuku!

… and Itsuka and Ochako, of course. And Momo and Tenya and Setsuna. And then everyone else!

Narrowing her eyes in determination, Nejire moved into a swan dive towards the lake, keeping her arms at her side and began to twirl somewhat through the air. She could see a few more chunks of ice being thrown at her, but she'd be able to dodge those easily, as shown when she went into a nose dive towards the water and the large pieces of ice soared above her head. It didn't matter if she didn't have too much of a plan - she couldn't fight them at all, she had quickly realized, so the name of the game was to keep them all on one side of the lake while Yui and Tsuyu escaped on the other.

And to do that, she threw her hands out towards the water, took a deep breath, and felt her outpour raise to five percent.

FWOOM

Quickly, she blasted off a small percent of her quirk, the golden energy slamming straight into the pool of water and exploding in a big wave - which did its job well, making the villains quickly swim or scramble out of the way before giving chase to her as she kept close to the surface. Glancing behind her, she saw, through another flash of lightning, Yui and Tsuyu nearly at the bottom of the slide, which was good!

All she needed to do was keep dodging and weaving, and she'd be able to distract the villains long enough for her classmates to escape.

And, of course, that was just about the time when one of the villains managed to finally grab her foot.

Nejire yelped as she was yanked back from her flight, her momentum cancelled at once as she flailed somewhat in the air, and, with a loud cackle, the villain who had caught her pulled her back down, and dragged Nejire straight into the water. She barely had enough time to take a deep breath before she was yanked under the surface, her eyes stinging at the feeling of salt hitting them, but before she could even try to think of escaping, a pair of hands wrapped tightly around her throat and squeezed, making her gasp and open her mouth - and immediately felt water filling in, her eyes widening in panic.

"Drown the bitch!" One of the villains growled as they worked together to push her further and further into the water.

"Rip her hair out!"

"No! Keep her at the bottom! Let's watch the life drain from her eyes!"

Soon enough, Nejire felt her back meet something solid, making her realize that they had dragged and pushed her all the way to the bottom of the lake, and were now pressing her firmly against the floor to keep her from moving. She tried to lash out, punching at the villain choking her, but another few villains were quick to grab her by the wrists and her costume's support items to pin her against the ground, grabbing her ankles as well so that she was laid flat. As soon as she realized that she couldn't move, Nejire began to panic, her screams silent as she strained as best she could and her long blue hair floated in the water, but the villains kept her restrained as they laughed and mocked her.

Oh, god … oh, god, was she going to die? Nejire shook in terror as water continued to fill her lungs, seeing black spots begin to dance in her vision within the darkness of the lake and the cold making her shiver. She was so stupid! She shouldn't have kept so close to the water - and now she was going to die, and no one would be able to help Tsuyu and Yui! They could get away, maybe, but what would happen if Tsuyu were to jump in after her?! There was no way she could fight them all!

She couldn't breathe! Her limbs felt more heavy than she'd ever felt before as she tried to fight against the villains pinning her. Her fingers felt numb from the cold, her eyes stung, her chest burned.

She was going to die … she was going to die, and no one would be able to help her. No one. Not Yuuyu, not Itsuka, not Tenya, not Ochako, not …

… not Izuku.

For some reason, as her mind slowly began to fog, she suddenly didn't think about how she was about to die. No, instead, her mind went to her new friend. She felt confused for a moment, thinking of how silly he looked in his hero costume, how cute his reactions were whenever she got too close to him (which was kind of weird - Yuuyu didn't react like that when she got up in her business), of how cool he looked blasting a hole in the head of that zero-pointer, how …

… how nice his smile was through that silly respirator when she told him that it was okay not to use his quirk during their battle trial, and his very nice laugh …

And then Nejire felt herself refocus, and her eyes narrow in determination again.

No. No, she couldn't die here. She wasn't going to die here. She still needed to be bridal carried. She still needed to visit the beach with all her friends. She still had so much she wanted to do. She went her whole life with only Yuuyu for a friend, and when she finally made a bunch of cool new ones, what, she was going to die and leave them because stupid shark villains killed her?! No!

She was going to hang out with them all the time! They were going to have so much fun! She was going to talk and laugh and play with them, ask Itsuka how big her hands could grow, how long Ochako could float something, how fast Tenya could run! How little Yui could shrink something, how many body parts Setsuna could split apart! She was going …

… she was going to ask Izuku to hug her! And not some little tiny 'yay' hug, a big long one! She wanted him to hug her! She thought that would be nice! Hold his hand, jump in his arms! Yep, sorry, Mezo, his arms looked nice and comfy, but it was going to be Izuku to give her a bridal carry!

And so, Nejire tried her best to clear the fog in her mind, ignore that she couldn't breathe, and slowly twisted her wrists so that they would face upwards. Her eyes slowly closing, Nejire did her best to concentrate as her hands opened back up, and her quirk activated, making the villains choking her gleefully and pinning her to the bottom of the lake look around, and widen their eyes as they started humming with energy - a lot of energy.

After all, this was UA, right? That Plus Ultra stuff? Well, she'd better go Plus Ultra, then.

Full charge ... Nejire closed her eyes, knowing that this was really going to hurt, and then blasted her quirk out, ... output level 100%!

---

"Ah … so this is Black Hole," Kurogiri mused, his voice wobbling as more of his dark energy was absorbed into Thirteen's finger, "a quirk that sucks up anything it comes across and turns it into dust. I see … this is truly an astounding quirk."

From their position at the top of the stairs, Setsuna gulped nervously as Thirteen continued to absorb more and more of the warp villain's body into the hole in her finger, the five students behind her watching as he warbled in the air. If he found the experience painful he didn't show it, instead merely standing there and curiously watching as his black mist was pulled into Thirteen's finger and vanished. From behind them, Setsuna could still hear the loud shrieks of laughter from the villains below, and stole another nervous glance behind her to see the villains stretching horrifically, or more weapons appearing in their skin, or their muscles bulging menacingly as they charged at Aizawa.

Thankfully, their teacher managed to flip over the several blows being thrown at him, but had to move even faster than before to avoid several sharp hair drills from stabbing through him while he twisted in the air. It looked like his quirk was still capable of erasing the other villains' enhanced abilities, making them keel over briefly as the pain of the quirk booster they just took caught up with them - but Aizawa's attention couldn't stay on one specific person forever, and as soon as he glanced away, the Trigger would return to their system along with their quirks and allowing the villain to get right back up to continue the attack while the villains' leader was content with sitting back against the fountain and watching.

"Tokage!" Tenya quickly reached out to shake her shoulder, making her jump a bit and snapping her out of watching their teacher fight for his life, and back to the bespectacled boy as he glanced between her and the villain they were confronting. "Please, keep focused! I know Aizawa-sensei is in trouble, but you and I need to keep our attention on this villain."

"R-right, sorry, Iida," Setsuna quickly shook her head, looking back around at the warp villain, "I just - yeah."

"Good. I'm going to head towards the door - please remember if I -"

"However, Thirteen," Kurogiri sneered, making Tenya pause his thought and look around at the villain as his yellow eyes stayed on the teacher, "you are a hero who works primarily to rescue people from disasters. And as a disaster relief hero ... you can't measure up to even the most ordinary of heroes when it comes to a fight."

And without warning, a portal appeared in the middle of Kurogiri's body, the villain chuckling slowly as the effects of Thirteen's quirk immediately began absorbing the warp gate and giving Kurogiri the chance to get himself out of its effects. Before any of them could even blink, or realize what he was doing, another warp gate appeared - right behind Thirteen.

"What -?!" Thirteen gasped, looking around in horror as she finally realized what the villain was doing - but the few seconds she had hesitated meant that it was too late to even think of moving out of the way, or stopping her quirk. The effects of Black Hole immediately took effect on her back, making her eyes widen from behind her helmet as her costume - and parts of her back - were ripped off by her own quirk. Quickly, she tried to stop her quirk, feeling the clasp close on her finger - but the damage had been done.

"As I thought," Kurogiri chuckled, watching smugly as Thirteen fell forward, "you now find yourself ripped apart by your own power."

"Thirteen!" Mina cried out for her as the pro hero collapsed on her face, unmoving. Setsuna felt her breath leave in shakes as she hyperventilated, staring down at Thirteen in horror, while Tenya stared incomprehensibly as well, as though completely caught off guard by what had happened and staring blankly down at the unmoving body of their teacher - until he shook his head and felt his engines activate on his legs.

"Damn it!" He cried out, sprinting straight past Kurogiri thanks to the speed of his quirk and towards the door, leaving behind Mina to run to the collapsed Thirteen and try to raise her off the ground. Tilting his head, Kurogiri followed the bespectacled boy's movements, his yellow eyes narrowing as Tenya raced towards the large doors.

"Oh, my dear sweet children," He mused as he vanished from his spot, "it would hardly be to our benefit if I let you outside."

As fast as he could, Tenya raced towards the doors - and then gasped as a warp gate suddenly appeared in front of him, waiting for him to run inside it. It was clear that the villain wasn't going to let him get outside without a fight, and Tenya knew he would be at a disadvantage if he tried to avoid him - racing around him meant that Kurogiri could just open another warp gate beneath his feet and cause him to fall. And Tenya knew that if he didn't make out to the door, then instead …

Quickly, Tenya leapt up into the air, throwing out his leg towards where the villain had appeared to kick him away - only for Kurogiri to chuckle again and vanish before the kick could connect.

"How tragic, Four Eyes," The warp villain taunted, appearing behind Tenya, "you're so impudent. As entertaining as it would be to chase you in circles, I still have a job to do - so let's teleport you to a place you can run to your heart's content. Perhaps the flood zone -"

"No you don't!" Mezo shouted, and leapt out to tackle the villain midair. Kurogiri grunted in surprise as he was wrapped up in the multiple arms of the student, hitting the ground and rolling away as Mezo kept a tight grip on him. Snarling, Kurogiri vanished from the student's grasp, Mezo quickly looking around and letting out a gasp as another tendril of black mist was thrown down towards him, and quickly rolled off to the side before it could slam into him and transport him somewhere else in the USJ.

Kurogiri merely growled at the interference, whipping around to see where Tenya had gone - only to blink in surprise when the young man, instead of running towards the doors, shouted something he couldn't quite make out and raced over to throw another kick at him. Laughing, Kurogiri warped away just in time again, moving back towards the stairs as both Mezo and Tenya charged him - and then he felt something light and sticky attach to his back.

"I knew it!" Hanta pulled back hard on the piece of tape, making Kurogiri stumble with a surprised grunt, "That metal thing's a part of your body, isn't it?! You aren't just mist, you've got something physical hiding in there!"

"You little -!"

With an annoyed growl, Kurogiri threw another tendril of mist at the dark haired boy, making him jump away quickly before he could be hit. Before Kurogiri could continue with the onslaught, however, Mezo quickly threw out his multiple hands, only to gasp in surprise when another warp gate opened and absorbed them. Mezo immediately knew what was about to happen, and quickly withdrew his hands before Kurogiri could close the gate and sever them.

Menacingly, Kurogiri threw more tendrils of darkness at the two boys interfering - only to grunt in surprise and pain as Tenya's leg finally connected with his true body, sending him flailing away to hit the railing of the platform.

As he rose, his yellow eyes narrowing to slits as he glared at the three boys, Kurogiri growled - and yet, he couldn't help but feel like something was off. The boy in glasses had been trying to escape, only to do a complete one eighty and began attacking him at full force. And these two boys were assisting him, keeping him away from the door they'd been trying to get to. This was something that annoyed him, tempting him to just say to hell with it and warp these five students to be torn apart by -

- wait.

Five students. Three boys, two girls, and Thirteen.

His eyes quickly flickered to where Thirteen had collapsed, seeing the pink-skinned girl kneeling beside her and helping her up with tears in her eyes - but the girl in purple wasn't there.

She wasn't …

And that was when Kurogiri understood. His eyes widening, he quickly whipped around towards the door, and saw Setsuna running as fast as she could towards the large blue doors, sprinting as hard as she could while tears continued to slide down her cheeks from terror.

"Aaaaaah … I see," Kurogiri chuckled, looking at the three panicked boys as they realized that he had caught on to their plan, "you made me concentrate on the one with the obvious speed quirk while the other slipped away. Alas …"

And with that, Kurogiri quickly blasted out a few more tendrils of black mist, making the three boys quickly jump out of the way. While they were distracted he whipped around, ignoring the three boys and focusing on Setsuna, and blasted out several more tendrils of black mist towards her.

Quickly glancing over her shoulder, Setsuna jumped out of the way as the tendrils swept over her, feeling herself continue to hyperventilate now that the villain's attention was entirely on her. And yet, she tried her best to push through the fear and get to the doors - it was up to her to get to the teachers and tell them what was going on, and she wasn't going to let tall, dark and evil over there teleport her away!

"Run, Tokage!" Hanta yelled at her, dodging under another one of the writhing tendrils of black mist to shoot out another piece of tape towards the body of the villain - but Kurogiri was prepared this time, opening another warp gate as the tape sailed through it, and opened another one behind him so that the piece of tape could soar straight at Setsuna's back. Thankfully, she managed to duck in time, dodging and weaving through the energy being thrown at her, years of training with Itsuka and Yui letting her dodge through them easily - but she knew that her biggest problem would be the moment she actually got to the doors.

The large blue doors were thick - which meant that it would take some time for her to get them open, and that meant that she would forced to stay stationary and be at risk of the villain attacking her. Before she could think of a strategy, however, she reached them, and without thinking grabbed the two doors and began to strain with all her might, her sharp teeth clenching together tightly as she tried to pull them open.

And slowly, the doors began sliding open, showing her a look at the harsh wind and lightning flickering and the heavy rain hitting the ground outside.

"I will not -!" Kurogiri growled, blasting out at Setsuna again to teleport her back now that she wasn't moving around - only for another strand of tape to hit his metal brace from behind, and felt Hanta pull with all his might to yank him off his feet. This time Kurogiri wasn't caught off guard, merely being pulled back somewhat, but he was not to be deferred, his yellow eyes narrowing as Setsuna strained to get outside - and as she took one step through the doors, Kurogiri blasted out a particularly large tendril to hit her, knowing that there would be no way for her to get out of the way in time.

With a grunt, Kurogiri threw it down, and Setsuna only had time to look back, her eyes widening in shock and panic, as the warp gate slammed down on top of her.

Tenya, Mezo and Hanta stared in shock and disbelief as the darkness of Kurogiri's quirk slammed straight down on top of their friend, and Mina let out a small squeak of terror from where she was helping Thirteen as Kurogiri pulled his tendril back, Setsuna nowhere to be found.

"Ah ... well, that was dramatic," Kurogiri chuckled to himself, assured in his victory as he opened another warp gate to deposit the fleeing girl and seeing the doors on the other side of the platform slowly begin to close again. "But despite your best efforts, students, there was no way that I … would have …"

He faltered, however, when he opened the warp gate and slowly let the girl back out, his eyes trailing up and then blinking in confusion. He made out her dark boots, her legs, her waist … and then nothing else. As though she had been cut in half, Setsuna's lower body fell out of the portal, landing on its knees before quickly scrambling up and running past the warp villain as he stared at her incomprehensibly.

"What …?" Kurogiri stared in confusion as the lower body of the girl ran to join the other four students and the teacher. Where did the top half of her body -?

And then he quickly realized what had happened. His eyes widening, he quickly looked back around at the closing doors - and saw the top half of the girl floating and streaking away in the harsh rains, but before he could try to open another warp gate, the heavy metal doors closed again with a large BOOM,sealing them back inside - and preventing Kurogiri from chasing her back down, with no way for him to pinpoint her exact location.

It was then that Kurogiri realized that he had lost - there was no way that he could leave the USJ to warp her back, or the children behind him would use that as an opportunity to leave. And if he were to waste time warping them, she would get away and he would be unable to find her. And then ... so that meant ...

"Hm ... how disappointing," He mused, slowly beginning to teleport away, "it appears that I have failed."

With that, the warp villain suddenly vanished into thin air, leaving the four students at the top of the stairs. Quickly snapping out of his shock, Tenya turned and moved down towards Thirteen, kneeling beside the wounded hero as Mina tended to her.

"Thirteen!" He called to her, feeling his heart continue to hammer in his chest from the adrenaline of what had happened. "It's - it's alright now! Tokage managed to get out, she's going to alert the teachers!"

"That's … that's good," Thirteen managed to wheeze, her voice filled with pain as she tried to raise her head up and patted Mina's hand, "but … but don't let your guard down too soon. It's - it's not over yet. Don't leave this platform, a-any of you, for any reason. The villains are - they're still here."

"Of course not," Mezo shook his head as he spoke softly, moving to put his hand on Mina's shoulder to assure her, "we'll -"

BOOM

All the students gasped at the sound of a large explosion, as though something had just gone off somewhere below them. Quickly looking around and praying one of the villains didn't sneak past Aizawa and head up the stairs to attack, they looked down to the rest of the USJ -

- and then felt their jaws drop at the sight of a massive tidal wave leaving the shipwreck zone and looming menacingly over the USJ.

---

Honestly, Aizawa wasn't expecting so many terrible things to happen today. An army of villains showing up at their doorstep. Being forced to fight them all in an effort to draw their attention while the students escaped. Those villains taking Trigger, linking this Nine guy to the theft from months ago. He didn't expect those things.

But on top of that, he didn't think he'd have to deal with a goddamn tsunami.

The tall, rising wave of water made everyone in the pavilion freeze in shock, Nine and Slice quickly looking around at it with their eyes widening, and the Trigger villains that had been gleefully attacking the teacher pausing their crazed assaults, either the ones on him or each other, to stare up in surprise. Luckily for Aizawa, he snapped out of it enough to know that it was time to take cover, quickly sprinting away from where he had been kneeling down to dive against the side of the stairs, knowing that it wasn't the most sturdy support but it was better than nothing. Before any of the villains could think to run to cover, the massive wave of water moved down from the shipwreck zone and onto the rest of the USJ, as Nine narrowed his eyes, kept Slice secured next to him, and raised his hand as the water crashed down on them.

FWOOOOOM

The massive wave of water crashed down on the pavilion, carrying everyone away. The Trigger henchmen screamed in panic and rage as they were swept away by the current, unable to fight back as the water dragged them throughout the facility and away from the fight at the pavilion. The hooded man, meanwhile, quickly leapt up at a surprising speed to jump right over the wave, his eyes trailing wildly around to see who had the strength to do that and being disappointed that he couldn't find them, while Nomu merely stood there and took the water head on, being quickly swept away by the water without even trying to fight back, his expression not changing at all. Aizawa grunted as water slammed over the stairs, immediately drenching him, but at least it didn't carry him away or break his protection.

Finally, the tidal wave hit the other end of the facility, and the shipwreck zone was left with barely any water, the titular shipwreck laying on its side away from the zone as water slowly began to rush back to the large hole it had once been in. The water from around the facility just came up to everyone's calves, making the Trigger villains waddle through the water - either to get up and reorganize, or turning their frustration and single-minded rage on each other as they started to fight.

From the fountain, Nine let out a sigh as he looked around, both he and Slice still at their spots near the fountain.

"Hm," He hummed as his eyes narrowed behind the cloak's hood, "that … wasn't one of ours."

"What even was that?" Slice winced as she felt water fill her boot, growling somewhat as she pushed her wet bangs out of her face. "Some kind of explosion quirk? Was that one of the villains in the lake?"

"No," Nine slowly shook his head, feeling his other quirk activate as he slowly turned his yellow eyes to where the lake used to be, "the villains we put in the lake didn't have quirks strong enough to create waves, let alone a tsunami like that. That was one of the students. We underestimated them, Slice … once we're done killing All Might, I want Chimera to go into the lake and find whichever students were in there. If we had more time, we should've found out what their quirks were before we arrived, we would've been able to act accordingly."

"So - wait, you want to take the quirk of whoever just did this?"

"Perhaps," Nine shrugged, raising his hand to look down at the artificial hole created in his palm, "if it's compatible with my body, and doesn't put on too much strain, I can switch it out with -"

THWIP

Before either villain could blink, a gray cloth wrapped tightly around Nine's forearm, and yanked back hard. The villain let out a grunt of surprise as he was pulled suddenly towards Aizawa, the hero sprinting back into the fight from where he had been hidden at the stairs to leap up into the air and throw a kick at the villain's face - only for Slice to move faster, her hair hardening and intercepting the blow. As Aizawa's foot connected to the impromptu shield, the piece of cloth attached to Nine's arm slicing in two, Aizawa was quick to aim his gaze towards the woman, and her hair immediately fell, her quirk erased.

However, he couldn't exactly keep his attention on her, seeing as the moment her hair fell loose, Nine's hand burst through the red locks and wrapped tightly around Aizawa's throat. Choking, Aizawa was surprised when Nine quickly flipped Aizawa over his shoulder in a judo throw, slamming him down into the water and raising his foot to stomp down on the teacher's face while snarling - only for Aizawa to catch his foot and shove up.

As Nine stumbled back, Aizawa twirled on the ground, kicking out the ringleader's other foot and sending him falling back onto the watery ground with a splash. He couldn't quite celebrate that, though, what with Slice's quirk reactivating and turning into sharp, spear-like appendages that stabbed downwards, forcing Aizawa to roll through the water and out of the way before he was impaled.

The moment Aizawa was back on his feet, his eyes snapped to Slice and erased her quirk, but it was clear that wasn't going to put a stop to her this time. As her wet hair fell, she smirked and flexed her fingers, retractable metal claws unsheathing as she slowly raised them to her mouth, taking a small swipe with her tongue.

"Stay back, Nine," Her gaze never left Aizawa as her leader got back to his feet, "I'll handle him."

Aizawa narrowed his eyes, and quickly ducked as Slice came at him much quicker than he expected, the long blades on her fingers nearly missing his face as he moved down. He aimed for a shot at her kidney, balling his fist and throwing it forward, but she was fast, moving to the side and kicking out at Aizawa, catching him in the chest and sending him rolling over his back and onto his hands and knees. With a grunt, Aizawa leapt back up, ducking and blocking her strikes and hits as Nine slowly moved around the duelists, his red eyes studying Aizawa as he slowly raised a hand up towards the glass ceiling.

It was clear that this woman was far more combative than the other henchmen that had been attacking him, Aizawa thought as he threw out another kick and she expertly leaned back to avoid it. She had obvious training, or else had enough experience to put up a fight, kicking at him with a series of moves that put him entirely on the defensive, being forced to duck under her blows and look for an opening. Still, Aizawa decided to remain on the defensive for the moment - for every ten shots that she could connect, there would be the one that she fumbled with, and as long as he was patient and looked out for it, he'd be able to get under her guard and give her a swift take down.

Finally, she made one tiny slip up, probably taking advantage of his going completely on the defensive to wind her foot up in a circle and bring it down on top of his head - something that Aizawa could easily catch, crossing his arms briefly to deflect the blow before quickly twisting his hands to grab her ankle. While her eyes went wide as she realized her mistake, Aizawa grunted as he pushed forward, forcing her to lose her balance - since her foot was up high, she could only support her weight on the other foot still in the water, meaning it would be easy to slam her back into the ground, forcing the air out of her lungs as she gasped.

Straddling her waist, Aizawa threw his fist back, intending to strike her hard enough in the face to knock her out of the fight, and then move on to -

KRACK-BOOM

Aizawa's eyes widened as he heard the extremely loud clash of lightning - and then being swiftly followed by the shattering of glass. Quickly looking up, Aizawa saw the broken pieces of the ceiling window begin to descend upon them, and quickly rolled away from Slice, needing to get out of the way before any of the large pieces could hit or cut him - he really didn't need to lose a limb today from a particuarily large piece of glass. Slice had a similar idea, taking advantage of Aizawa's gaze flickering off her to create a small shield of her hair to protect her.

Rolling to the side, Aizawa winced as pieces of glass slammed into the watery ground and shattered everywhere, breaking and sending glass pieces flying. He winced when one particularly sharp piece barely missed his face, scraping the side of his head and taking out a small chunk of his hair, as he looked back around with fury building in his eyes.

"My apologies for the interruption," Nine chuckled from his spot near the broken fountain, his hand still up in the air, "but I wanted to make sure you didn't hurt my friend there. Hope you don't mind."

Panting, Aizawa went down into a defensive crouch, feeling the rain from the now open roof sprinkling down on them. He knew that Nine was taking advantage of this pause to quickly move to Slice, helping her up to her feet and dusting her off - and then a thought came to him. He wasn't able to use his quirk on Nine at all because of the cloak around him, but the tiny gap at the top for him to see …

As the villain looked back around at him, Aizawa concentrated his gaze on the darkness of his face, and activated his quirk. Sure enough, the rain pouring in around him slowed to a stop.

"So that's you," Aizawa noted, returning his gaze to Slice as she sharpened more spears of hair and feeling the rain resume the moment he looked away from the villain leader, "you're the reason behind this weather - some kind of elemental-manipulation quirk."

"You'd be right about that," Nine conversationally said, patting Slice's lower back and making her smirk as he turned his gaze back to the teacher, "my quirk gives me the ability to control any kind of weather - from storms to summer clouds, to tornadoes to hurricanes. It's quite the useful quirk - I wanted a little atmosphere for this invasion, in addition to being able to keep the teachers from getting here quickly in case they caught word of what was happening, so I thought it'd be nice to overload your generator and create a little scenery."

"And you're the one who stole the Trigger," Aizawa glanced around, seeing the Trigger henchmen continue to brawl with each other before returning his gaze to the leader of the villains, "what, need to amplify your powers a little bit? It's already pretty overkill."

"Oh, no, I'm not the one using the Trigger - or at least, not to that amount," Nine chuckled, gesturing to some of the rampaging villains striking each other, "not to the extent that I would lose control of myself. It's a good way to sway over any weak minded people desperate for a chance at glory - I'm not too fond of employing people with such weak quirks, but I wouldn't get anywhere if I only tried to scout the strong. So I bring in the weak and offer them the chance to become strong. Don't mention this to them, but I'm pretty much going to be throwing them at All Might - they'll only be strong enough to slow him down for the main course."

"'Not to that amount'," Aizawa repeated, narrowing his eyes, "that's what you said. So you are taking Trigger."

"Not to their extent," Nine repeated as he smirked behind his hood, some of his long white hair escaping from beneath it after their little scrimmage, "just enough for me to drown out the pain of my quirk - nothing more than a tiny drop. Few actually know this, but the more Trigger you ingest, the less control over yourself you have, and your mind becomes foggy and your inhibitions harder to control. If we're being technical, I'm actually using a legal dose of Trigger, so I'm quite innocent of that offense. I imagine I'm going to be crashing pretty hard after we're done today, though, but ... it'll be worth it."

Aizawa hummed a bit, taking advantage of the fact his goggles obscured his eyes to blink, getting some moisture back in his eyes as he glanced around. The other hooded man was slowly making his way back over to the fountain after dodging the tidal wave, and the other Trigger villains were too busy raging and fighting each other to really remember what they were supposed to be doing. So maybe this was Aizawa's chance - take down Nine and Slice, and then the hooded man if he tried to attack, and then head back up the stairs to check on Thirteen and whoever -

And that was when Aizawa felt a powerful hand suddenly grab the back of his neck through the scarf, squeezing tightly and making his eyes widen.

"Ah, yes," Nine chuckled darkly, "I was wondering when you'd get back, Nomu."

Slowly, Aizawa turned his head, or the best he could anyway from how the giant hand gripped him, to look over his shoulder to see the monster Nine had brought along, its brain pulsing a bit as it turned its wide, unblinking gaze to him, its beaked mouth stuck in a frozen smile.

"Now then, Nomu, I changed my mind from before," Nine put his hands in his pockets while Slice giggled maliciously, watching as Aizawa began to brace himself in anticipation for what was about to happen, "you'll be in fine condition for when All Might arrives. Until then … let's show Eraserhead here what happens when he fights villains out of his league."

BAM

---

"RAAAAAAH!"

With a grunt, Itsuka managed to roll underneath the villain's fist being thrown at her face, hearing the sound of rock cracking as it struck the piece of the wall that her head would've been had she not ducked. Rolling back to her feet, Itsuka grew out her hand and slammed it hard into the back of the villain with a yell, smashing him as hard as she could into the wall.

"Kendou!" Ochako called out to her from behind, and Itsuka quickly whipped around, eyes widening at the sight of a villain with mantis claws pulsing all over his body chasing after her, several arms sharpened and ready to strike at her. Ochako was doing a good job of dodging and weaving through his attacks, but she was getting backed up against the wall, with little to no space for her to use her quirk on herself to try and get away - not without losing one of her limbs, at least.

Charging forward, Itsuka yelled to get the mantis villain's attention, using her enlarged hands to slap another Trigger henchman away to get to him. The mantis villain's eyes snapped to her, widening in rage, and quickly turned his attention from Ochako to Itsuka to swipe out at her - a mistake on his part, seeing as him looking away from her completely opened him up. Moving forward, Ochako pressed her hand to his back, taking away his gravity and making him yell in surprise as he began flailing in the air - at least, until Itsuka took advantage of his confusion to punch him away, sending him flying through the air.

"Release!" Ochako quickly pressed her fingers together again, restoring the villain's gravity and dropping him on top of more of the crazed villains circling them. Quickly, she and Itsuka went back to back, looking quickly around at the other Trigger villains hungrily staring at them, as though drooling at the mouth at the thought of attacking him.

This had been their little situation for the last ten minutes or so, the two girls, Momo and Kyouka fighting off the villains after they took the Trigger drug and launched themselves at them with the full intent of tearing them apart. It quickly turned out to be a hopeless fight, Itsuka realized - nothing they were doing was putting them down, only really smacking them away and continuing to move before they could attack. They'd been separated from Momo and Kyouka, Itsuka quickly glancing around and seeing her deputy class representative wack another villain away while Kyouka plugged her earphones into the mics on her legs, sending another blast towards them to knock them off balance while using the machete Momo created for her to hit the villains in the face and send them stumbling back, although they were quick to refocus.

While they fought for their lives, the lead villain, smoking his cigar and leaning against the wall, was content with simply watching smugly as the four girls tried to fight off the crazed villains, and if one of the Trigger henchmen got any bright ideas and attacked him, he'd simply blow his fire breath at them to get them refocused. So at the moment, everyone's attention was on them - which would make escape impossible, and soon enough they'd run out of stamina to keep fighting and be torn apart by the horde.

Thousands of thoughts and plans and counterplans ran through Itsuka's mind as she pressed her back against Ochako's, both girls looking around at the villains as they waited for an opening to jump to. Every plan Itsuka thought of, of either fighting or escaping or running or dodging, would be swiftly countered by the villain leaning against the wall, keeping his rampaging forces focused on them through either shouting or literally throwing them back into the fight if they got distracted.

As both girls attempted to catch their breaths, their eyes trailed over to Chimera, the villain throwing his used cigar away and pulling out another one from his pocket to continue watching the show with interest.

"Not bad, girlies," He chuckled from his spot against the wall, his yellow eyes trailing over to Itsuka and Ochako as they slowly backed up, "I expected you four to die the moment we had our boys here inject the Trigger. You're lastin' a lot longer than I imagined."

"Fuck you," Ochako spat back, not really up for conversing with the villain threatening their lives. For his part, Chimera merely barked out an amused laugh.

"Ha! You got fuckin' stones, girl. Took you for more of the polite, meek one. That mean your pal there's the polite one?"

"Eat shit, asshole."

"Heh!"

While Chimera laughed, Itsuka's eyes flickered around, trying to come up with another plan. Slowly, she glanced between Chimera and Ochako, blinking as she thought of something new - and then she decided to act on the fly.

"Besides, we're not really up to having a discussion with a little coward like you - y'know, unless you wanna get off your lazy ass and fight us ourselves?"

"Kendou?" Ochako muttered quickly, looking back at her in confusion as Itsuka baited the obviously dangerous villain, but the taller girl merely shook her head and glanced back at Ochako with a knowing look in her eye.

"Follow my lead," She muttered, "I wanna try to rile him up."

"This is a stupid plan."

"All my plans are stupid, you should be used to that by now," She was unable to suppress a small smirk at that, and then raised her voice to continue insulting Chimera, who was raising his eyebrow, "Anyway, what's the point of you hiding behind all your Trigger boys while you just sit on your ass? What's the matter, scared of being beat up by girls?"

"Y-yeah," Ochako nodded, trying to come across as tough while also shaking like a leaf, "why don't you - uh - get off your butt and get over here? You - you talk an awful lot of shit from someone hiding behind his gang."

"Yeah," Itsuka smirked, "you're right, Uraraka - he sure likes to talk a big game while hiding behind his boys. I think he's afraid."

Chimera continued to study both girls as they taunted him, his gaze flickering between them - and then he chuckled, shaking his head and putting his cigar back in his mouth.

"Sorry, girls," He snorted as he shot out a little fire to light up the cigar, "you two ain't slick. You're gonna have to try a bit harder than that if you want me to tear your heads off. I'm stickin' back just to make sure you four don't get any bright ideas on escapin'. I'd love to kill you myself, believe me - but I got orders."

"From your boss, huh? I think he said his name was Nine on that call, right?" Itsuka continued to try and stall for time, feeling Ochako slowly back up with her as they made their way over to where Momo and Kyouka were still fighting, and subtly tapping the back of Ochako's hand with her finger as her other hand grew out to give the appearance that she was about to start fighting again, keeping the one touching her friend's hand its usual size. "That's a pretty dumb name - is it German?"

Chimera smirked, but still shook his head and straightened up from where he was leaning against the mountain while the other Trigger villains shifted restlessly.

"Sorry, girlie, like I said, you aren't that slick," He grinned menacingly, "you're just stallin' for time. Trying to taunt me into coming over there isn't gonna delay your deaths."

"Oh, no, I'm not delaying," Itsuka lied through her teeth, feeling Ochako's fingers brush against her arm to prepare to float her, "just trying to make a little small talk. I wanna have all the facts before you throw your little druggies at us again."

"DRUGGIES?!" One of the Trigger henchmen bellowed, losing what little patience he had and beginning to charge forward as Ochako tensed, "WHO YOU CALLIN' A DRUGGIE, YOU LITTLE BITCH -?!"

BOOM

Everyone in the small enclosure jumped at the sudden loud explosion, the villains attacking Momo and Kyouka pausing their assault, and quickly looked to their rights - and felt their jaws drop at the sight of a large tsunami rushing in from the lake, rising menacingly over the USJ as it began moving towards the other side of the facility. Everyone stared in shock and incomprehension at the sight, Chimera's smirk falling as he stared in wide-eyed realization and anger, while even Itsuka froze at the sight of the large wave approaching them -

- at least, until Ochako's hand grabbed her arm, all five fingers pressing into her bicep, and Itsuka felt her weight leave her.

"Wha -?" She looked around in confusion as she began to float in the air, but Ochako was quicker, sprinting through the crowd of villains and shoulder-checking one out of the way as she ran towards Momo and Kyouka, taking advantage of the distraction. She quickly slapped a hand to Momo's shoulder, and then Kyouka's arm, and then to her own leg, and with a grunt, she kicked off the ground, looking around to Itsuka with a look of desperation and panic.

"Grab Yaoyorozu and Jirou!"

"R-right!"

Itsuka quickly snapped out of her confusion, knowing what Ochako was doing, and grew out both her hands to reach out and grab Kyouka and Momo, both girls shaking themselves out of their own moments of panic and shock. Thanks to Ochako kicking off the ground, they were propelled further up into the air than they expected, but the villains were also shaking themselves out of their surprise at the tsunami approaching them.

Quickly looking around to where their targets vanished, they snarled at the sight of them hovering in the air, prepared to use their overpowered quirks to reach out at them as one villain with a skull mask threw his hand back, electricity curling along his arm to throw at them -

- which Chimera immediately noticed, his eyes widening in realization and horror, and he was quick to leap up onto the mountain and out of the path of the tsunami as water crashed down hard on them.

As the waves washed the villains away to slam against the end of the mountain zone, they shrieked in agony as the electricity from the Trigger henchman's quirk surged through the water, giving them all a nasty shock as they were shoved unceremoniously against the wall. As they attempted to crawl out of the water, however, they were interrupted by the villains from the lake suddenly joining them, one of the shark villains slamming hard into another from the mountain zone and sending them flailing through the water. It was thankful that they were hopped up on Trigger at the moment, or the electricity in the water probably would've done a good job in cooking them alive.

On his perch on the mountain, Chimera snarled at the sight of the Trigger henchmen not being where they were supposed to be, and the sight of his troops being pushed back by the waves and electrocuted as the four girls hovered safely in the air. Turning his gaze to them, he grimaced slightly, barring his teeth.

"You wanted me to fight you?" He growled. "Fine! Have it your way!"

With a grunt, he leapt up from his perch and onto the mountain, grabbing a large boulder and hefting it up with the natural strength he got from his appearance. Growling, Chimera leapt into the air, and threw the rock as hard as he could at the four girls to knock them out of the air. Luckily for them, Momo saw it coming from a mile away, her eyes widening, and she quickly used her bo staff to hit the mountain beside them to push them out of the way of the boulder, letting it fall back into the electrified water below.

Unluckily for them, that was what Chimera was aiming for - since they were slow in the air even as they continued to ascend, Kyouka gulping nervously at the height they were gaining, it made it easy for Chimera to leap up and grab Itsuka by the ankle, all four girls grunting in surprise at as his weight, in contrast to their lack of weight, began to drag them down.

"Ah!" Itsuka cried in pain as Chimera yanked on her leg, the villain growling as he gripped her ankle tightly, and Kyouka's eyes narrowed in rage as she threw her machete back.

"Let go!" She yelled, and threw the machete forward to chop at Chimera's shoulder - the blade was dull, so it would just hurt and shock him rather than slice him - but before she could hit him, Chimera's snake tail suddenly shot out, wrapping around her neck and squeezing tightly. Kyouka's eyes bulged as her oxygen was cut off, the hand holding the machete clenching and dropping it into the water below.

Momo saw what was happening below her, her eyes widening and her mouth twisting into a snarl unbefitting of a lady of her stature, and raised her heeled boot to kick Chimera directly in the eye. The beastman snarled, but was undeferred, continued to drag them down with his weight towards the water - at least, until Itsuka kicked him straight in the throat with her other foot, making him gag slightly as he let go of the girls on reflex.

His tail quickly released its grip from Kyouka's throat, making her gasp in relief as her airway was cleared, and the four girls watched as Chimera dropped down from them, hitting the top of the mountain and bouncing off before he managed to dig his claws into the rock of the mountain, slowly sliding to a stop just before he hit the electrified water.

"You - you okay, Jirou?" Itsuka winced, biting her lip from the pain in her ankle.

"I'm - *cough* *cough* - I'm fine," Kyouka cleared her throat, wincing at the red mark around her neck, "just - fuck."

"Don't just stand there!" Chimera roared at his henchmen below them, watching as they managed to finally crawl out of the electrified water while leaving some behind to writhe, "Get them back down here! And shove them into the water! Give them a taste of their own medicine!"

Itsuka shook at the sight of one of the villains managing to drag himself out of the water, climbing the wall with reckless rage, sending the small bounders down to hit the other villains, all of them grunting as the large rocks sent them back into the water. It was clear that they were pretty much out of their minds, not even considering their partners' safety as they tried to get out of the water; if they weren't careful, they might bury themselves under all the -

- wait. Itsuka's eyes widened, quickly looking back around at the tallest mountain in the zone. It certainly was no Mt. Fuji, but it was large enough that … and there was enough rock to …

… that was it!

"I've got it!" She quickly looked back up at Ochako, seeing her straining to support the three girls clinging to her as they floated above the water, "We've gotta bury them under the mountain!"

"Bury them - wait, what?!"

"They're strong, but they aren't strong enough to dig themselves out if we drop a freaking mountain on top of them! They're getting hurt by the electric water, so that means they aren't invincible!"

"And how the hell are we supposed to do that?!" Kyouka looked at her class representative like she had gone insane, which wasn't completely unfair. "We might be able to dodge it if we got Uraraka's quirk on us, but - but my quirk isn't strong enough to break apart a freaking mountain!"

"Don't even think of asking me to try and float it," Ochako threatened, already looking pretty sick at the moment, "or I'll puke all over you out of spite."

"And any cannon I may create will lack the firepower to create an avalanche," Momo shook her head, glancing down fearfully at all the villains continuing to try and climb out of the water, and getting ready to drag them back into the onslaught, "we're running out of time - perhaps there's a way for us to get out of here quickly?! Perhaps if I make a propeller -"

As the three girls quickly began making plans to escape while they had the small opportunity to do so, Itsuka sighed as she cursed herself, shaking her head as she glanced back up at the mountain. They did have a point - they could use the mountain to their advantage, but they seriously lacked the firepower to go through with Itsuka's plan. Kyouka's quirk wouldn't be enough to shatter it, anything Momo could create might make a dent but not be enough to punch through, and asking Ochako to float the entire damn thing was out of the question.

Hell, it was unlikely that anyone in their class could go through with her plan! Nobody in the damn school could! The only person who would have the power to destroy a mountain would be -

- would be -

- All Might.

Itsuka slowly blinked, staring blankly at the mountain for a moment, before her gaze turned to her own hands, still holding Kyouka and Momo safely above the electrified water and the villains scrambling out of it. Slowly, the gears in her head began moving, with her gaze flickering between the mountain and her hand.

All Might could destroy the mountain. She'd watched videos of him taking on villains the size of buildings for years, saw how easily he took them down with a single punch. An entire mountain … he could probably destroy it easily, and send it down to bury these villains. He could do that by using … by using his quirk.

By using One for All.

And One for All … it was now hers.

Slowly, Itsuka felt a plan begin to form in her mind, staring between her hand, the mountain, and her three friends floating there and trying to come up with escape plans in their panic. This was going to be … well, it was going to be chaotic, for one. She'd definitely need Ochako's help, and … and she did remember what All Might said about telling Izuku and Ochako about One for All when she felt ready … but this was going to be …

… no. She didn't have time to second guess herself. They needed to get to safety. She'd deal with the consequences later.

"I can destroy the mountain."

"Huh?" Ochako blinked, looking back down at Itsuka as she continued to have her arms underneath hers to keep them in the air, "What'd you say, Kendou?"

"I'll destroy the mountain," She looked back up at Ochako, giving her a good look at the incredibly nervous but determined look on her face as she glanced between her classmates, "I have a plan, I'll make the avalanche. Just - listen for a second."

"I - but Kendou -"

"Uraraka, we don't have time. Just - listen to me, okay?"

The four girls glanced between each other - it was clear that Kyouka and Momo had their doubts, and Ochako was obviously wondering how on earth Itsuka was supposed to make an entire mountain collapse - but then they all nodded, deciding to trust in their class representative, while Kyouka clearly still thought she was insane but decided to keep that thought to herself. Itsuka glanced between them all, feeling her lips thin - what she was about to do was risky, especially doing it in front of Ochako, but at this point they had little to no choice.

"Uraraka," She glanced back up at her friend, "I'll probably need you to come with me and help me get out of the way of the mountain when it collapses. It's, uh … probably going to be really violent, so we'll need to haul ass."

"R-right. Actually - uh -" Ochako's eyes flickered up, glancing around the terrain of the mountain zone, before her eyes settled on a small trench near the entrance of the zone, beside a chasm, and nodded, "- yeah, I'll know where to go. Leave it to me."

"Great. Yaoyorozu, Jirou, you guys stay here and distract the villains. Once I - y'know - Uraraka will probably have to release her quirk at some point, so while you're here, create something that'll either keep you in the air long enough for those guys to get buried, and not bury yourselves. Once I start the avalanche, we'll probably all need to book it."

"I'm … still really doubtful of this plan," Kyouka pointed out while Itsuka sighed and nodded.

"So am I, but at this point, I don't think we have much choice. I'll buy you guys lunch when this is all over."

"That's fine by me."

"Very well," Momo nodded, glancing down to start growing a small flare gun from her stomach just to be safe as the villains continued to try climbing out of the water, and also starting to grow out a small parachute, "in any case, Kendou - we'll begin on your command."

"Right. Well - uh - no time like the present, I guess," Itsuka shrugged, making sure Kyouka was holding onto Momo before letting both of them go and shrinking her hands back to normal size, the rocker girl quick to wrap her earphone jacks around Momo's arm to keep them together. Once the four girls were separated into two groups, Itsuka quickly moved up to wrap one of her arms around Ochako's shoulders, Ochako wrapping her other one around her waist. "Alright, Uraraka - are you ready to do this thing?"

"Uh … not really."

"Neither am I. But wanna do it anyway?"

"I guess!"

Nodding, Itsuka quickly raised her hand to the nearest pile of rocks, letting out a small sigh to try and hype herself up, and then smacked against it as hard as she could. Without their weight, both girls were pushed forward towards the tallest mountain, not at too quick a speed but enough to gain the crazed villains' attention as they sped away.

"THEY'RE ESCAPIIIIIIIING!" One villain screeched, his jaw widening to horrifying levels. "STOOOOP THEEEEEEEEM!"

As they streaked through the sky, Ochako gulped nervously as she glanced backwards at the villains, all of them quickly trying to chase after them while avoiding the electrified water, while Momo and Kyouka attempted to keep their attention on them by firing the flare guns. At this point, she wasn't too sure what exactly Itsuka had in mind as they moved closer and closer to the bottom of the tallest mountain, but if her friend said that she had a plan, then she had a plan.

Still though, maybe it would be better to know what exactly Itsuka was planning to do to cause a goddamn avalanche - her hands were strong, of course, but not that strong. Wrinkling her brow, Ochako turned to look at her and ask that question, her mouth opening -

- only for her to falter when she saw Itsuka slowly nodding and closing her eyes, taking a deep breath.

"Okay …" She exhaled, continuing to keep her eyes closed as she grimaced slightly, as though hyping herself up for something unpleasant - and then she threw out the hand that wasn't currently wrapped around Ochako's shoulders, balling it into a tight fist. Ochako felt more and more confused as they streaked closer to the mountain, hearing the villains shrieking and demanding their blood behind them as she wondered what the hell her friend was doing - and then she suddenly felt what could only be described as an electric jolt, making her gasp somewhat in surprise.

It hadn't hurt much, but it had almost been like she had been electrocuted by Izuku's quirk.

Crinkling her brow, she turned her gaze back to Itsuka, feeling more confused by the second as the orange-haired girl clenched her teeth tightly - and then she heard the sudden sound of something ripping. Quickly looking around her, Ochako blinked as the glove Itsuka wore on her hand suddenly ripped apart - and then, before Ochako could even blink, Itsuka's skin began glowing.

As in, her skin began glowing a bright yellow color, slowly crawling down her arm as she reared her fist back. The straps of her elbow guard burst apart, sending it falling behind them as they streaked closer and closer to the mountain, and began pulsing down the rest of her arm and into her bicep. Ochako's jaw dropped open as glowing red lines of energy suddenly lined Itsuka's arm like veins, and her hand began growing again, probably thanks to her quirk - but this time, it was pulsing with energy and humming with flickers of teal electricity.

Now, usually Ochako could roll with the punches pretty well - having Izuku as a best friend for years, she didn't get too surprised by weird quirk stuff. But this unexpected development, on the other hand, merely brought to mind three tiny yet meaningful words in her crashing brain.

"What the fuck?" She squeaked quietly.

"Okay …" Itsuka breathed through her nose, speaking through her clenched teeth as she threw her fist back, "... clench my butt and yell -!"

… clench her what now?

BAM

Ochako flinched as Itsuka suddenly threw her fist forward, quickly looking around and squeaking when she realized that they had just arrived at the base of the mountain - just in time for Itsuka's enlarged, energy-filled fist to directly strike it.

The moment her fist connected to the rock, a large crack shot out from the blow, streaking all the way up the mountain and making Ochako's jaw drop even more - and then a large burst of wind suddenly blasted out from the point Itsuka had punched the rock, making both girls yell in surprise (and in Itsuka's case, pain as well) as they were blasted through the air by the force of the punch - and fast.

"Uraraka!" Itsuka cried out as best she could as they were sent spinning through the air, agonizing pain ripping up her arm as they rolled in circles. "Release!"

"R-right!"

Shaking her head to get herself out of her shock, Ochako did as best she could to ignore the dizzying feeling of spinning around too fast, her mouth puffing slightly as she fought to keep her lunch down, and brought her fingers together. At once, their weight was restored - just in time for the mountain to break apart, and several pieces of rock began to rain down on the mountain zone.

They could hear the screams of panic and rage from the Trigger henchmen below, but at that point, it didn't matter - they had their own problems to deal with. As in the fact that they were falling towards the ground, and falling fast.

As quickly as she could, Itsuka grew out her other hand, the one that didn't feel like there were several knives repeatedly stabbing it, and brought it down beneath their falling bodies to soften their fall, wincing in anticipation and knowing that this was going to hurt. And sure enough, once they reached the edge of the second mountain, Itsuka screamed in pain as the back of her glove was scraped off at once, rock shredding the back of her hand somewhat. Ochako immediately panicked at the scream, though, grabbing Itsuka with both hands and floating her before slapping a hand to herself, and both of them tumbled down the mountain towards the chasm - and doing so at such dangerous speeds that there wasn't any way they weren't going to crash.

Twisting them in the air and hugging Itsuka to her, Ochako quickly glanced behind her, sweat flying off her brow - the mountain that Itsuka had just destroyed was crumbling in all directions, meaning that there were a lot of large boulders continuing to crumble menacingly after them, threatening to bury them just like they were probably burying the villains right now. And since Itsuka was still in such obvious pain, that meant that it was up to Ochako to get them to safety - behind that trench that she had seen.

As they awkwardly floated down the side of the mountain, Ochako winced a bit, knowing that this was going to hurt either way, and released her quirk again. Her stomach clenched painfully, but she managed to keep her nausea down as she quickly floated Itsuka again and hugged her tightly to keep them together, and soon, her feet finally met the rocky terrain and began to slide down.

Pretty much immediately, Ochako heard something break in her boots, and winced when she was almost thrown on her back as the heels of her boots broke off, the springs snapping in two as she lost her balance - but thankfully, due to the speed they were heading down, they were almost at the bottom of the small chasm, a large hole that would probably lead all the way down - and bury them with the mountain crumbling behind them.

With a yell of exertion, Ochako leapt across the large hole, desperately praying that they had enough momentum to make it - and thankfully, they did! Albeit with Ochako narrowing landing on the other side, hitting her butt against the cliffside and making both girls cry out as they tumbled and rolled over each other, grunting as they fell into the small trench and finally came to a stop. At the sound of the mountain continuing to collapse behind them, though, Itsuka acted immediately, leaping over and covering Ochako's body with her own as she grew out her still good hand, albeit with the back of it bloody and painful, to cover them just in case.

Luckily, it ended up not being necessary - the chasm they had barely jumped over was apparently deep enough for the landslide to quickly roll into and fill the small hole, preventing the two girls from being buried under the mountain. After what seemed like an eternity of smashing rocks and collapsing cliffs, silence finally fell on the mountain zone, the small sound of pebbles falling being the only thing they heard as dust from the destroyed mountain covered the zone and gave Itsuka and Ochako a bit of cover as they both finally registered that they had survived that.

"You … you okay?" Itsuka grunted, attempting to sit up and get off of Ochako as the smaller girl clung to her - and then winced at a searing pain in her right arm. Glancing down at it almost made her double over, feeling her stomach clench painfully at the sight - her entire arm was a dark purple color, and the pain was almost enough to make her pass out. But still, she tried to push the pain aside so she could focus on her friend.

Ochako was still clinging to Itsuka in a hug, and Itsuka wished she could embrace her back, both to comfort her and comfort herself as she slowly winded down from all the adrenaline of the past ten minutes or so - but her one good, enlarged hand was still covering them as though expecting more large rocks to crush them. Quickly shrinking the hand back down to normal size, she moved her hand to the back of Ochako's head as she sat them up, Itsuka up on her knees and Ochako sitting down as the smaller girl shook in her embrace.

"We - we almost died," Ochako muttered, seemingly finally realizing it as she raised her head off Itsuka's shoulder to stare her in the face, looking immensely shaken and shocked, "we - we almost got crushed."

"Y-yeah," Itsuka slowly nodded, grunting slightly as she put her bad arm back down and winced in pain, and quickly moved her head to look around at the landslide she had just created. Both girls went silent for a few moments, Ochako's hands clenching Itsuka's shoulder and side, and it wasn't too painful that Itsuka wanted her to let go, her good hand continuing to absently hold the back of Ochako's head.

And then Ochako let out a high-pitched, panicked giggle, making Itsuka look around at her in alarm as she doubled over in laughter.

"We - we almost died," She repeated through a wheeze, letting out a few more panicked giggles as reality slowly caught up with her. Itsuka stared at her in shock for a moment, taken entirely aback - and then she snorted, and was unable to stop herself in joining Ochako in her little gigglefest, both of them doubling over in nervous laughter as the hectic events of the last few minutes caught up with the both of them.

After a few more seconds of intense, wheezing laughter, Itsuka managed to calm herself down a bit, fighting down the urge to continue her nervous breakdown, and looked back up at Ochako as she fought down her own giggles. She could still feel her heart hammering in her chest, her head feeling light and the pain from her arm making her feel dizzy and nauseous, probably as queasy as Ochako was feeling right now after turning her quirk on and off repeatedly -

- but at that moment, when Ochako opened her round, brown eyes to look up at her with that smile, she temporarily forgot all that.

The pain in her arm, the fear from everything that was happening at the USJ, her fear for where Izuku might be, what Ochako might think of her using an entirely different quirk of a sudden - all of it forgotten as she stared at Ochako, her mouth dropping open slightly and her heart skipping a small beat.

And, without even pausing to think or consider what she was about to do, Itsuka tightened the hand she had in Ochako's hair, taking a deep breath, and then drew Ochako to her, slamming her lips against hers.

"Mmmph?!" Ochako only squeaked a bit in surprise, her eyes widening and a massive blush exploding on her cheeks as she realized what was happening, staring blankly at Itsuka as she closed her eyes tightly and kissed her harder - and then she felt her eyelids slowly lower, feeling her shock and surprise at the feeling of Itsuka's lips on hers blow away, and then she closed her eyes and tried to answer Itsuka back as best she could, bringing one of the hands she had clenched on her friend's shoulder up to hold her cheek.

For a moment in the shadow of the landslide they had just created, Itsuka and Ochako shared their long, awkward kiss, both of them humming against each other's lips as they briefly forgot where they were, Itsuka's hand holding the back of Ochako's head while Ochako snaked her arms around her neck to draw them closer. It wasn't a perfect kiss, of course - their mouths were open a bit too wide, Itsuka had no idea what she was doing with her tongue, let alone how awkwardly it was moving against Ochako's own, and Ochako knew that she was drooling a bit, a bit of spit escaping her mouth and dripping down her chin.

But at the moment, to them, it felt perfect.

And then they suddenly heard the sound of lightning striking out somewhere in the USJ, and jumped apart in surprise, eyes opening wide to look around in alarm.

Quickly, they looked around, Ochako over her shoulder, to see the glass roof of the conflagration zone explode in a large blast of green electric energy, almost striking the now open roof of the USJ itself and sending the loud clash of thunder rumbling throughout the entire facility.

But neither of them panicked - because they recognized that green electricity, and saw, in the small hole that had just been created by the blast, a small shape bursting through and back out into the facility.

"Deku," Ochako muttered, round eyes following the small shape as it flew back down to the ground floor of the USJ - and then she felt her strength return to her. It was clear that this wasn't over yet, and their friends were still in danger. They needed to get back to the pavilion and help them out.

Taking a deep breath, Ochako turned to look back at Itsuka, about to ask if she was in a good enough condition to fight with her broken arm -

- and then both girls looked each other right in the eye, and it finally seemed to register how close their faces were, with Ochako's nose bumping slightly against Itsuka's. And that, right about when, was about the time it finally came to both of them what they just did.

Honestly, it was rather impressive to see how fast and how bright red both girls became when reality finally settled in for both of them. They both blushed a bright red that would make Izuku proud, Ochako's jaw dropping with an audible POP and Itsuka's entire head looking like it was on fire, the orange of her hair perfectly matching the explosion of heat on her face.

"I - uh - eugh -" Ochako stammered out.

"You - we - I - uh -" Itsuka shook.

"We just - uh -"

"Yeah - I - er -"

"Kendou! Uraraka! Are you both down there?!"

Squeaking at the sound of a familiar voice coming towards them, both girls leapt apart from where they had been hiding, Ochako scuttling back on her hands and feet and Itsuka straightening up fridgedly from where she knelt, and both girls immediately whipped their gazes away from each other, so flustered they couldn't even look at each other as Ochako automatically raised a hand to wipe her mouth.

"There you are!" Momo gasped as she moved around a large boulder with Kyouka, both girls quickly and carefully running down the landslide to join their other two classmates, "We - we managed to move over top the landslide, the villains are - they're down! We're alright now."

"You two - oh shit -" Kyouka cursed as she tripped over a rock, "- you two okay? I heard weird noises coming from -"

"We're fine!" Ochako squeaked, a little too fast as she got up on her hands and knees. "We're - we're a-okay. Except - uh -"

"N-no, Uraraka's right, we're - ah!" Itsuka tried to get up as well, only for her to put some weight on her sprained ankle and collapse at once, wincing in pain.

"Kendou! Are you - oh, goodness!" Momo gasped as her gaze flickered to Itsuka, a hand whipping up to cover her mouth. "Your arm!"

"H-huh?" Itsuka blinked, looking back down at - oh, yep, and there came the pain again, she'd almost forgotten about it. "Agh! Oh, fuck, I - ow! Fuck!"

"Oh, fucking hell," Kyouka gagged slightly, staring down in horror at Itsuka's bruised arm as the orange-haired girl hit her good hand against the rock as Itsuka shouted in both pain and frustration, and the rocker girl had to quickly look away before she pulled an 'Ochako' and threw up.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for Momo to create a few bandages and wrappings, jumping down into the small trench to wrap them carefully around Itsuka's arm in a makeshift sling so it was at least not dangling and hurting her even more. Once Itsuka's arm was secure, she and Ochako, who was still quite red but trying to get over her fluster to focus, helped Itsuka carefully to her feet, the orange-haired girl wobbling slightly and wincing when she put her right foot down.

"Agh - god, I think that asshole sprained my ankle too," She shook her head, looking back around at the two girls who had just arrived, "so - so you said that all the villains are down?"

"Yeah," Kyouka nodded, still not looking around at Itsuka's arm in fear of barfing as she jumped down into the trench with them, "I listened in, they're all buried underneath the mountain. They're still hopped up on that drug, so they aren't crushed. Just - y'know, pinned."

"Good," Itsuka slowly nodded, taking a deep breath as she looked back around to the rest of the facility, "couldn't have happened to nicer guys. Once this is all over, someone can help dig them out. In any case, let's -"

BOOM

Above them, they heard the sudden sound of rock blasting apart, and automatically, all four girls quickly went down into a crouch behind their small cover, eyes wide and hearts hammering in their chests as a familiar fist slowly rose from beneath the rubble above them. With rock continuing to smash apart, they heard a familiar roar, and Chimera rose up from where he had been buried by the landslide, yellow eyes bright with rage as he quickly looked around.

"Seriously?!" Kyouka whispered, shaking a bit, "This asshole dug himself out of all that?!"

"Shhh!"

Luckily, it didn't seem like he had noticed that they were relatively close to him, Chimera looking around in anger before he slammed his fist against the mountain he had been buried under in rage, and quickly crawled out of the hole, relatively unharmed aside from his clothes being ripped up. Before any of them could even blink, he suddenly leapt down from his spot on the mountain, not even noticing them as he landed near the entrance of the zone, and began to sprint through the exit and back into the facility.

"Crap!" Ochako gasped as they watched him flee, sitting up from her spot, "Is he trying to escape?!"

"No," Itsuka shook her head, her eyes narrowing as the heteromorph villain left their sight, "he's probably running back to the pavilion. I bet that's where his boss is right now."

"Then - then we should follow him," Momo nodded, straightening up from where she had been kneeling to hide, and continuing to glare after the fleeing villain, "and ensure that he doesn't end up going into any other zone. Our classmates may still be scattered around … they don't need him to join their assault."

"Right," Itsuka nodded, getting up, "let's handle Ochako's shoes, and then we can get going."

"Huh? My shoes - oh. Right."

It didn't take long for Momo to make a pair of sneakers for Ochako to slip into after she had pulled off her broken boots and tossed them away, and together, the four girls ran out of the mountain zone, slowing down a little bit so that Itsuka wasn't putting too much pressure on her sprained ankle. As they discreetly began following the villain through the small forest surrounding the pavilion, Kyouka stole a small glance at Itsuka, and blinked a bit.

"Hey, Kendou," She poked the class rep's good shoulder to get her attention, "you got some drool on the side of your face."

Itsuka blinked for a moment in confusion, raising her hand to the side of her mouth - and then quickly went red, whipping her gaze away to wipe at her face with the back of her good hand, and prayed that it was her spit she just wiped away.

---

About five minutes earlier, Izuku took a deep breath as he made sure Yosetsu's quirk was working properly on him, trying to pull his hand back. Lo and behold, to his relief, the palm of his hand was securely welded to Pony's shoulder, the smaller girl looking behind him and blinking somewhat in surprise that it didn't really hurt to have his entire hand welded securely to his back.

"Okay … I'm gonna hop up now, Tsunotori. Are you ready?"

"One sec -" She bent her knees slightly, moving her arms behind her in preparation, "- okay! Go ahead, Midoriya-san."

"Alright …" With a small grunt, Izuku hopped up, blushing a bit in embarrassment as Pony grabbed his thighs and hefted him up into a piggy-back position, his one hand welded onto her shoulder to make sure he didn't slip off. Once Pony was comfortable with his weight, Yosetsu went to work immediately, lifting Izuku's leg out of the girl's grasp to secure against her side before welding it to her hip, and them moving to the other side to do the same to the other leg so Pony would have her hands free.

"Is that comfortable, Midoriya?" He asked as he pressed the other boy's knee to Pony's side.

"One sec …" Izuku stretched out the arm he still had the Full Gauntlet on, moving his arm around above Pony's head, then behind them, then to the sides, before nodding in satisfaction and relief. "... okay, I've got full mobility. I think we're good to go whenever you're ready, Awase."

"Yeah, we better hurry," Yosetsu glanced nervously near the edge of the roof he had been peeking behind to look at the villains in the flaming city below, "those freaks are heading our way, it won't be long before they find us."

"Alright, then," Izuku nodded, gesturing for the bandana-wearing boy to get moving, "in that case, once you're welded onto Tsunotori, we can get going with the plan. This is - well, it's definitely gonna suck, but right now it's the only idea I've got."

"It's the only idea any of us have right now," Yosetsu shrugged, moving over to Pony and blushing a bit in embarrassment as she easily lifted him into her arms, carrying him in a bridal position, "so I'm not exactly gonna complain."

Quickly, as soon as Pony was comfortable carrying him, he pressed his hand against Pony's arm, which was currently pressed to his back, and welded the two of them together, before moving down and welding the arm she had under his knees. Once he was securely welded to her, Pony took a small step forward, grunting a bit from the weight of both boys she was supporting, but they had completed the first step to their plan - making sure that none of them could be separated from each other, Izuku on Pony's back and Yosetsu in her arms, as the smaller girl made her way over to where her two floating horns were waiting for her to step on.

"You got the horn I lent you, Awase-kun?" She asked the boy in her arms as he nodded, wincing a bit as he withdrew the horn and stared down at the pointed end.

"Yeah, I just … really hope I don't have to stab anyone with this thing."

"Well, it's just to be - ergh - safe," She grunted as she slowly shuffled over to the horns, sweating a bit in exertion, "jeez, you two are heavier than my mamma."

"Er … you've carried your mother before?"

"I can carry everyone in my family! My parents, my older brothers, my younger sisters, my cousins, my aunts, my uncles, my grandparents! I'm super strong. Just … y'know, two people at the same time is … kinda ridiculous."

"Don't worry," Izuku awkwardly patted the shoulder his other hand wasn't welded to, blushing a bit due to how close he was clinging to the smaller girl, "we'll just need to get out of here and back onto the ground, and then Awase'll unweld us. You … can unweld us once we're down, right?"

"Oh, yeah, that won't be a problem."

"G-great. In that case, Tsunotori - whenever you're ready, we can get going."

"Okey-dokey, Midoriya-san. This is - well, I'm gonna have to start a bit slower than before because of all our weight, but you guys need to tell me if we're gonna slip off my horns, because I might not notice until it's too late."

"Right! Sounds good, Tsunotori."

Pony nodded, and at last the three of them stopped near the two floating horns, waiting for them to jump on. There was a brief moment where the three of them tried to hype themselves up for what they were about to do, taking a slow, deep breath - and then Yosetsu muttered, "Y'know, if, uh - if there's anything that any of us wanna get off our chests before we do this - y'know, because I think there's a good chance we all might die - we should do it now."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... I stole Occhan's pudding cup back in fifth grade and blamed it on her dad. I still have nightmares of what might happen if she finds out."

"I got ten bandanas just like this one back home. I pretend that they're all different when someone at school asks, but they're all the same. I'm embarrassed if anyone ever finds out."

"I spent all of our battle trials a few days ago looking at everyone's butts. Midoriya-san, you don't have the best bootie in class, but it's definitely up there."

There was a small pause, and then Izuku wrinkled his brow.

"Uh … Tsunotori, did you say my name somewhere in there?"

"Nope," Pony lied as naturally as she breathed, pretending the redness on her face was due to the heat of the zone, "you're imaginin' things, Midoriya-san. And one more thing -" She grunted as she carefully stepped onto her floating horns, both boys gulping as they wobbled awkwardly in the air before Pony managed to secure herself, her large eyes narrowing in determination, "- you both should call me Pony!"

"..."

"..."

"... awkward time to ask that? Okay, we'll try again after we're not dead. But I want you guys to call me by my first name!"

And with that, and no more time to waste, Pony began flying off of the rooftop, leaning her upper body forward to direct herself to where she wanted to go. Izuku gulped as his hand tightened its grip on her shoulder, believing that Yosetsu did successfully secure his body to her but not wanting to take any chance of making her fall off her flying horns, and leaned forward with her. Finally, the three of them flew away from their hiding spot on the roof and towards the ground.

At once, the Trigger henchmen still wildly looking around for them spotted the three flying teenagers - Pony had said that they'd be off to a slow start, and it wouldn't be hard to spot the big, awkward lump flying awkwardly in the sky. At the sound of roars of rage and exhilaration, Izuku took a shuddering breath, but tried to remain calm as he spotted Mummy within the crowd, the one villain who didn't take the Trigger looking around at them as he directed more of his mummy-creations like some kind of puppeteer.

"Ah, there you three are, at last," The villain smirked beneath his wrappings before turning towards his other henchmen, "knock them out of the sky."

With savage screams, the Trigger henchmen launched themselves at the teenagers, using their newfound strength thanks to the booster to fly through the air at them - but Pony, at least, was experienced with flying with her hooves, or at least confident enough to know what she was doing even with all the extra weight.

Quickly, she leaned to the side, all three of them letting out small worried noises as they just barely missed one of the henchmen lunging at them and the blasts of fire being sent towards them by the villains' enhanced quirks, and then Pony launched herself back up as another series of stretched out hands tried to grab at them from another villain, one of the hands reaching for Yosetsu's face to drag them down to their deaths -

- only for the bandana-wearing boy to grab the horn that Pony had leant him earlier in his pocket, and stabbing it directly into his palm, wincing in sympathy as the villain howled in pain and withdrew the hand back down to him to grab in agony.

"HE STABBED ME! YOU LITTLE FUCK!"

"Hold on, guys!"Pony warned as she tilted her body downwards into a dive, screwing her eyes almost closed in concentration. Yosetsu was unable to suppress a small scream of panic as they suddenly shot down towards the ground, Izuku wincing at the heat hitting his eyes but trusting Pony to know what she was doing as she dive-bombed the Trigger henchmen. They shrieked in rage and almost began to charge - at least, until they suddenly lost their balance, as though an earthquake was suddenly shaking the facility.

As they tried to regain their balance, Pony gulped as her hair blew back, some of the villains stable enough to try and reach for her - only for her to swiftly change her position back upwards, making the villains stumble in their step and trip when she moved abruptly out of the way.

"There - now we -"

"Tsunotori!" Izuku called from his back, his voice panicked. Pony was quick to turn her head in his direction when she was called - and then squeaked as she was forced to roll in the air to avoid the red wrappings being sent towards them at alarming speeds, moving like snakes in the air as Mummy sent them after the teenagers.

"Sneaky little ones, aren't you?" He chuckled, his yellow eyes widening slightly in delight, "Don't worry … I'll make marvelous creations out of all three of you."

"Dive!" Izuku instructed his classmate, pushing his body somewhat into Pony's to make her dive down in the air to avoid the tendrils of cloth. Yosetsu continued to swear up a storm as they were forced to fly a bit too close to the ground for any of their comforts, sweat flying off Pony's face from how exhausting it was to carry the three of them but the blonde girl never giving up as they flew through the Trigger henchmen or the other mummies the ringleader had created.

As they soared through, Izuku quickly ducked his head at a blow being thrown at him, the villains shrieking in rage as one struck out - but this time he wasn't too lucky, gasping in pain as a few claws scrapped his arm hard enough to draw blood, stinging him. Yosetsu also grunted as he grabbed the hand of one of the villains, making them twist suddenly in the air and yanking the villain around with a surprised yelp to change their direction - but it was clear that they were running out of space, the rest of the Trigger villains in the zone hurrying to the sound of the commotion as Pony kept them moving.

"What was the point of this again?!" Yosetsu screamed as they flew through just above the crowd of villains, "Why couldn't we just -?!"

"If we tried to immediately leave," Izuku reminded him, wincing in pain from the scratches on his arm as he held on tight to Pony, "they'd be able to catch us easily. Tsunotori needed time to get up to speed! We needed to get them confused before we busted out so they wouldn't follow!"

"And - and can we leave now?! It's getting kind of hairy!"

"Just - one second -" Izuku quickly tried to ignore the pain from his arm so he could look around at the crowd of villains. They were hurrying around to them, all of them shrieking in rage and annoyance, and Mummy was summoning more of those monsters with his quirk - but at the moment, none of the Trigger henchmen were near him. He was alone.

"- alright! Tsunotori, the ringleader's isolated! Let's do this!"

"Okay!"

With that instruction, Pony grunted as she twisted in the air again, barely managing to avoid flying into another flaming building, and soon they began to soar straight towards Mummy. As the Trigger henchmen screamed in rage, they kept their eyes on the villain, seeing him narrow his own eyes as he slowly began moving his arms, the wrappings floating menacingly in the air as Izuku adjusted himself on Pony's back.

"Okay …" He took a deep breath, and slowly raised the Gauntlet, pointing it straight at Mummy as the villain's eyes narrowed more in challenge. It was clear to the villain what they were doing - they were going to take him out before moving on. Mummy seemed undeferred, continuing his preparations to rip the teenagers out of the air while the Trigger henchmen charged after them.

Izuku adjusted his aim, squeezing one eye shut as the energy of his quirk began to charge up, seeping into the Gauntlet to charge it up. Closer and closer they came to Mummy, seeing him throw his hands back to whip the wrappings at them to completely trap them, and Izuku felt the Gauntlet prepare to fire -

- and then Izuku quickly adjusted his aim, aiming straight up at the ceiling and firing off his quirk.

BOOM

The entire roof of the conflagration zone shook at the force of the lightning bolt hitting it, the Trigger henchmen and Mummy wincing at the sudden bright burst of green light emerging from Izuku's palm. The brightness of the lightning, in contrast to the dark, smokey environment, caused them all to quickly look away, temporarily blinded - but Izuku saw that his effort had been successful, and a hole had been created by his quirk in the ceiling.

Pony noticed it as well, scooting a bit in the air so she could take off towards it - but not before slamming her hooves hard into Mummy's chest, the villain grunting in surprise as he was sent flying through the air by the force of the sudden blow while still blinded from Izuku's quirk. He landed hard on his back, groaning as he rolled into the wall of the nearest flaming building - and while he was distracted, the three teenagers took advantage of Pony being up to speed to shoot towards the hole in the roof.

All three of them sighed in relief as they managed to burst through the hole Izuku had created and getting back into the main facility, hearing the sound of the Trigger henchmen shrieking in rage at them as they escaped. Coughing, Izuku shook his head and took a moment to rub his eyes, trying to get the stinging feeling of all the smoke he had been surrounded by out of it, as he quickly snapped his gaze around once he was able to properly see - and felt his jaw drop at what had happened while they had been trapped in the fire zone.

Water from the lake was everywhere on the floor, some of it flooding back into the large hole in the floor but enough water deep enough that the Trigger henchmen were still trying to get through it, to their frustrations. Explosions blasted around the ruins zone, indicating to him just where Katsuki was. The downpour zone was seemingly dark and peaceful - but the occasional flash of lightning from within showing signs of a large, frightening monster looking almost like a bird roaring within. The mountain zone on the other end of the facility was also broken, one of the mountains broken down and laying in rubble.

All in all? Either the Trigger henchmen around the facility were far more powerful than anyone had expected … or their classmates were putting up a hell of a fight.

"Holy whoa ..."Pony muttered, seemingly as taken aback as Izuku was, "... what happened while we were in there?"

"Something bad," Yosetsu shook his head, still looking very nervous being so high up in the air as he glanced around at their surroundings, "I don't see our classmates anywhere - do you think they're still in the other zones?"

"Maybe," Izuku muttered, frowning as he thought of where Ochako and Itsuka could be at the moment - but then he shook his head, trying to refocus. "A-anyway - we should do some investigating, find our classmates and make sure they get some backup if they need it. Tsunotori, if you can, let's fly over to the entrance to make sure if anyone's still there, and from there -"

"Oh, my god."

Both Izuku and Yosetsu blinked at the sound of Pony's quiet, horrified whisper, and quickly looked around at her to make sure she was okay. She was staring, wide-eyed and terrified, at something in the foyer, the black in her big blue eyes shrinking down. Wrinkling his brow in confusion and concern, Izuku turned his head to see where she was looking, squinting his eyes somewhat to see in the darkness -

- and then he finally saw what she had been looking at, and felt his stomach twist.

The three villains from before they had been warped - the cloaked man and the woman, as well as the other hooded man - were standing together, looking down at the large monster as it sat down - directly on the back of their teacher. Aizawa's arm was being held in a tight grip by the monster, bent in a position that arms weren't meant to be, as his mouth was kept open in a silent scream of pain.

It was clear what they were doing, from Aizawa's broken arms, to the blood covering his face, to the grip the monster had on his arm and the way the villains were watching what was happening.

They were torturing him.

Slowly, Izuku stared down in horror, hearing Pony let out a sniffle of fear and Yosetsu to swear lowly - and then he felt his eyes narrow. A sudden rage built in his heart as he spotted the cloaked man turn his attention from Aizawa to them - even from this distance, Izuku could tell those yellow eyes were focused on them, and Izuku's free hand clenched.

"Awase."

"H-huh?" Yosetsu blinked, unable to tear his gaze away from what they were looking at. "Y-yeah, Midoriya?"

"Unweld me. Tsunotori - move down to the ground."

"H-huh?" Pony felt confused as well, looking around at him from over her shoulder in shock. "Midoriya-san,what -?"

"Please, just listen," Izuku asked, his voice gone quiet, but his classmates could easily pick up the anger in his voice as he straightened himself up, "sweep in low, and when I jump off, get Aizawa-sensei and move to the top of the stairs. I'm going to hold them off while you get him out of there."

"But - but we can't just - you can't take them all on!" Pony quickly called him out on that, her voice panicked. "We just have to -"

"Guys, please," Izuku made no room for argument, glaring at the three villains below them as their attention turned from Aizawa's suffering to them approaching, "we need to get Aizawa-sensei away before he's - you know. Just get sensei out of there!"

Pony and Yosetsu were clearly unsure, giving each other a quick, uneasy glance - but then Yosetsu sighed, nodding as he did as instructed and grabbed Izuku's leg to unweld it from Pony's side. Pony, meanwhile, narrowed her eyes somewhat as she moved into a dive, speeding along the ground and kicking up some water as they sped towards the villains.

As they made their way over to the fountain, Izuku quickly studied the surroundings near the pavilion - just the three villains and the monster were together, the rest of the Trigger henchmen were scattered around and fighting each other. Izuku then turned his gaze back to the cloaked man, knowing that he would be the one calling the shots - and he could spot the glowing yellow eyes quietly studying them back, which meant that this guy, whoever he was, had his attention solely focused on them.

Strangely enough, Izuku couldn't quite find himself concerned enough to care - this guy, whoever he was, threatened his friends, tortured his teacher, and made his intent to kill All Might clear the moment he came here. He needed to go down. So Izuku would take him down.

Finally, Yosetsu unwelded his hand from Pony's shoulder, completely freeing him, and Izuku straightened up, tensing slightly.

"Okay," He breathed, patting Pony's shoulder as they neared the fountain, "I'm off."

"Good luck, dude!"

"Don't die, Midoriya-san!"

Nodding, Izuku didn't hesitate to leap off Pony's back, eyes locked on the leader as he threw his fist back. The normal thoughts and terror of him using his quirk on someone else, images of Katsuki lying injured and his mom's injured arm - all of them were strangely absent as he glared at the villain responsible for this nightmare. The cloaked man merely watched curiously behind his hood as Izuku's arm charged up with electricity, being absorbed quickly into the gauntlet.

With a yell, Izuku threw his Full Gauntlet-covered hand forward palm up, a blast of lightning emerging from his hand and sending sparks everywhere as it streaked towards the villain -

- only for him to raise his own hand palm up and blast out a large, yellow shield, completely absorbing the blast of lightning and making Izuku's eyes widen.

A defensive quirk?! He quickly thought to himself, landing on the ground and skidding briefly through a puddle of water before taking off running at the three villains watching him. His eyes also glowed yellow - that must be a side effect of his quirk!

Quickly, Izuku fired off another blast at the cloaked man, watching as the lightning was easily deflected off the shield - and yet, none of the villains attacked him, instead watching him charge at them with intrigue while the other hooded man quickly looked around at him. Thankfully, his distraction meant that their focus was entirely on him - and not on Pony and Yosetsu, who swept down and let the bandana-wearing boy throw his hand out and grab Aizawa's arm with his quirk to weld them together, wincing at how broken his teacher's arm felt, and dragged him out from underneath the monster.

The brain monster let out a small strangled noise as his prey escaped up the stairs, getting up and turning to advance on the fleeing teenagers - but then the cloaked man said, in a sharp voice, "Leave them, Nomu - you've had your fun. Stay here."

Immediately, the monster named Nomu obeyed, freezing in its place and staring after Aizawa as he was dragged unceremoniously up the stairs. Izuku, meanwhile, skidded to a stop, panting heavily as he pointed the Full Gauntlet at the cloaked man, his eyes narrowed into a glare as rain poured in from the broken, open window in the roof above, lightning flashing and thunder rumbling the sky.

The cloaked man smiled beneath his hood as he turned his attention from Nomu back to Izuku, the yellow shield disappearing as he put his hands back in his pockets.

"So … you're the one who just made that hole," He gestured with his head toward the conflagration zone, "very impressive. That's a fine quirk you have, young man … reminds me of the first one I got refitted with, as part of my little deal. It ended up trading it for this shield quirk, though - a bit more useful for defense, and I've already got all the offensive abilities I need. A shame, though … I did like that quirk while I had it."

"I -" Izuku felt himself falter, staring at the lead villain in confusion for a moment - trading in his quirk? What did that mean? - before he quickly shook his head and refocused, keeping the woman in the corner of his vision as she also walked around the cloaked man, "- that - that doesn't matter. You're - you're -"

"I'm Nine, by the way," The villain quickly introduced himself to Izuku, chuckling a bit at the taken aback look on Izuku's face, "and this is Slice. It's a pleasure to meet you …" He paused for a few moments, as though waiting for Izuku to speak, and then chuckled again, "... usually this is the part where you introduce yourself."

"T-that - no," Izuku quickly shook his head, refusing to be confused by this guy as he activated his quirk again, charging back up the Full Gauntlet, "no, you're - you're not distracting me. P-put - put your hands on your head and get down on your knees."

"Wait," Slice blinked, giggling a bit, "are you arresting us? Oh, that's precious! Do you have enough handcuffs for all of us in that little belt of yours?"

"You - just -"

"Calm down, young man," Nine assured him in a soothing voice, raising his hands out of his pockets as though to humor him, "take a second to breathe. We don't have to fight - not now that I've seen your quirk in action, after all. It's very powerful, isn't it? I have an eye for that kind of thing. Put down your arm, there's no way you can hurt us anyway … let's take a moment to talk, alright? I'm sure we can work something out."

Izuku took several deep breaths, despite his annoyance that he was technically following the villain's instructions, and glanced between him and Slice again - and then he shook his head again, and continued to charge up the Full Gauntlet, glaring at Nine.

"No," He said, and this time he was relieved to hear no shake in his voice. "You … you come into my school, attack my classmates, hurt my teacher … and you expect me to just sit down and talk to you? No way."

"Well, now -"

"You screwed up," Izuku shook his head, glaring at Nine as the villain tilted his head, "you came to my school, set those Trigger guys on us - but you failed. They weren't able to keep us down, and I got to you easily. You tried to kill my teacher, but we saved him. Everything you've tried to keep us down, we outwitted you. It's over - put your hands on your head, get down on the ground, and - and get rid of this storm, if one of you are the ones behind it."

Nine stayed silent for a moment, with Slice's own teasing grin fading as she gave him a look that suggested he just said something insulting to them, as the two villains studied him for a moment. And then Nine asked, his formerly pleasant tone suddenly devoid of emotion, "And that's your final verdict? I'm fully willing to work something out with you, boy … are you sure this is the path you want to take?"

"I'm really sure," Izuku was sure to enunciate his words to drive his point home, "put your hands on your head."

Nine stared at him for another moment, the yellow eyes fading back into glowing red - and then he sighed, shaking his head and crossing his arms across his chest.

"Oh, very well," He tilted his head slightly, the humor in his voice gone as he stared Izuku in the eye, "I wanted to see if we could come to an agreement - those with powerful quirks always deserve a chance to speak in my book - but now I see that's not possible. In that case … well, if you're not willing to cooperate with me, with how strong your quirk is … I'm afraid that I can't let you interfere when All Might arrives."

Turning his head slightly, he spoke in a clear, authoritative voice, "He's all yours."

CRUNCH

Izuku let out a small gasp of pain, his eyes widening, as a fist suddenly slammed directly into the Gauntlet he had been pointing at the lead villain. Pain ripped through Izuku's arm as he was sent flying back by the force of the blow, letting out a yell of pain as he bounced off the ground once, and then collapsed against the fountain in a heap, water splashing everywhere as he landed.

Groaning, Izuku managed to roll onto his side, panting and glancing back down at the Gauntlet where he had been hit - only to pale in horror when he saw that his support item, the one thing that could migrate his blasts, was pretty much hanging off his now bruised and purple arm by a few loose wires and pieces of metal, a hole punched into it so big that it had shattered the Full Gauntlet. Feeling himself shake, he looked up in terror at whoever - or whatever - had hit him with enough force to shatter the Gauntlet in one hit.

The hooded man, standing near where Izuku had been standing, let out a deep breath as he slowly brought back the fist he had used to punch Izuku away, his knuckles sprinkled with blood, and turned his gaze from the ground to look at the boy he had just struck. From within the darkness of the hood, Izuku couldn't really make out any features at first - but then, to his horror, he could see a crooked, broken smile spread across the hooded man's face as he raised his arms threateningly.

"Sh-shtr-shrength," The hooded man spoke in a slurred voice, the wicked grin appearing on his face continuing to widen under the darkness of the hood, " shhhooooow me ... mooore o-of your ... s-strength ..."