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!

14. Storms (Part One)

KRACK-BOOM

"Christ," Vlad King shook his head from his spot at the front of the class, turning his head towards the window with a frown as rain continued to beat against it, "where the hell did this come from? I thought it was supposed to be sunny all day."

"Er - Vlad King-sensei," The kid named Mashirao raised his hand hesitantly from his spot near the window, wincing when a bit of drizzle hit him again, "do you mind if I -?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, go ahead and close that, Ojirou, I didn't even know it was still open," Vlad nodded to him, wrinkling his brow at another low rumble of thunder as Mashirao slid the window shut, "I've got no idea where this storm came from, but I don't think anyone would mind if we close the windows, right? God knows when this is gonna stop so we can refocus on the lesson."

He wasn't the only one who was thinking something along those lines, with Yuuyu leaning back in her seat to look out the window of their classroom as well, feeling her brow furrow as she watched the storm outside. It had been hard to concentrate for the last ten minutes or so, seeing as one moment it was nice and sunny out, with everyone wishing that their hero training had been today instead so they could spend it outside - and then the next, what looked like an actual goddamn hurricane descended upon UA, lightning rattling the windows and rain beating hard enough against them that for a few seconds Yuuyu thought they were going to break.

It was pretty clear that she wasn't the only one who was starting to notice that something seemed off, watching the other guys in the class glancing out the window with weirded out looks. Initially, she had kind of rolled her eyes over the fact that she ended up in the absolute sausage fest that made up Class 1B, what with there only being four girls in the class, but at least yesterday a few of the guys proved that they at least earned their seats here, and thus earned a bit of her respect. Which … probably was a good thing - she was the class rep, she kind of needed to respect her classmates, even Monoma. That was something she needed to work on, evidently - not being so annoyed.

She could tell that Kinoko, who was sitting in front of her, was also a bit nervous about the weather, absently tapping on her desk and growing a mushroom on her knee while glancing uncertainly out the window; Juzo, meanwhile, turned slightly towards the window beside him at the front and winced when an especially bright flash of lightning struck down from the sky, accompanied by a low rumble of thunder.

"Don't worry, people," Vlad said from his spot near the blackboard, seemingly knowing that their attention wasn't on him anymore and looking around at them with a reassuring look, "UA's built to withstand any kind of bad weather, and even if something ends up breaking in here, we can get Cementoss to come in and patch it up, and it'll be good as new by tomorrow."

"Jeez," The guy named Kousei leaned against his desk while staring outside the window, looking a bit nervous as another flash of lightning illuminated the dark skies, "what happens if this weather's still around by the time school's over, sensei? I don't think we can walk home in weather like this - do we just stay at school until it calms down?"

"Potentially," Vlad shrugged his shoulders, turning around to face his class and lean on the podium, "usually in weather like this, we do have the hypothetical room to keep all the students on campus until the storm calms down, and provisions if it lasts for a while - Lunch Rush can provide dinner if we have to stay here for that long. In any case, we'll know a bit more about how we'll proceed by the end of the day - if this weather keeps up, we'll have you all call home to explain that you're going to at the very least stay a bit longer, and if you do need to get home and can't wait here - like if you have siblings to take care of - we could potentially charter buses to take you there."

Yuuyu slowly nodded from her spot at the back of the room, understanding that there wasn't much to be done if she was stuck after school. Hell, she'd probably just spend some time by going over to Class 1A and sitting with Nejire instead of -

- wait. If today was Thursday, Nejire wouldn't be in the classroom next door, she'd be doing Hero Basic Training right now. And that was …

"Sensei?" She raised her hand, drawing the blood hero's attention to her as she sat up in her seat, feeling a bit of worry shoot through her, "I just remembered - Class 1A was supposed to have their hero training today, and we usually go outside or to one of the areas on the campus for that - will they be okay in weather like this?"

"No need to worry, Haya," Vlad shook his head and smiled at her, glancing down at the phone on the podium, "we just got word from our automated system a few moments ago - they've arrived safely at the USJ. They should be indoors now, and if the weather keeps going like this or gets worse, they can stay there until it's safe enough to return to the school."

Yuuyu slowly nodded at that in acknowledgement and a bit of relief, putting her hand down as Vlad returned to writing on the blackboard, not minding some of the students whispering amongst themselves - he'd let them mutter a bit before continuing on with the lesson.

Honestly, and it might sound a bit selfish that she prioritized her best friend's safety over their other friends, but Yuuyu was more relieved to hear that Nejire would be alright and had made it to the USJ in a storm like this - Nejire had always been fascinated with bright things, so there was a part of her that had been afraid that she would be dumb enough to go 'oooooh, lightning!' and stick her head out to get a good bolt to the head for her troubles. So hearing that they had made it to the USJ was a relief to hear, and knowing that she had her new friends around would make her feel just a tad bit better that she wouldn't wander out into the storm and freaking die.

She could, at the very least, trust Itsuka or Momo to keep Nejire focused. Yuuyu had been afraid of what would happen when they got to UA and found out that they would be separated into different classes; Nejire really only had Yuuyu as a friend for their entire lives, everyone else either crept out by all of Nejire's unfiltered questions, or trying to take advantage of the pretty girl with the concentration of a goldfish, which had earned them a good assbeating from Yuuyu when she found them before things got out of hand. So seeing Nejire find a few more friends in a class, people who genuinely wanted her around, was a relief to her - they might be a bit nerdish for her tastes, but at least they could be trusted to keep Nejire out of trouble.

Well, if she was to be honest, Yuuyu should probably try and take a leaf out of Nejire's book and try to be a bit more sociable with her classmates - it'd be hard to actually try to lead them as the class representative when she was so dreary.

"You're still thinking of the other class, aren't you?"

Yuuyu blinked at the sound of a stoic, calm voice speaking up right beside her, and rolled her eyes as she looked around at the person sitting on her left. Speaking of dreary, it looked like the one person she knew she disliked in this class was talking to her, staring at his desk and not even at her when he addressed her.

She knew that he hadn't really given her any real reason to dislike him yet, but she couldn't help but feel her eyes narrow in annoyance when she looked at him - not a single expression on his dumb, good-looking face, staring down at the surface of his desk as he scribbled some notes in his notebook, glancing up at the board to continue jotting down what Vlad was writing. Honestly, looking at how nonchalant and stoic he was, she couldn't help but remember yesterday, when he had frozen Ibara and Rikido in ice and walked away after letting them out without any kind of care in the world, like he didn't care that he instantly won his match and was more concerned with brooding in the corner.

Like he hadn't even tried, like doing this, participating in class with the few people who got in the normal way instead of being recommended like him, was beneath him. It wasn't like Momo and Setsuna, who were more down to earth and humble, or Juzo, who was pretty cool when she talked to him yesterday. This guy acted like he had a stick up his ass the size of Mt. Lady's pinkie finger, and Yuuyu could help but be annoyed by that.

"Well, can you blame me?" She decided to humor his question, leaning back in her seat and not looking at him at all as she crossed her arms across her chest. "It's a pretty bad storm out there. Just hope that everyone's okay."

The boy with white and red hair nodded at that, turning to look out at the rain beating against the window himself, as everyone else in the class murmured a bit. He frowned as he tapped his pencil against his notebook.

"Yeah," Shouto Todoroki nodded, narrowing his eyes somewhat, "I imagine they'll be fine."

---

"The number you have dialed is not in service at the moment, or has been temporarily disconnected. Please try again at a later -"

BEEP

With a short sigh, All Might pressed the option to end the call on his phone, putting it back down beside him where he was sitting on the couch, and let out another small sigh as he looked back out the window of the Nap Room, furrowing his brow. They'd gotten word from the automated system just a few moments ago that the bus to the USJ had arrived safely with Class 1A, and All Might had wanted to give them a call to confirm that he would be able to come for the end of the lesson when he had regained some of his strength, but he had been unable to reach either Thirteen or Aizawa. The sudden storm raging outside might have something to do with it, he thought to himself as he looked back out the window - he had no idea where it had come from, only that it looked like UA had just come under attack from a typhoon.

Frowning, All Might leaned back against the couch, cursing himself mentally. Honestly, he had no one to blame for his current predicament but himself - he had overexerted himself this morning on his commute to the school, initially picking up something for Izuku from the post office (Melissa had texted him last night that she had forgotten something in the Full Gauntlet package, and he had volunteered to pick it up so he could deliver it to the young man), and then he ended up stopping a hostage situation and saving the family kept under the arm of the giant villain. And then went to stop a hit-and-run. And then trying to stop someone from barricading themselves in a home. And then another car accident. And eventually he had realized that he had been running late for work, arriving at the school just in time to poof out of his true form in exhaustion, and needing time to recover in the Nap Room.

So that was just great. A great start to his third day in his new job, not being able to teach his second class with 1A, especially in light of the suspected break in yesterday. Aizawa was going to have his hide for this.

Still though, he couldn't quite concentrate on that at the moment, he shook his head as he stood back up from the couch, looking out the window as another flash of bright light made him wince. At the moment, he didn't feel very different or strange, and this morning felt just as strong as always, but Itsuka's text message to him the day before confirmed that she had felt the tingle, and that meant only one thing - One for All had been successfully passed along to her, and All Might would now gradually get slower, his hits would have less impact, and soon One for All would fully leave him.

And after that, he wouldn't be able to do any more hero work.

He wanted to say that he would be proud to continue mentoring Itsuka, to assist her in continuing his legacy … but if he were to be honest, his heart panged at the thought of no longer being able to run around and save those who needed to be saved. After he had saved Izuku from the sludge villain a year ago, he knew that the time he got to spend in his true form was gradually shortening by the day. Another large effort like that may cut his already small amount of time being able to stay in his true form in half. He knew that it was inevitable, that soon he would have no choice but to step down as the Symbol of Peace.

But … he would miss it. He would miss being a hero.

But that was a bridge he would have to cross later, All Might chided himself mentally as he shook his head. Right now, he was neglecting his teaching duties because of this morning's foolishness, but no more! He needed to head out to see Itsuka and Izuku and Ochako train! And the nest of the class, of course. That, and the fact that when he had called to check in on them, he hadn't even gotten to voicemail - he just couldn't connect to the call at all.

Filling his chest fill up with determination, All Might prepared to swell up to his true form, ignoring that he really only had ten minutes left today to do so - and then the phone in his hand suddenly began vibrating. Blinking, and pausing his transformation, he quickly looked down, expecting Thirteen or Aizawa to be calling him back right now -

- and then he stared in surprise when he saw that the person calling him wasn't anyone on the campus at the moment. Instead, it was a name he didn't expect to see at all, feeling his eyes widen and his jaw drop slightly.

Mrs. Midoriya? His dark eyes widened ever more as the familiar name flashed on the screen, making him blink again. Why was she calling me now? Is something wrong?

Furrowing his brow slightly in worry, All Might took a deep breath, turning away from the window, and pressed the green button to answer the call, clearing his throat before raising the small device to his ear and trying to sound like he wasn't just about to overexert himself by buffing up to his true form.

"Er … hello? Mrs. Midoriya?"

"Oh! Mr. Yagi!" The pleasant voice of Izuku's mother filled his ear, making him smile a bit despite himself - it had been a while since they had seen each other, what with All Might no longer having to go to her home every weekend to give her a status report of her son's efforts on the beach, but he had missed speaking with Inko over the last two months while he had been busy with the Trigger investigation. "I'm sorry, I wasn't sure if you were going to pick up, I just had the thought that you were probably at work. So if you're busy I can -"

"Oh, no, it's quite alright," He chuckled, moving to sit back down on the couch, "I'm actually just resting at the moment, so I'm not too busy. But is something the matter? It's rather surprising to hear from you, especially in the middle of the day."

"Oh, well … Miwa and I had been talking yesterday," Inko explained, sounding equal parts embarrassed and relieved she wasn't interrupting something, "and we just realized that we haven't heard from you in quite a while. I know that you had your assignment at work ever since January started, but I had thought that I might as well give you a call just to make sure everything was alright. It's been a while since we've seen you, after all, Taiyo and Hakushu were also thinking of giving you a call eventually."

"Ah," All Might slowly nodded, feeling a bit guilty at the moment - of course his lack of communication while investigating the Trigger robbery would've caused a bit of concern for them, he would have to be foolish not to consider pretty much vanishing from their lives would be cause for concern for the three families, "well, I'm alright, Mrs. Midoriya - I've actually been very busy at work, I actually just returned from my - er - assignment a few days ago. But that's not an excuse for me not to have called to let you all know, I imagine that you all must've been worried when I didn't get back to you."

"Oh! Well, that's a relief to hear that you've been doing fine, Mr. Yagi. So you're back in Musutafu now?"

"I am! I was - uh - actually about to reach out to Young Izuku and his friends," All Might decided to bend the truth a little bit - he definitely was going to see Itsuka sometime this weekend, but for an entirely different purpose that he couldn't exactly tell her, "I saw from your text message a few weeks ago that they managed to successfully enroll at UA - I'm thinking of taking them out for lunch to have a very late celebration."

"Oh, that sounds absolutely lovely, Mr. Yagi, I'm sure Izuku would love to see you! Actually, speaking of … um … lunches - or - or dinners, in this case," Inko sounded embarrassed again, making All Might tilt his head somewhat in curiosity, "I was wondering if you'd - er, of course, if you had the time, that is - if you were interested in having a small together with us sometime. As in - as in with the Urarakas, the Kendous and myself. We've done a few dinners together, of course, so you - you don't have to feel obligated to come - but - er -" She coughed suddenly, "- it's a bit awkward being the fifth wheel all the time."

"Aaaah," All Might nodded, smiling a bit as he understood what she was asking - yes, when essentially going on a double-date between two couples, it would be awkward to be the odd woman out, "In - well, in that case, Mrs. Midoriya, I certainly wouldn't mind going out for dinner with everyone again! I must say, on my trip up north I missed having so many friendly people to eat with, so it would be my honor to go out with you all again. As long as the menu has options for my dietary needs, of course."

"Again, I do apologize for - well, for our first dinner out," Inko apologized again, sounding sheepish, "I didn't know about your injury before, and if I had known when we had you over for dinner, I wouldn't have tried to insist you eat a bit more."

"Well, Mrs. Midoriya, I can hardly blame you - I'm sure my doctor would agree with you that I need to gain a bit more weight."

"Er, ah … yes, of course. In - in any case, Mr. Yagi, I'll probably reach back out to you soon with an update hopefully soon! I'm sure Miwa and Tenohira would be more than happy to hear that you want to come with us next time."

"Yes," All Might grinned, leaning back against the couch as he heard her giggle in excitement over the line and feeling his smile widen a bit as well, "I'm sure that you would also appreciate me coming over so you don't have to be in the middle of their … er … 'rivalry'. Any progress on that, by the way?"

"No," Inko laughed, "my son's still oblivious, and the girls are obviously still coming to terms with it as well. Miwa and Tenohira are still competing, and Taiyo's now bet over ten thousand yen on who will make the first move on Izuku."

"Ha! And you're sure you don't want to throw your own hat in as well? I imagine that you'd probably know who your son would probably go for, hypothetically."

"Well, maybe I would know, but I'm not going to lie that if it's between Ochako and Itsuka, I'm not quite sure who my son's feeling that way for," Inko admitted, and All Might could practically see the soft smile on her face even when he couldn't see her, "if you asked me a year ago, I'd say Ochako without question, but I'm not going to pretend that Itsuka hasn't also found her way into my son's heart. But as long as my son is happy, I'm happy. I know that those two girls are both more than capable of making him feel special and loved, so I'm content with sitting back and letting those girls actually realize they're both in love with my son - we'll deal with the actual emotional fallout of that later."

At that, she sniffled a bit over the line, making All Might smile at how easy it was to set off the tearworks for this family, before he heard her clear her throat and giggle again.

"W-well anyway, thank you so much for catching up with me, Mr. Yagi - I'm sure you'll need to get back to work soon."

"Ah, er - yes, I - I should probably get back to work," All Might quickly nodded, feeling a bit disappointed that the call was about to end, and quickly cleared his throat again, trying to get some of his professionalism back, "anyway, uh - yes, let me know when you all will want to go out for dinner, I'll make some time."

"E-excellent! In - in that case, I'll text you then. Have a good rest of your day, Mr. Yagi."

"And you as well, Mrs. Midoriya."

Smiling, All Might pressed the red button to end the call, letting out a small sigh as he leaned back against the couch, staring up at the ceiling happily. It had been good to hear from Inko again, even if it was a bit about how dense her son was. And from the sound of things, going out for dinner with her and the other two families would be a great time as well. Going out with them as friends, of course - it wasn't like there was any kind of ulterior motive, All Might shook his head, it was just so she didn't feel awkward around the other two couples. Yes, that. Of course.

---

Inko hung up the phone, putting it back into her pocket as she leaned against the wall somewhat, giggling and smiling as she walked back into the kitchen, a rosey hue on her cheeks - and without even looking at Miwa, sitting at the table sipping on her coffee, she said, "Shut up."

"Mm-hm," Miwa smirked into her drink.

---

Before All Might could continue that line of thought, however, he heard the door to the Nap Room begin to slide open, and quickly looked around, smiling at the person standing in the entrance.

"Ah! Young Tenko, did you finish your meeting with Nezu?"

"Yeah," Tenko sighed as he walked into the room, picking up the coffee maker from the counter to walk to the table and make himself some tea, looking more exhausted than when he looked after a late night of gaming (some of which either Hana or All Might himself pretty much had to drag him to bed to get him some rest), "it was, uh - well, the principal went off on one of his tangents, I couldn't really get away from it until now, that's why I'm a bit late. Still, it's kinda a shame, I wanted to meet with one of the first year groups on their first day at the USJ. But … well, we couldn't really reschedule my checkup, so I guess I'll have to meet with them next week."

As Tenko fetched a few cups from the closet to pour for himself and the man sitting on the couch, All Might heard the door slide open again, and quickly looked around to see Nezu standing in the doorway, humming as he stepped through and closed the door behind him.

"Awful weather, isn't it, All Might?" The principal hummed as he shut the door behind him, "I was just speaking to Recovery Girl over the phone on my way here - apparently she had to stop Toga from attempting to head back to her room for one of her humorous outfits, it was raining that hard. I believe that if this weather doesn't go away soon, we may have to ask you to directly interfere."

"Good afternoon, Principal Nezu, sir! Your fur is well-groomed today, as usual."

"The secret is keratin!" Nezu told him informatively as he walked into the room, "but humans can't achieve this level of luster and color. But of course, we can talk about hair products for ourselves later. I was looking through some of the news reports before my meeting with Tenko," He reached into his pocket to pull out his tablet, tapping in a few commands before flipping it around and showing All Might what he had pulled up, "and would you have a look at this! Seven separate incidents, solved within one hour this morning! An amazing record for you, All Might - you haven't lost your step too much."

"Gerk." All Might winced, looking down at the various reports on the device and getting himself ready for a lecture as Nezu sighed and put the tablet away.

"I do acknowledge that the fault mainly lies with the ruffians and criminals that still cause trouble in our city even while knowing that you are living here now," He gave All Might a little break as he turned towards the couch that the pro hero had been sitting on, moving to sit beside him, "but you should know by now how to restrain yourself every time you hear about a slight incident in the city. You really haven't changed over the years, have you?"

All Might hummed in acknowledgement, at least having the decency to look sheepish as Tenko returned to the table, carrying the stool with four fingers as well as he put down the tea for them and glancing outside at the horrible thunderstorm continuing to rumble.

"Your hero activities, while still impressive, have become even more limited because of your injury and its aftereffects," Nezu continued to lecture as he hopped up onto the couch, "and not only that, you now have a responsibility as a teacher as well as being the Number One Hero. You'll need to learn how to properly hold yourself back, so that you can actually attend class to teach your students. You'll have to remember, All Might, that you are not the only hero in this city, and there are others that can pick up the slack. I'm fine with you insisting on remaining the Symbol of Peace as well as a teacher, but you'll need to learn how to maintain your muscle form now that you'll need to maintain it for specific amounts of time."

"Yes, sir," All Might mumbled, considering himself told off, and accepted a cup of tea from Tenko as the young man and the ... principal, whatever species he identified himself as, sat down with him.

"In any case, I believe the right move at the moment, All Might, is for you to stay here and relax for a bit longer. I know that you're down to very little time today due to your activities this morning, so we might need you to use your remaining time today to clear away this storm so the students can go home," Nezu looked out the window, his tail hitting the couch seat behind him as he stared out at the rain, "I'm very surprised at how suddenly this weather came out of nowhere - especially when the weatherman said it was supposed to be sunny."

"Yeah," Tenko frowned, looking around out the window himself as he stared at the rain beating at the window, "I wish I could be at home right now - Hana's legs usually ache when the weather's bad, I'm probably going to call her in a bit to make sure she's okay."

"Ah, yes. And how is your sister, Young Tenko?" All Might asked interestingly, "I believe the last time we spoke, she got arrangements to begin working from home, right?"

"Yeah, she's working out of her room right now - so now whenever I get home, I get to hear her being yelled at by angry customers. She's definitely got thicker skin than I do, I still feel like crying if one of the students gives me lip."

"Something for us to practice later, Tenko! How to handle criticism, even when it's from an overly emotional teenager."

"Well, in any case, Principal Nezu, if you insist I stay, I suppose I have to," All Might sighed, glancing around at the thunderstorm outside again with a frown, "once we're at the end of the day, I'll go out and punch the weather away so the students can head home. Hopefully after we get word from Aizawa and Thirteen that their class is over - I tried to reach out to them a bit earlier, but they might be busy at the moment with the students."

---

Lightning.

Rain.

Wind.

Storms.

Storms always calmed his heart.

With a low sigh, Nine looked back up at the glass ceiling of the facility they had just infiltrated, feeling himself relax a bit despite the sound of the villains shouting and crowing around him. It was a bit humorous, he thought to himself as he stared up at the dark sky, lightning flashing and rain hammering down against the windows. It was funny that they were currently attacking one of the most prestigious schools in Japan, openly declaring war on hero society itself - and yet, his heart was beating normally, and he didn't feel any nervous shake, other than the feeling of his quirk working overtime in his body. Nothing to indicate that he was afraid or nervous at the moment.

It made him smile, slowly folding his hands together as he closed his eyes and simply enjoyed the sound of the beautiful storm that he had created.

"Alright, I confirmed it with Tesla, everyone is in position," Mummy said from his spot near the back of the group, looking around at the small army of villains that had finally finished moving out of the portal, "and from what they're saying over our communications, we've got the rest of the villains waiting in the various areas around the USJ."

"And he's blockin' out the other communications to the school?" Chimera folded his arms as he glared up at the students at the top of the stairs. "They figure out what we're doin', it might take 'em a while to get through this storm, but they'll disable the grunts before we get started."

"He's confirmed that the communication to the school has been blocked. We're the only ones able to communicate amongst ourselves. And once he's taken our gift, we won't worry about communications at all."

"Good," Nine nodded, looking back at the army of villains that they brought, all of them sniggering and looking up at where the terrified children were, "then all we need to do now is separate them into groups. Kurogiri?"

"I cannot activate my quirk," The warp villain narrowed his eyes slightly, looking down at the dark mist emulating from his body, "it appears that it has been disabled. It's possible that there's someone among their group capable of erasing quirks that is interfering."

"Your quirk is disabled?" Nine raised an eyebrow under his hood, looking around at their mysterious collaborator, "Fascinating. We'll have to find out who up there has a quirk like that and have a look at them. In the meanwhile," He turned to the towering monster with the exposed brain, seeing it staring blankly up at the students with that permanent grin on its beak, "Nomu, you're to stay here with me. Don't attack the students - I want you in pristine condition for when All Might arrives. I want no surprises when he turns up."

"And what about him?" Slice looked over at the other hooded man, seeing him staring up at the students as well, the darkness of the facility hiding his face in shadows.

"You," He made it clear to the hooded man that he was speaking with him, "are to stay here as well. I know that you'd rather soak in their blood, but I want you ready in case any of them are strong enough to sneak past the others and try to attack me. Understood?"

"..."

"Am I understood?"

"... yeeeesh,"He slowly nodded, his slurred voice quiet.

"Good. Don't worry - if a student up there somehow gets past our little traps and to me, it means that they're strong enough to go a few rounds with you. You'll get your blood one way or another. Now then," Nine returned his gaze to the top of the stairs, and then he called to the other villains clearly waiting to get started, "all of you, head up the stairs and bring them down here. I'd like to try to make this as painless as possible, but if they resist, don't be afraid to rough them up."

"I suppose these are the scumbags that helped the reporters get into the school yesterday," Aizawa narrowed his eyes behind his goggles, shoulders tense as he glared down at the six apparent ringleaders of the group as the small army of villains began to advance towards the stairs.

"Aizawa-sensei, what do we do?" Setsuna quickly looked over at their teacher, her usual snarkiness and confidence long gone as she glanced fearfully between Aizawa and the villains slowly approaching the stairs. "How did the villains get into the school? Wouldn't we have defenses against a warp quirk?"

"What about the trespasser sensors?" Momo stepped forward as well, putting her hand on her fellow recommended student's shoulder to try and soothe her, "Wouldn't they have gone off if something like this were to happen?"

"Normally they would," Thirteen gave her, her light and happy tone of voice gone as she turned back to speak to the students, "but it's possible that this may be condensed here. The trespasser sensors would have gone off if they had come in through the school gate, but it's possible that there is someone among them with a quirk that can block our communications. They may just be here, or all around the school as well."

"Makes sense," Aizawa didn't look away from the villains below as he tugged on his capture weapon wrapped around his neck, "an isolated area mostly separated from the main campus during a time when the class is supposed to be here. These people aren't idiots - this isn't some villain group doing something bold, this is a coordinated attack. And I'll be that the weather outside is due to them too - someone in the group with a weather manipulation quirk, keeping the rest of the teachers from reaching here safely."

"Then - then what do we do?" Itsuka looked around at her teacher, still holding onto Izuku and Ochako's arms to assure them and watching as Aizawa took a step forward, "If we can't leave because of the hurricane outside, then we'll be stuck here with them. Do we fight back?"

"Let's," Katsuki cracked his knuckles, grinning ferally down at the slowly advancing army, "I've been looking for an opportunity to show you extras how it's done."

"No," Aizawa sharply said, shaking his head, "even if these villains are regular thugs, you're all inexperienced when it comes to direct combat with someone trying to kill you. Don't engage the villains if you can. Thirteen, start the evacuation. Get the kids outside on the bus, and try calling the school. If these villains have something to counteract the sensors, it's possible that someone with radio-wave-type powers is interfering. Kendou," He looked around at the orange-haired girl, seeing her straighten up, "you're the class rep, so assist Thirteen with getting everyone out of here."

"Y-yes sir," Itsuka quickly nodded, glancing around at her fellow students as Aizawa continued to give last-minute instructions. She could tell that Pony was definitely afraid, taking a nervous step back, as was Eijirou and Reiko, both of them taking slow, deep breaths to try and calm themselves. Yui still looked as stoic as ever, but she could tell that she was shaking; Nejire was oddly quiet, staring down at the villains with a pout on her face; and from beside her, Izuku and Ochako were also studying the villains, Ochako clearly afraid and Izuku on his guard, sweat beginning to drip down his forehead.

Feeling a small surge of protection surge through her, Itsuka took a deep breath and squeezed Izuku and Ochako's arms, getting their attention as they looked around to her, seeing her give them both an assuring glance.

"Stay by me," She muttered, "we're getting out of here together."

Izuku and Ochako hesitated, glancing between each other once - and then they both nodded, Izuku giving her a shaky grin and Ochako reaching up to squeeze her waist somewhat.

"... and Kaminari," Aizawa finished his instructions, looking around at the blonde boy, "you try contacting the school with your quirk as well, once you're outside on the bus."

"Y-yes, sir."

"Sensei, what about you?" Izuku stepped forward, glancing down at the villains as they reached the bottom of the stairs and then back up to Aizawa. "Are you - are you going to fight them all by yourself? There's way too many of them - even if you can nullify their quirks with yours, your fighting style isn't suited for a frontal assault. Your power works better in stealth and one-on-one fights -"

"Midoriya," Aizawa cut in, but unlike the tranquil anger from before, there was a surprising softness in his voice as he looked back around at his terrified students, "you can't be a pro if you only have one trick. I'm leaving them to you, Thirteen - get going."

And with a grunt, Aizawa leapt from his spot at the top of the stairs, the students quickly running forward to watch his gray scarf blowing behind him, as the moment he landed on the staircase gracefully he took off in a sprint straight towards the approaching villains, seeing them pause in surprise as he charged them.

"Firing squad!" Chimera barked from his spot near the fountain, and several people hurried forward to the front of the stairs, each of them with quirks similar to firearms emulating through their hair, fingertips or masks.

"Who's that?" The lone woman in the squad sneered up at Aizawa, her hair forming into long barrels, "Didn't our intel say it would just be Thirteen and All Might? Who's the hobo?!"

"No idea!" The large man in the green jumpsuit shook his head, "But if he thinks he can just come at us like that -" The nuzzle of his mask suddenly lit up, and the woman's hair pointed straight at the approaching teacher as she sneered, and the man with the finger-barrels cackled, "- then he's an idiot!"

Before any of them could fire at the teacher, however, they found the barrels of their gun quirks suddenly stalling, making them balk; the man with gun fingers waved his hands in confusion, the woman's heavy metal hair fell unexpectedly, making her yelp in surprise, and the large man in the green jumpsuit stared down at his hands in surprise - but before any of them could realize what had happened, they found themselves suddenly wrapped up in gray cloth.

With a grunt, Aizawa yanked them up into the air as he leapt off the last few stairs, making the trio of gun yielding villains scream in confusion and terror as they were flipped into a small circle, and with another grunt of exertion, the pro hero brought the two lines of his cloth together, yanking the three villains over and slamming them into each other. With groans of pain, they were sent flying, landing on the ground in heaps and clutching their heads as Aizawa landed on the ground, glaring up at the other villains.

Several of the criminals balked at the surprising show of force from this stranger, and how their compatriots' quirks had randomly disappeared - but Nine seemed undeterred, studying the man in black as his red eyes suddenly flickered from yellow and then back to red, and slowly nodded, smiling under his hood.

"Ah," He drawled as Aizawa straightened up, his long dark hair floating above his head, "I believe I see now. The ability to erase quirks just by looking at them … I believe that would make you Eraserhead, wouldn't it? I've heard of you … I believe you're an underground hero, aren't you? Odd to find you at a school of all places."

"Erase?!" One villain growled, clenching his four fists and charging at the teacher, "That's not gonna do jackshit against heteromorphic-types like mine!"

"No, it won't," Aizawa agreed, ducking under the fist being thrown at his face, and then threw his own fist forward, driving it into the attacker's face. As the villain's head was thrown back, his nose probably reduced to a pulp under the black mask with yellow lines, Aizawa was quick to shoot out another piece of his scarf as he was sent flying, wrapping it around the villain's leg.

"But how obviously inept you are at fighting just means I'll just handle you the normal way."

With a grunt, Aizawa yanked back with the cloth, eyes narrowing behind his goggles, and threw the villain straight at Nine, wanting to take the ringleader by surprise. The hooded man merely raised an eyebrow as the villain was sent flying towards him, but Chimera was quick to jump in the way, snarling as he grabbed the flying villain and roughly threw him away from their leader.

The other villains, meanwhile, were looking more and more nervous by the moment, glancing fearfully between each other and taking nervous gasps as they reached for their pockets, grabbing for something -

"Don't!" Nine shouted, raising his voice properly for the first time, and the villains in the surrounding area froze as they looked around at him in fear, seeing his glowing red eyes narrowing behind the hood.

"Not yet. You don't need to turn to my gift just yet. Look at your opponent. Eraserhead is strong in hand-to-hand combat, so you'll need to watch his face to know how he works. He's hiding his eyes with the goggles so you can't tell whose quirk he's erasing. A good strategy against those who don't know how he operates."

Aizawa narrowed his eyes at the apparent leader of these villains before quickly glancing back around, not wanting any surprises. Apparently, this guy knew more about him than he expected, which was a major disadvantage for Aizawa - he wanted to go into this with the element of surprise. Still, he couldn't quite counteract him, seeing as another villain leapt at him with her pigtails turning into sharp drills, requiring him to duck under her attack and swiftly kick her in under the chin, jerking her head back and causing her to collapse with a grunt of pain.

"Such a shame," Slice sighed, shaking her head with a small pout as she leaned against Nine, "I thought we might've picked up a few good ones, but they're getting beat down by fists and kicks. Really shows the difference between quality versus quantity, doesn't it? I imagine me or Chimera could probably finish this up quickly."

"Don't," Nine shook his head at the woman, "I imagine that you could probably hold your own against him, but if he erases your quirk it might put you at disadvantage. And Chimera already has a job to do, he doesn't need to get distracted."

"Hm. And what about you?" She turned to the other hooded man, seeing him watch the fight. "Interested in jumping in and finishing up?"

"Nuh-no,"He shook his head, his deep, gravely voice sounding disappointed, "not … n-not s-strong enough."

"Such a shame," She repeated dully.

"Keep behind him," Nine continued to instruct the other villains, moving back to the fountain with his second in command as he observed the fight, "and once his back is turned to you, attack. In the meanwhile … Kurogiri."

"Understood, Nine."

The mist villain quietly studied Aizawa, waiting until his back was briefly turned - and then he acted, feeling his quirk return to him in that brief moment. Portals opened behind Chimera and Mummy, both of them smirking as they took the moment while Aizawa was distracted to get to the next part of their plan, stepping backwards and vanishing through the portals. Once they were gone, Kurogiri likewise vanished, leaving Nine, Slice, Nomu and the hooded man behind in the foyer.

"Damn it!" Aizawa cursed himself, eyes flickering back to where the ringleaders were and saw that three of the six had vanished. He had gotten distracted by the fight, and the three villains who looked like they would be trouble had gotten away.

Up at the top of the stairs, Izuku stared down in growing wonder as his teacher continued fighting against the massive horde of villains, watching as Aizawa ducked underneath their attacks and began working his way towards the leader of the group. Despite the sound of Itsuka ushering their classmates towards the door, he couldn't help but stand back and admire the fight a little bit.

From the looks of things, Aizawa's fighting style was completely different from All Might's but he was still able to hold his own against so many people. But unlike All Might, he knew that eventually, Aizawa would get outnumbered - he lacked All Might's overwhelming strength, and eventually fighting so many people at once was going to exhaust him. And if he got tired, surrounded by so many villains -

"Deku, stop watching the fight and let's go!"

Izuku yelped as someone grabbed and yanked on his wrist, almost tripping him backwards as he was roughly pulled out of his thoughts. He quickly looked around in shock at Ochako looking back at him as she pulled him along, looking equal parts terrified and exasperated at him as Itsuka and Nejire ran alongside them.

"There's a time and a place for you to analyze fights, Midoriya," Itsuka growled a bit, grabbing his other arm to help Ochako pull him over to where their class was running towards the door, "and it's not now! We need to go!"

"Yeah!" Nejire quickly agreed, assisting the two girls by pushing Izuku from behind, "we need to get out of here! You can do the cute thing where you talk really fast, really quietly, later! Let's go!"

"I'm afraid I cannot allow that."

As the students ran as fast as they could for the door, Thirteen leading them at the front, a sudden blast of black mist shot out of the ground. Everyone in the class gasped as they skidded to a stop, staring up in shock and terror as a large pillar of black energy stood in front of them, bright yellow eyes flickering at the top as the villain looked around at the terrified students.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintances," The towering mass of darkness bowed briefly in respect, his back barely bending forward, "we are the Villain Consortium. An organization meant to gather villains to work as a … I believe Nine said that we were meant to work as though we villains are parts of an interconnecting network. I feel that is appropriate, given our alliance today. Forgive me if it is presumptuous, but we have invited ourselves to your school, the home of heroes, in order to turn All Might, the Symbol of Peace, into a martyr for our cause."

Both Izuku and Itsuka tensed, glaring up at the villain, while Ochako attempted to steel herself while grabbing Izuku's hand to try and calm him down, and Nejire gulped nervously.

"I do believe that according to the schedule, he should have been here," Kurogiri continued to monologue, his narrow glowing eyes looking around at the group of shaking and terrified children, unaware of Thirteen subtly hiding her hand behind her back to subtly unclasp one of the tips of her fingers as he began to spread his arms, "has there been a change? Ah, well, in any case, it doesn't matter."

As he somehow narrowed his eyes even more, Thirteen quickly threw her hand upwards towards the villain, ready to activate her quirk - and then her eyes widened as two of the students behind her rushed forwards, sprinting straight towards Kurogiri as he briefly stopped whatever he was about to do to watch curiously.

"Both of you, stop!" She cried, but it was too late to stop Katsuki and Eijirou from attacking the villain. Quickly, Katsuki threw out his hand just as Eijirou threw out a punch, and a large explosion rocked Kurogiri back, making the gasp and cover their eyes as a large smoke cloud covered the group, stinging their eyes.

"Heh," Katsuki smirked, landing back on the floor, "That was too easy."

"I bet you didn't expect that!" Eijirou also looked proud of himself, his quirk briefly deactivating, "You probably didn't expect to be beaten by us before -"

"My, my, that was dangerous."

Both hot-blooded teenagers tensed in surprise, Katsuki narrowing his eyes and Eijirou's eyes widening, as the black mist reformed, blowing away the smoke of Katsuki's quirk. They briefly caught a glimpse of a metal brace above a vest and tie from somewhere within the smoke before it quickly covered itself, and Kurogiri was quick to reform, a menacing chuckle escaping his lips.

"That's right," He mused to himself, "even if you are nothing more than students, there may be a few golden eggs amongst you. I must be a tad more careful while moving you all around - I believe Nine would be interested if your quirks are strong enough to gain his attention … but alas, I still have a responsibility."

"Both of you, get back!" Thirteen shouted, but was powerless to do anything with Katsuki and Eijirou still in the way as Kurogiri spread several large tendrils of black mist backwards.

"Consider this your new test for today, students," he sneered, "I shall scatter you all to be tortured and slain by our comrades."

The blast of black and purple mist exploded outwards over the class, and the tendrils were quick to slam down upon them. Several students yelled out and covered their faces to block the smoke - but Tenya acted faster, feeling his engines roar to life as he moved. As quickly as he could, he grabbed the nearest person to him, hearing a yelp of surprise as he wrapped them up protectively in his arms and raced out of the way of the blast of smoke. It seemed that Mezo had the same idea, gathering up his two nearest classmates in his six arms and leaping out of the darkness, rolling on the ground briefly and grunting as he collided with the railing.

Gasping as she hit the ground, Setsuna was quick to hop out of Tenya's protective embrace, and quickly whipped her head around to look at the swirling mass of darkness with widened eyes and a dropped jaw, realizing that her friends were still inside that thing. On the other side of the darkness, Mezo, Hanta and Mina also looked around fearfully as the sounds of their classmates shouting in panic made their hearts feel like they were attempting to crawl up their throats, Setsuna shaking as the villain's quirk briefly turned into a small dome, separating all the students still trapped in the darkness.

"Ken! Yui! Guys!"

Within the shadow of Kurogiri's quirk, Izuku grunted, feeling his hand be ripped from Ochako's grasp as he was pushed back by an invisible force. He hard Itsuka yelp in panic and Nejire groaning, and he tried to look back at them, unable to see anything through the black mist as he took one step back -

- and felt nothing, letting out a gasp as he suddenly lost his balance and began to fall backwards. There was a part of him that thought that he had been pushed back far enough to the stairs, about to trip down them and be sent crashing down the steps towards the fight happening below, and yet, the pain of hitting the ground never came.

Instead … he felt a sudden heat hit his back.

Izuku felt confused, feeling a somewhat familiar sensation as his other foot slipped out from beneath him and he felt himself begin to fall. Wait … fall? He was - he was falling?! He felt himself cry out in panic as he began to plummet, remembering what it was like back at the entrance exam, falling to his death with Nejire wrapped around his waist -

- but then he realized that something felt off. Everything around him, from the air to the sweat on his skin, felt … hotter. As though he had just stepped into a furnace.

Izuku stared blankly up as the black mist that had enveloped him suddenly vanished, replacing his vision with nothing but gray smoke - and then he realized what exactly had happened. If this guy had some kind of teleportation quirk, and had enveloped Izuku with that mist … that must have meant that he had been teleported. And the feeling of something hot on his back, and seemingly getting hotter by the minute - and then it came to him.

Whipping his head around to look behind his shoulder, Izuku let out a shout of fear and surprise as he fell towards a building clearly on fire, hot licks of flames blasting out as he plummeted towards it. With a yelp, Izuku twisted in the air, eyes widening despite the smoke hitting them as he realized he didn't have any time to get himself out of the way, and he was about to probably slam into that building and into the flames -

- and then he felt two small objects stab through his costume, yanking him out of his small plummet and sending him flying off to the side, much to his surprise. Looking down, he blinked at the sight of a pair of familiar horns stabbing through the sides of his costume.

"Midoriya-san!"

"Hang on, dude!"

Quickly looking around, Izuku saw an odd shape emerging out of the smoke, a bit confused at first at what exactly was calling out to him and why it sounded familiar - and then Pony burst out of the smoke, her large, doe-like eyes squinting through the dark fumes as she reached out for him. Attached to her back, swearing up a storm and clenching his eyes tightly together, was Yosetsu, attached securely to her back as he rested one of his hands against her back - probably using his quirk to make sure he didn't slip off - and before Izuku could say anything, Pony slammed into him, carrying him in a bridal position as she began to plummet towards the ground.

"Too much weight,"She groaned, looking around for a safe spot to land, "this is probably going to be a rough landing, guys!"

"I don't care, as long as we get down on the fuckin' ground!" Yosetsu yelled, keeping his face in her hair as they continued to plummet. Managing to finally get his thoughts together, and not feeling flustered at all in Pony's embrace, Izuku also quickly began looking around, shaking a bit from the nerves of almost dying - and then he spotted a small rooftop, smoke rising off it but clear of any holes they would fall into.

"Tsunotori!" He quickly pointed. "There!"

Nodding, Pony bit her lip as she concentrated, aiming her body as best she could towards the building Izuku pointed out to her. For a moment Izuku feared that they were going to shoot over it, or too little and slam into the wall and slide down to the ground, but thankfully Pony managed to aim herself just right, tripping over her hooves as they fell onto the rooftop, Izuku yelping as he was sent rolling away out of Pony's arms and the horse girl groaning as she landed on the roof with Yosetsu on top of her.

"Damn," The boy in the bandana groaned, managing to sit up slightly, "I fuckin' hate heights. You guys okay -?"

"Get off me, ya butthole!" Pony grunted, English in full force as she slammed her fists on the ground, and Yosetsu yelped as he realized that he was still laying on top of her, pretty much crushing her with his weight. Quickly, he undid his quirk, unwelding his arm from her back, and rolled off her, looking concerned as Izuku managed to sit up, rubbing his arm where he had landed on it.

"Oh, shit, you alright, Tsunotori? Sorry, I didn't even realize that I - I landed on you."

"Other than maybe a cracked rib, I'm good," Pony sat up, rubbing her forehead and coughing as smoke continued to rise into the air, looking around while clearly nervous, "and maybe a little bumped forehead,but it's good. Where are we?"

"I don't know," Izuku got up on shaky feet, walking over to his classmates as he glanced around, and together, he and Yosetsu helped Pony to her feet - or hooves, more specifically. As she rubbed her forehead, Izuku tried to take a better around, feeling his heart hammering in his chest as he studied his surroundings. From what he could see, the entire city was on fire, with flames burning brightly and relentlessly, smoke floating into the air and fanning out as -

- wait. Fanning out?

Izuku looked up at the sky, feeling his brow crinkle in confusion. The smoke wasn't rising into the sky, it looked more like it was hitting something invisible and slowly blowing out, almost as though - wait.

Wait, of course!

"I think we're still in the USJ," Izuku said out loud, drawing Yosetsu and Pony's attention as the two of them looked around at him. "Look, the smoke isn't rising into the sky, it's - it's fanning out, like it's hitting something."

"Wait a sec," Yosetsu realized, catching on and hurrying over to stand beside Izuku, "there was one area in the USJ - that one with the flame patterns. Does that mean -?"

"Yeah," Izuku slowly nodded, "that warp villain sent us in here. We're still in the USJ - he just separated us."

"So that means that everyone might still be here!" Pony gasped, hurrying forward to join them near the edge of the rooftop, Yosetsu gulping as he realized he was standing too close and taking a cautious step back. "If we're still here, everyone else might be too!"

"Yeah," Izuku nodded slowly, tugging at his lip as he thought. If Pony was correct, then Ochako and Itsuka would still be okay, just spread out across the facility. He felt his heart hammer in worry for them, before quickly shaking his head - they would be alright. They were both strong, so they'd be okay.

They'll be okay.

Right now, he had to worry about himself, Pony and Yosetsu, and how they were going to get out of there. They needed to scout around and find the exit, so they could leave and -

"They landed over there! I see them!"

All three teenagers yelped at the sound of a rough voice shouting from below, and quickly looked around, their eyes squinting in the smoke rising from the area. They could make out several figures walking on the roads towards them, looking unfamiliar - but it wasn't hard for Izuku, Pony and Yosetsu to figure out who they were.

Villains. Like the students, they had been spread out throughout the facility as well. In the lead, staring up at them, a man in red bandages was leading the pack, seemingly unperturbed by the smoke as his eyes locked on the three students on the rooftop.

"Ah, so only three students," Mummy nodded, smirking beneath the bandages covering his mouth, "this will be interesting."

---

On the other side of the USJ, Ochako let out a grunt as she fell back-first through the dark mist, and let out a loud gasp of pain as her back met solid rock. All the air in her lungs escaped with that gasp, eyes widening slightly as she bounced off the stone floor - but luckily for her, whoever fell through the warp gate after her seemed more focused, as she managed to land on her side with a grunt, looking up as Ochako bounced in the air, and threw out her hand.

"I've got you!"

Ochako felt relieved that her second landing was a bit softer than her initial one, falling into something a bit firmer but less painful on her back. It took her a moment to realize that she had landed in a giant hand, and looked around to see Itsuka hastily getting up, putting Ochako on the ground as she reshrunk her hand and turned her back over, looking a bit panicked.

"Uraraka, are you okay?! Can you breathe?!"

"I'm fine," Ochako wheezed, coughing and accepting her help sitting up, "just - rough landing. Ow."

Brow crinkled in worry, Itsuka was quick to help her friend back up to her feet, both of them grunting slightly as Ochako stumbled on her feet before managing to regain her balance. Quickly, they both looked around at their surroundings - from what they could see, they were in some kind of mountain terrain, both of them quickly looking up at the sky and relieved when they saw the ran slamming against the window of the USJ and lightning flashing briefly across the sky, signifying to them that they were still in the facility, and the villain hadn't sent them halfway across Japan. Without the power on, it was harder to see their surroundings, with only the occasional flash of lightning above them illuminating the landscape.

"We're still at the USJ," Itsuka quickly made note, looking around suspiciously at the darkness as the two girls stayed close to each other, "I think this is the mountain zone - either that or that landslide zone."

"I think it's the mountain zone," Ochako slowly nodded in agreement, glancing around as well, "so if we're still at the USJ, that means everyone else might be too - we were all just spread around a bit."

"Exactly. So we should get out of here as quickly as we can, and get back to the entrance. Let's try to -"

"Kendou! Uraraka!"

Both girls jumped at the sound of someone calling their names, and quickly looked around. Thankfully, it had been a familiar voice calling for them, and from over the side of the nearest mountain to them came Momo and Kyouka, the taller girl holding a flashlight so they could better see, and quickly running over to them, Kyouka looking around suspiciously as she held her earphones up into the air.

"Oh, thank goodness," Momo sighed in relief as they made it over to the other two girls, Itsuka reaching out and patting her shoulder in comfort, "Jirou and I arrived somewhat over there, we heard you both talking."

"It's good to see you guys," Itsuka smiled at her deputy representative, and then looked around at Kyouka, "Uraraka and I were just about to try and get out of here - we're thinking that we can make it back to the entrance, so we can see if there's anyone still there after that bastard blasted us through the portal. Jirou -?"

"Quiet for a second," Kyouka requested, and knelt down on the ground. The three girls watched as she stuck her earphones into the ground, taking a moment to listen carefully as she raised her hand to her ear - and then her eyes narrowed.

"We're not alone. I can hear a lot of feet moving around."

"Oh, great," Ochako sighed, looking around and balling her fists, "just what we need, more villains spread around the facility. In the dark. We need to get out of here and find everyone else - should I float us all up?"

"Yes," Momo quickly nodded, deciding not to risk it and beginning to grow weapons out of her body, unzipping her front and beginning to grow a metal pole to give to Kyouka, "I think the correct course of action will be to -"

"Yaoyorozu!"

Momo jumped a bit in surprise at Itsuka's sudden shout of her name, and looked around as the orange-haired girl quickly ran at her - and then she noticed a strange light coming from behind her, illuminating the area, and looked around to see a wall of fire being blasted straight at -

FOOOM

"Ah!"

Just before the blast of fire could envelop her, Itsuka tackled Momo out of the way, both girls letting out cries of pain as they slammed into the hard stone ground to avoid the flames. Ochako and Kyouka were similarly quick to get out of the way, Ochako rolling to the side and Kyouka jumping to the side, hissing slightly at the intensity of the flames even as she moved away from it. Once the flames had bounced off the wall and evaporated, the four girls were quick to jump back to their feet, Momo growing out a staff from her stomach and Itsuka using her quirk to grow out her hands, to look around at the tall man walking towards them out of the shadows.

"Well, I'm impressed," Chimera smirked, grabbing another cigar from his pocket as he tossed the used one in his mouth off to the side, several villains quickly moving around him to surround the students, "usually my flame breath's fast enough to catch anyone not noticing off guard - nice job, girlie, with keepin' your eyes open."

Itsuka merely glared at the villain as the villains continued to surround them, the four girls moving into a small circle as several villains with weapons, sharpened arms and smirks moved around to pin the students against the mountain wall, while Chimera used his fire breath to light up his cigar.

"Now then," He smirked, puffing out some smoke, "let's see what kind of fight you can put up, heroes."

---

The villains currently swimming around the shipwreck zone were ready.

They had been pleased when they had been sought out by the Villain Consortium, asked to join them in their crusade to kill All Might, and had been more than happy to be given the special gift to stand up to him. Given power by Nine that they were more than excited for to get into their system, so they could become gods. That was the promise of the Consortium - the power to become more than just street trash, more than the pirates they had been, being chased down by that damn seal and his crew.

And now they got to use this power for the first time to tear a couple of brats apart. They were ready to sink their teeth into the little children who were deluded to think that they could look down on them when they got out of high school, that they could treat them like trash.

What they didn't expect, however, was for the black portal to open above the lake, about to dump whatever poor kid into the water to get torn to shreds by the villains eagerly waiting for them to drop in - and instead, a girl with long, blue hair carefully carried her two classmates above the water, blinking down in confusion at the villains beneath her and straining to keep all three of them afloat with yellow spiralling energy leaving her feet.

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey!" She called down to them, a bit of sweat running down her forehead as she fought to stay floating in the air with all their weight, "You guys look really menacing! Like you! You look like a shark! Really cool goggles! And you! I like your little trident! Or wait, that's not a trident, is it? Tridents got three pointy thingies - what is that, Asui? Do you know what it might be? Oooh, but that guy has cool ears, too, they look like fins!"

"That would be a harpoon, Hadou," Tsuyu said from where she was dangling in the air, carefully holding onto Nejire and wrapping her tongue around Yui's waist just in case Nejire accidentally dropped her, "and be careful, he might throw it at us, and we can't really move fast right now. Anyway, I don't think we want to go over on the boat, they might put a hole in it and sink it, I know that I have a good enough quirk to last pretty long in the water, but neither of you do, kero."

"Mm," Yui nodded in agreement, looking around and then using her hand not being held onto by Nejire to point up to the top of the large structure, "take us up to the slide, if you can - it'll give us a bird's eye view."

"Sure thing! Hold on!"

With that, Nejire slowly began flying up into the air, all three girls moving away from the water and ignoring the sounds of the villains shouting and cursing at them as they flew away, a harpoon being thrown at them, completely missing, and then falling back down to impale another villain in the shoulder. Finally, once they reached the top of the large slide of the flood zone, Nejire let out a sigh of relief as she put the two girls down, and landed beside them carefully on the top support of the slide, gushing over how cool it was and briefly wondering if she could slide down it for fun once they weren't going to die.

"Careful, Kodai," Tsuyu croaked as she kept her balance, and left her tongue wrapped around Yui's waist, "you're the only one here that might not recover if you fall into the water from this height, kero. I'll keep my tongue wrapped around you just to be safe."

"Kinky."

"If you say so, kero."

"Hey, hey, do you guys think we can use this for recreation when we're not dying? Can we, can we? Wait, there's ice in there, I might get hurt if I - darn it!" Nejire snapped her fingers in frustration, looking at the other two girls with a pout.

"We can worry about going down the slide later, kero," Tsuyu turned back towards the dark USJ, trying as hard as she could to have a look around. From what they could barely make out, there were still people moving around at the top of the entrance, which must have meant that there had been some people that managed to escape the initial portal over to the flood zone, and if they looked around to the bottom of the stairs, they could also make out Aizawa still fighting with the other villains there.

Other than that, though, they couldn't see their other classmates at all, which worried all three girls at the top of the structure.

"Hadou," Yui looked around at the curious girl, seeing her peeking over the side towards where the villains were swimming towards them furiously, "I think you should head over and help out Thirteen, if she's still at the entrance. If we can handle that weird warp guy, we shouldn't have any more trouble getting out of here."

"Sure thing!" Nejire saluted her with a big smile, and then blinked as something came to her. "Wait, is that by myself, or should I bring you guys with me? I can bring you too if you want, but holding up so much weight is really hard, and the entrance looks really far away, so I might accidentally drop you! But I don't wanna just leave you guys here, you might get in trouble with those jerks in the water!"

"Kero," Tsuyu slowly nodded, looking down at the villains as well, "I think I know what you mean, Hadou - leaving the two of us here to face the villains by ourselves isn't really a smart move, but expecting you to carry us all the way over there probably isn't possible - we'll either drop and fall into the water, or on the ground. And theoretically, Kodai and I have close-range quirks, and you're the only one here that can attack at long range and fly above the villains. So maybe we should consider -"

BOOM

All three girls yelped as the slide suddenly shook, Tsuyu quickly grabbing Nejire's arm to make sure she didn't fall over the side, and were quick to look down. A gigantic fist made of water had emerged from the lake, and began smashing at the supports of the tower, shaking the entire structure and almost making Yui fall over, if not for Tsuyu acting quickly and securing her with her tongue.

It was clear what they were doing - knocking out the supports of the tower in order to send all three of them plummeting into the water. And then it would be open season for them. Nejire felt herself frown, her cheeks turning into a pout, and quickly took off, floating in the air and making the other two girls look up at her in shock.

"Hadou?" Tsuyu croaked, "What are you doing, kero?!"

"They'll knock us into the water if they keep beating up the slide!" She gave them another quick salute, looking back down at the villains in the water. "And I might be fine with that since I can float, but Kodai, you definitely won't be okay if you fall from this height! And you too, Asui, it might be bad for you but you're also a frog, so you might be okay, but I don't wanna take that chance! So - uh - try to climb down while I go down there!"

"Go down there and what?" Yui tilted her head. "Stop them? They outnumber us twenty to one, there's no way you can take them all on at the same time."

"That doesn't matter!" Nejire shook her head, clenching her fists and whipping her head back down to the villains trying to hurt her classmates.

There were a thousand thoughts running through her head, but she tried to push them down as best she could as she started to fly down, glancing over her shoulder to see Tsuyu and Yui carefully starting to climb down. She was honestly more than a little annoyed by this - she wanted to come here and have a lot of fun with her friends! Do cool exercises! Maybe fulfill her lifelong wish to be bridal carried, if she was pretending to be unconscious and one of her classmates had to carry her to safety! Maybe by Mezo, his multiple arms looked comfortable -

- wait, no, Nejire shook her head, focus.

Her friends were in danger. Itsuka and Ochako were in danger. Tenya and Setsuna were in danger. Momo and Eijirou were in danger. Yui was definitely in danger. And Izuku … he would probably be in danger too right now.

So it was with that thought, thinking of her green-haired friend, that Nejire narrowed her eyes and floated down to beat up all the bad guys.

---

From within the multiple arms emerging from Mezo, an eye and an ear grew out, quickly scanning the dark USJ as lightning flash and thunder rumbled above them.

"Shouji, is everyone still here?" Tenya asked, looking around the dark USJ as well, and felt relieved when he spotted the familiar glow of Nejire's quirk above the flood zone, "I can see Hadou, but what about everyone else?"

"They're all scattered around," Mezo noted, narrowing his eyes, "but they're all still in the building. Jirou would probably have a better time pinpointing where everyone is, but I think they're all here. But I can also hear several villains moving around as well, so they might be up to something."

Nodding, Tenya looked back around over his shoulder, surveying their current situation. As far as he was aware, he, Mezo, Setsuna, Hanta and Mina were the only students that had managed to avoid the villain's attempt to warp them away, and were still at the entrance of the facility with Thirteen. The warp villain, meanwhile, continued to slowly manifest his body, content to take a few seconds to reform just to intimidate the remaining students, as the five remaining students looked to their teacher.

"Sensei, what do we do?!" Setsuna took a cautious step back, sweating a bit but trying her best to clear her thoughts and calm down, "Nothing we do to this guy can hit him, and he can just warp us away if he gets bored of us! What's our strategy?!"

Thirteen took a quiet moment to think, staring at the warp villain as he slowly reformed - and then she nodded to herself, hitting her fist into her open palm and look back around at her students in determination.

"We have no choice then," She decided, looking between them all, "we need to warn the other teachers of what's happening here, and get some backup to ward the villains back. We'll need one of you to get out of the building, and run straight back to the school. Head straight to the principal's office and inform him of what's happening, and if you don't know where that is, go back to where your classroom is and knock on the door to Class 1B, and tell Vlad King."

"What?!" Tenya gasped, staring at her in shock for a moment, "But would it not be a disgrace as a student of UA to leave everyone behind?!"

"The alarms aren't sounding," Thirteen reminded him gently, "and the phones aren't working either. There's no way for us to reach out to the rest of the teachers from here. Since our alarm system uses infrared tech, the fact that it hasn't activated even though senpai - I mean, Eraserhead - is down there nullifying quirks means that whoever is interfering with the system has hidden themselves somewhere within the facility. We don't have time to search for them and defeat them, so it'll be faster for someone to go and get help."

"But -!"

"We don't have time to think up anything else, Iida," Mezo shook his head, growing out a few more arms as he stared down Kurogiri, "if we can get outside, and it's only the USJ that the alarms are blocked, we can use the alarms outside to let everyone else know what's happening. That's why they're only attacking us here, right?"

"If any of us get outside, they won't follow you!" Hanta also got ready for combat, flexing his arms to expose his elbows and feeling some tape escape in preparation, "We can blow this fog guy away! One of us has to make it out!"

Tenya hesitated again, and then glanced unsurely at Setsuna. The normally crass, loudmouthed girl was shockingly silent, shaking and staring at the villain with an anxious look on her face - and then she took a deep breath, nodding slowly to herself as she exhaled, and looked back around at Tenya as she searched his hesitant face.

A small, silent communication passed between them, and Tenya felt his shoulders slump a bit - and then determination filled his face, and he bent down into a sprinter's stance, feeling the engines on the back of his legs extend.

As Setsuna moved into her own combat stance, Hanta glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, seeing how nervous and shaky she was, and chuckled despite himself, moving to stand beside her.

"Come on, Tush Bro," He tried to tease her to lighten the mood a bit, "I thought this wasn't the first fight you've been in."

"I'm used to fighting with stupid middle-school students," Setsuna shot back, trying to sound confident as she stared down the large mass of darkness, "this isn't exactly my forte."

"It ain't mine either, but looks like we don't have a choice!"

"How foolish," Kurogiri taunted from within the darkness of his quirk, the yellow eyes staring malevolently at the students, "aside from the fact that you have no hope … what kind of fools discuss strategy within earshot of the enemy!"

"It hardly matters what you overheard," Thirteen narrowed her eyes under her helmet, "you won't stop us!"

With that challenge being obviously accepted, the warp villain shrunk in briefly, and then several tendrils of dark energy blasted out towards them, intending to warp them away - but Thirteen, now free to use her quirk knowing that her students were all behind her, threw out her hand, the tip of her finger opening, and felt Black Hole activate as she began to absorb the warp gate.

---

"How curious."

Aizawa grunted as he leapt over another villain attempting to attack him from behind, swinging his foot down to catch him right in the back of the head. As the villain fell down in a heap, Aizawa landed on his back to grind him into the ground, his eyes narrowing behind his goggles, and used the fallen villain as a springboard to leap overtop another villain swinging at him with a bat, using his capture tape to yank the weapon up and slam it into the villain's nose. While she was disoriented, Aizawa's foot came down in a bicycle kick on the top of her head, sending her to the ground.

As he landed, striking out with his fist and hitting another thug, his gaze flickered to Nine and Slice, still standing near the fountain as the cloaked man hopped up on the edge to stare over at Aizawa as he worked on his thugs.

"He's been fighting for over five minutes now," Nine observed with the air of someone watching a mildly interesting sports match, "and yet he hasn't slowed down at all, or shown any kind of hesitation while attacking us. Very, very curious."

"Are you sure I shouldn't jump in to fight?" Slice offered, glancing up at her leader as she took a seat on the fountain's edge and smirked at the teacher continuing to fight, "I'm sure he'd have a harder time going up against me - it looks like our little vanguard isn't quite up to task, and he might not fare as well going up against someone who can actually fight."

"No, Slice," Nine shook his head, "I need you in good condition in case Eraserhead breaks through our defense and comes at me. I apologize for degrading you to the position of my bodyguard, but Chimera and Mummy are already out leading the other teams, and we have our own failsafe here just in case anyone with a stronger quirk arrives before All Might to try and take us down."

"Oh, fine," Slice shook her head, looking up at her leader as he reached into his pocket for something, "I'll play nice for now. But I think we've waited long enough for the next stage of our plan, haven't we?"

"You'd be right about that, Slice. I'll let them all know."

Raising a walkie-talkie to his mouth, Nine spoke into it. "Teams. This is Nine."

At the sound of his voice, the villains surrounding and attacking Aizawa stopped charging forward, pausing and looking around at him. Aizawa, panting and moving down into a crouch, took a moment to catch his breath, looking around at the leader of this attack, as he presumably spoke to every villain in the facility as the monster with the exposed brain stared blankly ahead and the other hooded man put his hands in his pockets.

"As you all know, today, I have brought you to UA High School for several purposes - but the most important of all is to end the life of All Might." Nine spoke into the walkie-talkie, his soft, lethargic voice somehow loud enough for everyone in the foyer to hear clearly. "The Villain Consortium is to become the greatest army of villains the world has ever seen. As much as it pains me to kill someone with such great strength, we will need to make an example of the Symbol of Peace in order to do so. And that, my dear friends, is why I gave you the syringes."

Syringes? Aizawa thought, his brow crinkling - and then he glanced around, seeing the mooks hastily grabbing something from their pockets and bringing them out, and he felt his eyes widen at the hungry, addicted looks in their eyes as they stared down at the needles, its contents filled with a green liquid.

"As you all know, the truth of our world is that men were not born equal. And yet, somehow, in this society, it's expected that the weak rule over the strong. Monkeys ruling over lions. I disagree with this motion, and wish to reverse it back to how it should be - with the lions ruling over the monkeys. The Top 10 Heroes may have powerful quirks, but it's clear that they are just pawns, serving the true rulers of this world - the corrupt governments that cast weaker people aside in favor of flashy costumes and colorful personalities. Well … I say no more."

Aizawa could only watch in horror, realizing what was happening and knowing that he wouldn't be able to stop them all, as they brought the syringes to their arms, necks, even their stomachs, and jabbed the needs in, pushing the plunger to push the green liquid into their bodies.

The effects immediately began - muscles for strength-enhancing quirks bulged, natural quirks shot out and covered their entire bodies, weapons that were attached to arms or legs suddenly shooting out from every part of their bodies. One by one, the villains began spasming from horrific transformations, all of them laughing loudly, eyes widening with delight and tongues rolling out of their mouths as the drug they injected into their bodies boosted their quirks to far more powerful levels - and the tongues themselves began to change, from a normal pink to a dark black color.

And across the facility, in each area, Aizawa could make out the sound of more screams of laughter.

"I've given you," Nine stared down at the teacher as he spoke to his army over the walkie-talkie, his red glowing eyes filling with malice, "a syringe full of Trigger. Ingest it, and enjoy yourselves as you tear the children apart. And then be ready. All Might will be here soon."