Chapter 9: Are You Sure We Should Do This?

"WHAT?!" the class erupted.

Some stood up, others just sat there and gaped. Some grinned stupidly at the idea – others just had their mouth hanging open in utter disbelief that they'd really just heard Midoriya say such a thing.

But as far as he could tell, a majority of the class was giddy with their excitement.

Had Midoriya really just suggested that they should break out of UA?

Was that even possible? How could they do it? Where would they go afterwards? Would they be able to avoid capture? Could they sustain themselves outside of UA? What if they –

All these questions were thrown at Midoriya from all directions with an intensity comparable to a tennis ball launcher on the fritz.

"Everybody stop!" that, surprisingly, was Iida, at such an unexpected volume that everyone did calm down and listen to him. He turned back to Midoriya, "We cannot do such a thing."

"Well… why not?" Midoriya replied unsurely.

He stared at him, "Because we can't!"

"We can't exactly be vigilantes here, Iida," Kaminari pointed out.

"We cannot leave UA!" Iida insisted, standing up and gawking at them all. "Can you not fathom the trouble you'd bring if you were caught?"

This was true, and painfully so. It ripped the excited smiles from the faces of class A.

But Midoriya was on it.

From Yaoyorozu's drawer, he'd retrieved a scarcely used, black whiteboard pen. He drew a line down the middle of the board (as high up as he could reach), separating the stupid nicknames that had been there since the beginning of term, from the blank other half.

"When you decide that you might want to do something – before you even think up a plan, you have to do two things," he started. On the board he wrote:

The best-case scenario:

The worst-case scenario:

"Best-case is that we get out and become awesome vigilantes!" Mina exclaimed, fully into this idea.

Midoriya wrote that down word for word.

"Worst-case is that we are captured, and failed," Iida snapped.

Midoriya wrote that down too, hesitated, and then wiped off the last two words.

"Think about it," he said, taking a step back from the board and staring at the smudge marks were and failed had been. "There are two points in time that this could go downhill –"

The worst-case scenario: we are captured

Before we are able to leave UA

Sometime afterwards

"Let's look at option one," Midoriya nodded, turning back to the class. "Imagine our escape plan fell through, and UA brought us back here – can you seriously imagine Mr Aizawa failing all of us?"

Iida, who seemed to represent the opposing argument here, narrowed his eyes, "Hm… I suppose UA's reputation could be on the line…"

"Exactly," said Midoriya, pointing his pen at him. "Imagine trying to tell the public that all of class A was failed, including the likes of you and Shoto, just because we all worked together as a team to try and escape the place that was essentially holding us prisoner. It doesn't make any sense!"

Before we are able to leave UA – and things go back to normal with added security.

"I… realistically can't see them being able to do worse than that!" Midoriya exclaimed, dropping his arms to his sides with a huff.

Iida seemed unconvinced, "Unless they failed only a small number of us as an example to the rest."

Midoriya bit his lip – that was a good point. "…Not if we all stand up for one another. There are certain people they cannot expel – especially the more high profile of us because it would draw too much public attention. But if we all play an equal role in this, they can't pick out an example, and if they do, they'll struggle to justify it! UA has to give a report to the police and press as to why someone is failed. What's going on inside class A is big news – it might not feel like it because we're on the inside, but for everyone outside, they want to know more and more about our individual stories and who we are and stuff – especially with the Sports Festival coming up. Imagine the backlash if they expelled one of us for something stupid like trying to run away? They just can't do that."

"But what about the second option?" croaked Tsu.

Iida nodded, "Once we have been gone for any significant period of time, we will lose the protection UA provides. Capture would mean immediate imprisonment."

He hesitated, "…No – not if we play the game right."

"What game?" Iida almost hissed.

"I've done plenty of research into this topic before I came here," Midoriya admitted, crossing his arms. "There are certain ways – loopholes in laws – that can seriously dampen punishments on vigilantes."

"Wait, seriously?" Kirishima frowned. "What kind of loopholes?"

"Well, for one, there is a very fine line between vigilantism and self-defence," Midoriya grinned. "If your opponent strikes first, then you can argue you weren't playing hero – you were just defending yourself. That's not illegal. And there are tonnes of little bypasses like that. They're there for a reason! The very first heroes were selected from a large group of active vigilantes, back when Quirks started appearing. And when reforming the laws to accommodate them, some official on the inside must have felt sorry for these hundreds of vigilantes who are about to be arrested – their identities exposed, lives ruined. And the loopholes were left purposely for the smartest to evade the system. In time, a lot of them were given licences too – just to cover up the problems the laws left! But those problems still exist – you just need to know where to look."

"But there are some problems we can't avoid," Iida argued. "Resisting arrest, trespassing – the list goes on."

"True," he nodded with a sigh, "but the weight isn't nearly as much as it could have been. Time is also an important factor – the longer we can go without capture, the more the public knows of us, the more respect we earn! Then, when we're caught, we have a large group of people backing us up."

"So, the worst-case is being caught really early…" Uraraka realised.

"Yes – but despite all that, no matter how long it's been, UA will still be held responsible for our actions. Upon capturing all of us, seeing we had heroic intent will give them good reason to simply take us back to class A. That's the best way of maintaining their good reputation."

Midoriya turned back to the white board, rubbing off most of the writing with his sleeve, "So, in conclusion, the worst-case scenario is –"

The worst-case scenario: We are captured and end up back at UA.

He looked to Iida, waiting for a response.

His friend simply sighed, "Ok, I agree."

Midoriya wasn't the only one who grinned.

"Or we could die as a vigilante," Hagakure pointed out.

Midoriya actually scoffed, surprisingly himself with his own sarcasm as he replied, "In the span of less than a month at UA I have nearly drowned twice; nearly been crushed by a giant purple monster; nearly been disintegrated and actually shot. To be perfectly honest, being a vigilante won't be any more dangerous to me than walking in a straight line."

"You're just a trouble magnet, Midoriya," said Tsu blatantly.

"This is all well and good," butted in Jiro, "but how do we actually get out of UA?"

"Ok," Midoriya nodded. He turned to the white board and rubbed away his writing. "Now that we've established that the best-case scenario outweighs the worst-case scenario, we need to look at actually making a plan. And the first step in that, is identifying what's in our way –"

What prevents us getting out of UA?

Mina raised her hand, "The tracking anklets?"

Midoriya nodded and wrote it down.

"The cameras around school," Yaoyorozu pointed out.

Everyone pitched in, and soon they had a list of the obstacles that they faced:

Tracking anklets

Cameras

Hero patrols

Doors being locked at night

The walls around UA

Teachers being able to read the messages on the phones

"Right, and now we need to figure out how to get past all this…" said Midoriya, taking a few steps back and narrowing his eyes at the list, tapping the end of the pen against his lips. "I think the phones are quite a big problem."

"Not really," Ojiro contradicted, "can't we just not use them? Leave them behind?"

"Well," Midoriya sighed, "a communication device for us all is really useful! Moreover, there's a chance that these phones can be tracked too. I can try to take them apart and try to undo all the systems that UA put in them, but the moment I do that, they might know what I'm up to."

"I have an idea!" Uraraka suddenly cried, jumping to her feet. "Hold that thought!" and she charged out of the room and up the stairs.

Everyone just blinked at the spot she'd disappeared from for a moment.

"The… doors being locked isn't much of a problem," Hagakure announced eventually. "We can just go out windows or pick the lock."

"I can always make a copy of Mr Aizawa's key if you could get it for me for a minute or so," Yaoyorozu offered.

"Yeah! That would be great!"

As Midoriya crossed the door problem off the list, Uraraka reappeared, face flustered from running, and she handed Midoriya her phone.

Wait… not her phone.

There was a bold number 19 across the back.

"Is this Mineta's phone?!" Midoriya exclaimed.

Everyone gaped at her as she rubbed her head sheepishly, "I might have taken it back when you were pranking Miss Midnight and we lowered him out the window… I honestly completely forgot about it until now. B-But you could tinker with this phone! The teachers wouldn't know – they're not looking for it and won't see something's amiss!"

"That's such a good idea, Ochako!" Mina exclaimed. "I swear to God, you're such a wolf in sheep's clothing!"

She blushed and did a little curtsy.

"This is perfect!" Midoriya beamed. "I-If I can figure out how to fix this phone, then before we escape, I can do the same with everyone else's! As quick as I can so it's not suspicious. Of course, if there's any kind of warning system installed or tracker, it might be risky and could alert them as to what we're doing…"

"Why don't I make new communication devices?" Yaoyorozu suggested. "I can make radio earpieces quite easily!"

"Hm, I don't know – it's a good idea! Don't get me wrong… But radio would be way too easy to tap into – we can use it as a backup plan though."

She stood up and took Mineta's stolen phone off Midoriya. After rolling it over in her hands for a moment, frowning, she said, "Well… if you can take this apart, I could make copies of all the parts and we could make replica phones?"

Midoriya gaped, "You can really do that?"

"I can try."

Mina bounded over, took the pen off Midoriya and crossed the phone problem off with one, neat, sweeping line. "Check!" she grinned.

"I don't think the walls are much of an issue if we can outwit the tracking anklets and the security cameras…" Iida acknowledged, sitting in a thinking pose as he stared at the board.

"I'll just freaking blow them up!" Kacchan yelled

"Or I could float over them!" added Uraraka.

"We might have to split up into smaller groups and meet up again on the other side…" Midoriya realised. "For example, if Kacchan blew up a portion of the wall on one side of the campus, whilst Sato breaks down another section far away, the heroes' attention would be divided, and we have more of a chance of getting away."

Mina crossed out the wall on the list, "Check!"

"What are we going to do about the anklets though, ribbit?" asked Tsu. "That seems like the biggest problem."

"Yes! Tell us, Sun Tzu!" Uraraka exclaimed.

"You don't even remember who that is, do you, ribbit?"

"Nope!"

"It's really not that big of a problem." Midoriya sat down next to her and pulled up the bottom of his right trouser leg, ignoring Uraraka's interjection, "I have the most basic model of the tracker – because I don't have a Quirk to try and break it with. But if you look at, err – Shoto's?"

He nodded, knelt down, and revealed the tracker.

"See? It's not the same – Shoto's is made of a different material, and it's thicker too. That shows that they couldn't give Shoto the basic design, because he could break it with his Quirk – maybe shatter it with ice or burn through it with fire. His is more temperature resistant. That means, Shoto could break mine off easily. And then Mina?"

She put her foot forwards and hiked up her trouser leg too. Her tracker was even bulky, and of a different material too.

"Mina's needs to be resistant to her acid! Clearly what Shoto has wouldn't be good enough to withstand her Quirk, meaning Mina could undo his tracker, and potentially, he could undo hers!"

"Huh, that's a pretty cool idea," said Kaminari.

"B-But what if I accidentally get my acid on someone?!" Mina suddenly exclaimed, clearly incredibly nervous about the prospect.

"But you've gotten so much better at your Quirk!" Hagakure pointed out. "And don't lie to me! I know you've been hiding your progress from the teachers because you don't want to graduate yet!"

"Wait, seriously?" Sero frowned.

"Mina… why would you do that?" Uraraka inhaled.

"I-I…" she wavered. "Class C just seemed so boring… I don't have that much control – I'm only a little better! But… I just didn't want to risk graduating so fast – I like being with you guys!"

Midoriya knew she didn't want the matter being pushed any further, "It's ok," he insisted, "we'll only use your Quirk as a last resort to get someone's anklet off."

She nodded, handing the pen back to Midoriya and sitting down beside Hagakure, hugging a pillow.

Midoriya was the one who crossed off that point on the list. All that remained were hero patrols and the matter of the cameras.

"Ok," he nodded to himself, "this is where it gets a little more serious." He turned back to the class. "For the cameras, we need to try and turn as much of the system off as possible. As soon as we do this, it's going to ring alarm bells for the heroes, so they'll rush to fix the problem. My idea is, like in the classroom when you were pranking Miss Midnight – is for Kaminari to short circuit a fuse box to cause a black out."

"But which fuse box?" asked Kirishima.

"That's the problem. We could take out our fuse box, no problem – but that would only disable the cameras near the dorms, which isn't enough. The best thing to do is to either find a way to cut the power for the entire school – or shut off the receiver of all the camera feeds. To figure out which is the best option, we need to actually take a look at them.

"The hero patrols faces a similar dilemma. I think the information would be stored somewhere in the staff room – so someone needs to sneak in, write down that information, and get out without being caught."

"So, basically," grinned Hagakure (probably – it sounded like she was grinning), "we need to make super cool action teams to get the information!"

"Err, yeah, I guess," Midoriya agreed.

He rubbed the board clear again, "Ok, so this is what the different groups need to achieve –"

Find –

"You can't just number the teams!" Mina suddenly called out.

"…Why not?" Midoriya frowned.

"Because that's confusing! Like, Aoyama is number 1!"

"Um… I guess so. So, just team A and –"

"Ew, gross, I don't want to be in team B," Jiro interrupted.

Mina inhaled sharply, "Colour code them!"

"Rainbow order!" Uraraka exclaimed, punching the air.

Midoriya was just confused, "Why are the teams rainbow ordered…?"

"Rainbow order!" Mina insisted, slamming her fists onto the coffee table in front of her and wincing when she hurt her hands.

"Everyone raise your hands for rainbow order!" Uraraka announced, thrusting hers in the air.

The teams were rainbow ordered.

Red] Find the heroes' patrol timetable

Yellow] Find the best place to disable the cameras/shut off the power

Green] Fix the phone problem

Blue] Wander around the grounds and find the best places to break down the walls/escape from

Purple] Distractions

"I bagsy team purple!" Mina yelled, raising her hand into the air.

"Let Midoriya assign the teams!" Iida shouted back at her.

"On every team we need at least one look out," Midoriya continued, ignoring the chaos around him. "Except for team purple. We'll set up some code words and responses to text to each other, and purple's job is to run around and cover for the other teams if something goes wrong…"

After far more discussion than necessary (mainly about disliking the assigned colours of the groups they found themselves in), the teams were finally put together:

Red] Hagakure & Iida

Yellow] Uraraka, Kaminari, Sato & Shoji

Green] Midoriya, Yaoyorozu & Shoto

Blue] Kacchan Bakugo Kacchan, Kirishima, Jiro & Tokoyami

Purple] Mina, Sero, Koda, Ojiro, Aoyama & Tsu

The escape was planned to go ahead on Monday evening. That left them Saturday and Sunday to complete their various tasks.

Midoriya grinned – this was going to be interesting…

The Story of Team Red

Iida had found himself in a difficult position.

His life changed the moment his older brother, Tensei, was hurt.

He was found in a dark alleyway, cold and alone, paralysed from the waist down. The doctors say that if he were left much longer, he would never have made it.

Iida remembered running through the corridors of the hero hospital, footsteps echoing around him. He fell to Tensei's bedside and sobbed. The hero Ingenium, was no more.

It had been a famed villain that had done the deed – a maniac who believed that heroes were nothing but fakes, in it for the money; they didn't deserve the title. He'd taken it upon himself, to dispose of these fake heroes. And of all people, that meant his brother. The kindness, most wonderful hero Iida had ever met.

And Iida remembers the blinding hatred – the face of the man that ruined his brother's life.

The hero killer, Stain, decided to leave Tensei alive, to spread the message. But Tenya was another story. Stain was going to kill him – but they were caught. A hero appeared and called for backup immediately. Stain knew better than to risk staying behind and finishing the job. He fled, like a coward, leaving Iida behind with permanent damage to the nerves in his arm and hand. And worse, a criminal record as a vigilante – resulting in a ticket to UA, to the wrong class.

But some time had passed since the incident now, and Iida was determined to transfer to class B and make his brother proud. He'd swallowed his concerns of his villainous classmates and done his absolute best to get along. Then he learnt of the system surrounding class president, and went right down to business, determined for the role!

He organised the class, enforced Mr Aizawa's orders… he did everything he could!

Only… he couldn't control them. None of class A listened to him, no matter how loudly he shouted.

But they did listen, to of all people, Midoriya.

At the beginning of term, Midoriya was the first person that Iida really connected with. Iida learnt a few things about him right off the bat. He was small, weak, Quirkless and timid. His life had clearly been very tough up until this point, and Iida decided that, in a class of juvenile delinquents, Midoriya needed protecting.

And Iida was wrong.

As time went by, Midoriya changed. Or, perhaps, he just became more confident, his meek exterior melting away. He grew bitter. It soon became clear to Iida, that out of the entire class, it was really Midoriya that the heroes should have been watching – he was the real danger. And he didn't need a Quirk to do that.

And so, Iida had found himself in a difficult position.

Because Midoriya, the one he had underestimated, was now in total control, and no one else seemed to notice.

The idea of fleeing UA was his, and everyone was eager to follow him.

Now, Iida wanted to be a hero. He wanted to do all the things that Midoriya had talked about – making a difference and helping people… And he did know that his decisions in life had limited his options; he wouldn't be as great as Tensei, nor as trusted. He'd doomed himself from the moment he stood up to Stain. Midoriya offered him, and everyone else, an escape. It wasn't like Mr Aizawa, who had been in class A and made it out, only not with the life he perhaps could have had. No, Midoriya was different, because he really was one of them. He was in their position too, and worse, perhaps, being without a Quirk. But he smiled and held out his hand to them, giving them all an opportunity to be better. Vigilantes, real vigilantes – not just petty criminals that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and had tried to do the right thing, like a lot of Iida's classmates. They would be heroes on the wrong side of the law.

The idea was so wonderful, and everyone was so desperate for a life like that, that they all seemed to agree with limited hesitation. The way Midoriya put it, there were no downsides to attempting this feat.

But Iida could still see them. He knew that if they were caught, and they were bound to be at some point, whether it be in a few days or a few years, they would be even more doomed than they were already. Currently, Iida was seen as a heartbroken young boy with a heroic family and thus, heroic potential, who had acted rashly and recklessly, unaware of the consequences. There was a way out; a way to fix this up at least a little bit. But as soon as Iida joined the rest of class A to escape, he'd be seen as a real problem – more villainous than heroic. If they were caught, Iida's life would be even harder than it was seeming to be already.

So… why was he still going through with this?

Iida was put in team red. If there was a meaning behind the colour choice, Iida didn't know it. It was their job to uncover the routes and times that heroes patrolled the school. He talked it over with Hagakure, an expert in stealth and well, thievery. They had two days to complete the task – three if they were to include Monday morning. For team red, they needed to get into the staff room, which would be a bad idea on Sunday, when there were no lessons and more teachers were bound to be in there. That meant Saturday was their best option. And by extension, Saturday afternoon.

Team blue said they wouldn't be doing anything until Sunday. Team green had an ongoing project that they could only continue with when they were at the dorms, and team yellow decided to spread their tasks over the two days. When discussing this, it was Tsu who pointed out that they had an English lesson on Saturday afternoon, which was held by Present Mic.

Iida did try his hardest to get as much work done as possible, but the lesson lasted roughly five minutes. Team purple remained to run amok, team yellow disappeared to check the school's roof for fuse boxes, and whilst the rest of the class decided to stay in the classroom and act as though nothing was wrong. Iida swallowed his pride, got up, and followed Hagakure out into the corridor.

She changed in the girls' toilets, and reappeared as nothing but a floating anklet, which was easy to miss. Iida, meanwhile, had waited outside class A. When she tapped him on the shoulder, they both made their way to the staff room. In this time, Iida was deep in thought.

He could stop this before it went too far – tell a teacher.

Alternatively, he could sit the entire ordeal out; let the others flee without him. But… the class needed supervision. Midoriya had control, yes, but he was just as swept up and excited about the concept as everyone else. He needed grounding, and that's where Iida believed he came into the picture. Moreover, if, by some miracle, they did succeed in becoming a team of vigilantes, they needed someone who could set some clear boundaries, and keep an eye on them – stop them if something went wrong. Iida was one of the only ones who had doubts, who could see both sides of the argument clearly and maintain the balance between… well, good and evil.

Yes, a difficult position indeed.

"Look straight ahead, I'm not here," Hagakure whispered. "There are cameras everywhere and we couldn't risk taking this stupid anklet off me before Monday," she muttered bitterly. "It's so annoying! I'm nowhere near as stealthy with this ridiculous thing on…"

Iida didn't risk replying – not that he'd know what to say anyway.

They approached the staff room door.

"Just knock and open right away to let me in," Hagakure insisted. "Hold out as long as you can. You need to have the attention of everyone in the staff room until I tap you on the shoulder and we can go!"

Iida nodded stiffly and raised his hand to knock.

It swung open before he made contact, "Oh, hello, Iida," said Miss Midnight.

Iida's shoulders tensed at the mention of his name. Of course, Midnight knew his brother well, which was likely why she failed to remember to refer to him by his student number.

She was standing right in the doorway – Hagakure wouldn't be able to slip past.

Iida nervously stepped to the side, gesturing Midnight to walk out, which she did, "Are you looking for someone?" Midnight asked.

Iida felt Hagakure leave his side and hurry into the staff room. He cleared his throat, "Y-Yes! I hoped to find Present Mic. Is he here?"

"Hm, let me check…"

She turned and walked back into the room and Iida followed. He tried to stop his eyes from darting around the room in search of Hagakure.

"Mic, did you seriously abandon your class again?" Midnight scoffed.

There were only a few teachers in the room. That being Midnight, Present Mic, a hero Iida didn't recognise, and a skeletal looking stranger in clothes far too big for his figure. All their eyes were now fixed on Iida and Present Mic, meaning Hagakure could continue her mission in peace.

Present Mic stood up – his glasses slightly askew. "This is the worst class that Shota's had yet!"

"Well, he did tell you not to try them on the first day of term," Midnight sighed.

"I didn't try them! I had one conversation with Midoriya and suddenly the entire class knows I hate bugs and now they're EVERYWHERE!" he grabbed Midnight's shoulders. "They watch me – they're in my hair, in my clothes in my food –"

Midnight brushed his hands away, "The class or the bugs?"

"THE BUGS!" and he screamed for extra effect. It even made a pile of paper scatter across the floor on the other side of the room (or maybe that was Hagakure's doing). It drew their gaze, and Iida knew this was the time to remind them of his presence.

He cleared his throat again, "I do apologise for their actions, Sir."

"I-I didn't realise you were here!" Present Mic exclaimed. He pointed dramatically in his direction, "IT'S ONE OF THE ONLY TOLERABLE MEMBERS OF CLASS A – YYYYEEEEAAAAHHHH!"

Iida waited until he was done shouting. "Y-Yes, thank you. I was wondering if you could come back to –"

"He won't be coming back," Midnight grinned. She picked up a small carrier bag that Iida was quite sure she'd been holding when she tried to leave the staff room before he arrived. "Very honourable of you to try though."

"Where are you going?!" Present Mic yelled.

"To have lunch somewhere a little quieter." And she disappeared without another word.

"…So, would you return to our English –"

"There were SPIDERS in my HAIR!" He screamed again at the very thought.

Iida fought the urge to cover his ears, "Yes, sorry again. I shall have a very stern word with them all on your behalf!"

"Are you class president?" that was the skeletal man speaking.

"Ah, no, that position has not been decided upon quite yet," Iida admitted, feeling rather proud that he'd assumed as such.

"Right, I didn't notice that you don't have the bands."

Similarly to how all of class A wore red bands on the arms of their blazers, class presidents from any department sported a slimmer, gold variant, to distinguish them from their classmates. Vice presidents wore silver. Iida was not sure how this would combine with the red marks of class A. Perhaps they would overlap, or maybe boarder one another.

"If you don't mind me asking, Sir, what do you teach?" Iida asked the stranger, who visibly stiffened at the query. "I don't recall seeing you before."

"I, err… Well, to tell you the truth, young man… I'm… here for the heroics department – yes. T-The Sports Festival will be here soon, and I am to help organise!"

"Ah, forgive my curiosity!"

"It's fine."

"What is your name? So that I may refer to you correctly in the future?!"

"Err… Mr Yagi."

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr Yagi, Sir!"

This was the moment that Iida's phone beeped from his pocket. He pulled it out to investigate:

Class A Group Chat

[Ochako Uraraka – 5] What homework is due on Monday?!

Ah, that was her group's signal that something was going wrong…

"Right, right – very nice," Present Mic interjected, running his hands through his gelled hair nervously. "Why don't you go back to class and make sure the rest of them get their homework at least?! It's on the t-table – I'll put in a good word to Aizawa for ya!"

Iida hesitated – Hagakure wasn't done with her search yet.

He glanced back down at his phone:

[Mina Ashido – 2] Don't worry! We'll help!

And moments later, there was a long BANG that shook the very building.

Everyone in the staff room froze – likely, Hagakure did too.

"What was THAT?!" Present Mic exclaimed.

Sensing this was something to do with his class, Iida stepped in front of the door to stop anyone from leaving, "Ah, likely at fault of the support course!"

"It usually is," nodded Mr Yagi, which Iida was relieved about.

"It sounded a lot closer…" Present Mic realised. "Maybe I should check –"

"Err, Mr Present Mic, Sir, I –"

"HEY THERE! Are you trying to stop me from leaving?"

"No, not at all! I just thought that… maybe you needed to… talk about your phobia of bugs!"

"…Huh?"

"Yes! Fears are tricky things, and as Midoriya implied, great weaknesses! Perhaps if you spoke about, and actively exercised your entomophobia, such weaknesses could be resolved! Moreover, your problems with class A would be no longer an issue for you!"

Present Mic blinked at him for a moment, before resting his hands on Iida's shoulders, the hero's glasses falling a little way down his nose.

"Wow, err, thank you, Little Listener! People don't usually stop and think about these things and, well, your class has been so difficult recently – but they're not the only ones who exploit it! Midnight – Aizawa – my friends; they take advantage and they laugh! They LAUGH! Well, Shota doesn't laugh – I don't think he knows how. But ANYWAY it means a lot for a member of class A, of all classes, am I right?! – to speak to me so sincerely. Because people just don't take me seriously – but I can be serious! I can be a serious guy! I just don't like bugs! And I mean, who does?! They're creepy and –"

Iida was painstakingly aware that, across the room, leaning up against a pinboard, a pen was moving seemingly all on its own, jotting something down on a sticky note.

"– they're out for me! It's like all the bugs in the world got together one night to plan their attack – I attract them! It's not fair!"

The sticky note floated across the room like it had simply fallen off the board. Iida would have thought that to be the truth if it didn't jump up behind him and slide into his pocket.

"They do – they do! They play games with my phobia! That's SERIOUS – VILLAINOUS – CRUEL!"

Hagakure poked the back of his shoulder.

"– never understand how I feel and –"

"Yes, definitely, I completely agree –" Iida backed away, feeling for the doorknob and being careful not to walk into Hagakure. The door opened for him – "Yes and I'll get back to my class now, bye!" and he shut the door in his teacher's face.

Iida breathed a sigh of relief.

He turned and marched back down the corridor towards class A, nodding when Hagakure informed him that she'd hurry back to the bathrooms for a while, and that she'd meet him back in the classroom.

He was very thankful for that to be over. But he did feel guilty for his actions. He was… betraying the heroes.

However, he was doing it for his friends. He would protect them through whatever endeavours they pursue.

…He hadn't really had friends before.

With a slight smile, he pulled open the door to class A.

That smile faded immediately.

The Story of Team Purple

Tsu wasn't too sure why she'd found herself in the distraction team. Perhaps it was because Midoriya trusted her to keep them the slightest bit under control. Not that it mattered, because Midoriya was present in English when their moment to shine revealed itself, and Tsu had nothing to do with it.

Present Mic knew something was up the moment he stepped foot into the classroom that afternoon, after injured Mr Aizawa hobbled away, ducking his head from Present Mic's swinging arms when he burst inside.

A few minutes past with knowing glances exchanged between them. Their first task was to remove Present Mic from the equation. They'd talked about it the night before, and quiet, timid Koda, had for the first time, decided to make his mark.

Tsu had always wondered why Koda was in class A. He may have had a frightening, brutish exterior, but he was actually very unsure of himself and shy, confining in animals rather than people, and Tsu could see the appeal. Moreover, he could talk to them, the animals, that is – they followed his orders – that was his Quirk. Tsu… somehow wasn't that surprised when she learnt that, following several break-ins to kennels for stray dogs across the city, the release of a mistreated circus lion resulted in said lion finding a home in a well renowned zoo, and Koda in UA's class 1-A.

Sometimes Tsu felt like she was in a zoo. People always gawked at her. They always had, she supposed. She had a natural hunch, a tongue that filled most of her mouth and resulted in a croaky, strange sounding voice, and wide, curious eyes. She didn't really have many friends before UA – just Habuko, who started off the same as all the others – staring. And then of course UA happened. Tsu had never found more acceptance than in a class that no one else could accept. Sure, everyone was a little terrifying… Ochako was a thief for hire with plenty of stories to tell, and she was almost as good at martial arts as Ojiro, a vigilante. Then Tsu's other closest friend, Midoriya, may seem meek at first, but he had a leashed fury inside of him, and the mind to do something with it.

Walking around with these people definitely made people stare. But… Tsu didn't mind much anymore.

Present Mic screamed and Kyoka clutched her hands over her sensitive ears.

There was a spider in his hair.

Koda had spent the morning befriending all that they could find around the dorm, which was far more than Tsu had expected.

Their teacher, still screaming, fell off his chair at the sight of dozens of little spiders crawling their way across the table. And with one still dangling from the end of his gelled-up hair by an invisible thread, he raced out of the classroom and slammed the door shut behind him.

After a moment of stunned silence, they all burst into laughter.

Not long after, two groups deemed it safe to leave, which were Ochako's and Iida's teams. Ochako seemed quite eager, Iida… not so much. Tsu wondered what he was thinking about.

Tsu felt unsure now. Being numbers 4 and 5, Iida and Ochako usually sat behind Tsu, number 3, in class. She felt strangely alone without them. This is why she got up, hopped to the other side of the classroom, and sat down in Mineta's old seat, behind Midoriya.

"O-Oh, hi!" he replied nervously as Tsu arrived.

"What are you doing?"

"Just… stuff." He was drawing in his notebook. Tsu could just see it over his shoulder. He was an exceptionally good drawer, but he seemed very self-conscious about it.

"What kind of stuff, ribbit?"

Tsu would have liked to say there was not much point in continuing this narrative. This is because both teams' tasks were completed with no trouble, and no distractions were needed after all. For the rest of the disrupted English lesson, Tsu simply looked through Midoriya's notebook with him, and in exchange for the kind gesture of letting her take a peek, she informed him of the weaknesses she could think of to do with her Quirk.

Only the last part was actually true, because far sooner than expected, the brick phones around class A all beeped simultaneously.

Class 1-A Group Chat

[Ochako] What homework is due on Monday?!

"Wait, does that mean she's in trouble?!" questioned Sero.

"Someone must be going up to the roof…" Midoriya realised with a frown.

Mina gasped loudly, clapping her hands, "Does this mean we need a distraction?!"

[Mina] Don't worry! We'll help!

"Sounds like it, ribbit," Tsu nodded. "But what do we do?"

"To get them away from the roof we need to either go up there to stop them or make… err… a big noise to draw them back down?! KACCHAN BLOW SOMETHING UP!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Bakugo yelled, "AND STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

"Maybe that's not such a good idea?" Midoriya interjected, referring to the blowing up suggestion.

"Boo!" Mina yelled. "Iida's not here! You're not allowed to tell us off! You're supposed to help us plan stupid things!"

Midoriya blinked at her, "…I am?"

Ignoring him completely, Mina stood up on her chair and addressed the rest of them as though this were an important announcement, "We must irritate Kacchan until he explodes!"

"That'll take too long!" Sero contradicted. "We don't have Kaminari!"

Tsu decided just to watch this ordeal unfold.

"Then who else is here that can blow something up and isn't as much of a chicken as Kacchan?!"

"I'M NOT CHICKEN!" he barked, "I'm just not FREAKING STUPID ENOUGH TO BLOW A HOLE IN THE WALL!"

This was when Aoyama stood up on his chair beside Mina and bowed deeply and melodramatically. "Allow moi to be of assistance!"

Without further warning required, everyone scrambled to their feet and out of the way. Now on his table, Aoyama rested his hands behind his head and with a wink in Tsu's direction, sent a massive, sparkling laser from the mirrored belt he wore around his navel.

This is why there's now a large hole in their classroom.

The Story of Team Yellow

Uraraka was excited!

Gosh, it had been so long since she'd prepared for a mission like this! And this was unlike any other – this was one of the first times that she didn't have that cloud of guilt hanging over her. The thrill without heavy feelings weighing her down as the villain Zero – Uraraka really could fly.

She was practically bouncing on her tippy toes as lunch came to an end. Present Mic soon fled their English lesson (a frequent occurrence), and Uraraka and her team were off!

She was in charge (she was in charge!), as per Midori's instruction. Their objective – find the best place to short out the building to take out the security cameras – something Uraraka may or may not have attempted before (not at UA though, of course). There were bound to be plenty of places all over the school that could do this, but could they take out all the cameras? Probably not. That's why, last night, Uraraka concluded that the best thing to do was to take out, not the cameras, but the connection to the cameras! Where all the feeds were wirelessly brought together and likely displayed on some kind of computer screen (ok, maybe Midoriya had helped her with that idea). That would probably be in Principal Nezu's office, which was on the very top floor of the main building. Take out the power for the main building, and the rest of the school's security would also be obsolete! So, where was the best bet for that? The roof, of course!

And that was where they were going.

Sero had been up there before, but he wasn't on Uraraka's team, so he'd told them everything he knew about getting up there. Uraraka didn't even need to waste time picking the lock, because the door to the roof didn't even have a latch!

Who did Uraraka have with her? Well, there was Kaminari – who was a bit of a disastrous flirt with everyone, but he was still fun! He was the one who needed to take out the power, so he needed to see what they'd be targeting.

Then, there was Sato. He acted all tough, but he was really a big sweetheart! He loved to cook and often taught Uraraka a few tricks and shortcuts! Sato's strength Quirk activated when he ate sugar, which was why he was carrying sugar cubes in his pockets, only the stronger he got, the more his mental capacity suffered. That was why he was at UA – a few too many dangerous, accidental outbursts. But he didn't need his Quirk to be strong – his natural muscles were good enough for what they needed, which was to rip the covers off any fuse box they needed to investigate, if the locks proved too tricky for Uraraka.

Finally, she had Shoji. He was their lookout! His Quirk made him look kind of creepy, but it was still so useful. His six arms were webbed together, and from there, he could grow even more! Like hands, mouths, ears, eyes… super cool. He also wore a mask and often spoke out of fake mouths rather than his real one – Uraraka reckoned he was self-conscious. See? So many of her classmates acted like big bad villains, but really, they were normal kids with tricky lives, just like her!

"It's quite nice up here," Uraraka sighed when they reached the roof, feeling the breeze in her hair. She'd instinctively glanced around for security cameras but couldn't see any.

"Yeah!" Kaminari grinned, "Maybe we should have lunch up here some time."

"That would be so cool! You guys down for that?" she asked the other two.

"I eat at the dorms," Shoji replied simply. Maybe it was because of his mask.

"Maybe just one time?" Uraraka asked, hands clasped, smile wide and eyes sparkling.

Shoji just looked at her for a moment, "…Fine."

"Yay!"

"So, what are we looking for?" Sato questioned, getting right down to it.

"Hm… a big box. Or maybe a little one! A medium sized one," Uraraka nodded surely, her hands on her hips. They all stared at her, so she elaborated further, "With a warning sticker on it."

"Like that?" Kaminari pointed at the wall. There was a yellow triangle there, with a warning, electrics sign on it.

Yellow! Like team yellow! Uraraka knew the colours would be a good idea!

"Perfect!" she grinned. "You really are attracted to danger!"

"Err… thanks?"

Uraraka reached out for it, about to attempt prising the cover off, but Shoji put a hand on her shoulder to hold her back.

"The warning sticker," he reminded her.

She narrowed her eyes, pursing her lips as she thought, before clicking her fingers, and steering Kaminari in front of it.

He shrugged, and with zero fear (just what Uraraka liked to see!), reached out for the box and pulled as hard as he could. "Ah! It's stuck!"

Sato cracked his knuckles behind him.

Kaminari backed away, and Sato pulled the cover off with ease – no Quirk required.

"…I loosened it for you," Kaminari insisted as Uraraka jumped in front of him, rubbing her hands together eagerly.

She saw a bunch of wires and a few promising looking switches, "Ok! Now what?"

"What do you mean now what?!" Kaminari repeated. "I thought you were the expert!"

"No? I usually just pull switches and see what happens – should we do that?!"

"Probably not right now…" Shoji suggested. He had a few extra eyes and ears, so he could pay attention to their surroundings and the task at hand at the same time (get it? At hand?!) – super cool. Uraraka wondered what it felt like to have so many eyes pointed in weird directions…

"How do we know this'll take out what we need though?" Sato acknowledged. "What if it only disables part of the building?"

"Well, as long as it takes out Principal Nezu's systems, we're safe, right?" Uraraka replied.

"You're the expert," Kaminari sighed again.

But she'd never pulled something off like this before…

Sato took a few steps back, "What if we made some more serious damage? If, on the night, we rip up some more wires and then electrocute it, it'll be harder to revert the damage. Flipping some switches is easily solved. Even I've repaired a broken fuse before – it's not hard, and we need to buy us as much time as possible."

"Great! So… what wires do we kill?" Uraraka asked him.

"I was thinking more…" Sato turned, and everyone else followed his gaze. On the other side of the rooftop, was a much larger, metal structure, also sporting the beware, electrocution sign.

"Oh!" Uraraka bounced up and down, "If you smashed that on the night, and then Kaminari went kaboom! Maybe we will take out the whole building!"

Kaminari raised a finger, "Err, question – why am I going kaboom?"

Uraraka responded by making more sound effects.

This extremely useful conversation, however, was interrupted by their lookout, who said exactly that, "Look out – I think someone's coming…"

"Are you sure?" Uraraka whispered.

A moment of silence, "…Yes – positive."

Uraraka could hear it too now – the distant click clack of heels up stone stairs. She glanced around for escape routes on instinct. They were on a roof – it would be easy for her to escape with her gravity nullifying Quirk, but could she manage all four of them?!

Her next move was to send out the pre-determined, emergency SOS message to the group chat:

Class 1-A Group Chat

[5] What homework is due on Monday?!

Luckily, it wasn't long before they received a reply.

[Pinky, the Queen of the Aliens!] Don't worry! We'll help!

"We have to go," Shoji hissed.

"But where?!" Kaminari panicked.

Uraraka had no choice – they couldn't rely too heavily on the others pulling this off.

"Come on!" She grabbed Kaminari's wrist (which immediately gave her a static shock), and the four of them hurried to the edge of the roof.

Kaminari leant over the edge, "Are you crazy?!"

"Possibly!"

She tapped each of them on the shoulder, activating her zero gravity Quirk with a soft, pink glow. Just as the door to the roof swung open, Shoji had a hand around each of them, and pulled them off the edge and out of sight.

He was holding onto the edge with his fingertips, keeping a firm grip on the others in case Uraraka's power failed. And she was already starting to feel lightheaded.

This was the moment a very loud BANG was heard, and not too far below them, a great beam of light shot straight through the wall, sending rubble and debris plummeting to the ground below.

They just stared in shock.

Sero poked his head out of the newly formed hole in class A's homeroom.

"Oh, hey guys," he grinned. From his elbow, he sent a stream of white tape towards them, which Kaminari managed to grab.

Shoji let go of the roof, and by the time whoever it was peered over the edge of the rooftop, they were already back inside the classroom.

Uraraka fell to the floor and deactivated her Quirk with a queasy, "Release!" – before clamping her hands over her mouth in a feeble attempt at stopping herself from throwing up.

"What the HELL?!" Kacchan yelled, for Uraraka wasn't the only one clutching her stomach. Aoyama, on the other side of the room, had just fallen off his table and onto the floor. It must have been his laser that forged the hole.

"Well… that's one way of making a distraction…" Midoriya gaped.

Momo held out a hand to help Uraraka to her feet, and gingerly escorted her back to her seat, patting her on the back and murmuring about missing the teas she had at home that would be so useful for this situation.

Moments later, the door to the classroom was opened, which revealed Iida, whose fleeting smile quickly faded.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" he shouted at them all, gesturing to the giant hole in the classroom wall.

"Distractions!" Mina replied, with jazz hands for extra effect.

Iida turned to Midoriya, "Why didn't you stop them?!"

Midoriya raised his hands in surrender, "It happened way faster than I possibly could have anticipated."

His gaze flickered to Tsu, who was supposed to be in charge of the disastrous team purple. "Don't look at me. I had nothing to do with this, ribbit."

Hagakure walked in, "Woah!" she exclaimed. "I don't know what I expected but this is way better!"

"No it's not!" Iida cried.

Hagakure just patted him on the shoulder, pulled a sticky note from his pocket, and skipped over to hand it to Midoriya.

Uraraka, meanwhile, was still trying not to throw up.

All in all, an average day at UA.

"Best distraction ever," Hagakure giggled.

"Of all time!" added Mina.

"Worst distraction!" yelled Iida, and they all laughed.

Uraraka was feeling better by the time that they realised no teacher was coming to check on that noise. Hagakure mentioned it was because Iida told everyone in the staff room that it was probably support department shenanigans.

Aoyama had a terrible stomach-ache, and lay face down on his table for a while. Momo started making shiny things for him to make him feel better – like mini disco balls and sparkly Russian nesting dolls – a method that actually started to work.

Eventually, English came to an end. The last lesson of the day was maths, held by Mr Ectoplasm, a kind of freaky looking hero who could clone himself.

But even he had a priceless look on his face when he opened the door to class A and came face to face with a gaping hole in the wall. Eighteen students blinked at him like nothing had happened, and the nineteenth was drooped over his desk in a small shrine of sparkly objects.