Author's Note: Guys, I am so sorry it took this long for an update. I hope I still have an audience after eight months of inactivity. I got stuck and had no idea how to write what I put before you. The fight alone went through at least three to four drafts, never mind how I can get through exposition dialogue without it coming off as bland and emotionless while also trying to make Sam not sound like a giant robot. That's not even including if I managed to keep the Big Three in character. My beta read assures me I did, and he hasn't led me astray yet. I feel even worse for the readers in my Red vs Blue story as they've been waiting even longer. Gonna warn you guys now, gonna switch over for a bit, I've neglected writing in general.

Semi-related, I may require a second beta-reader for spell checking, after four drafts I am getting sick of rereading my chapter at this point.

I've been really inconsistent with my use of bold and italics when it comes to dialogue. Gonna try to change that from here onwards.

'...' - Thoughts.

"Bold" - Emphasis, but not yelling.

"Italics" - Radio Chatter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or My Hero Academia.

Beta-read by Iowaman24

Practical Application

0930 Hours, Monday, 05 April, 2525(2125) (UNSC Military Calendar),

UA, Japan, Battle Trial Training Area,

Class 1-A, Aizawa Shota AKA: Eraser Head

…[]

The three of the four students quickly filed into the area. Before them stood Aizawa who just stood there and stared while occasionally checking the stopwatch he had in his hand. They all lined up side by side, fully decked out in their costumes as they patiently waited for their fourth and final classmate to join them. The course instructor decided to take a brief moment to look over his student's costumes.

'So these are your design picks…' Aizawa thought while keenly eyeing up the students.

First was their de facto ringleader, Mirio Togata. Aizawa is going to have to take note of how well he and Mendez will work when training, both together and against. The blonde was wearing a white, skin-tight suit with the number "1,000,000" printed across his chest in a bold yellow font. There were also yellow trimmings on top of green shoulder pads and two matching green lines around his waist in the form of a belt. His shoulder pads each had matching lines that formed a "V". For his legs, he wore baggy, dark blue pants with knee-high white boots. Lastly, he wore a red cape along with thick red gloves topped off with a white visor with yellow lenses.

Next was the sole female of the group, Nejire Hado. Her suit consisted of a royal-blue, skin tight bodysuit with a high black collar. There were pale mint-green markings, framed with turquoise on her torso that trailed from over her shoulders and up from her inner thighs. It ended with matching rings of the two respective colors wrapped around her upper arms. For her shoes, she wore a pair of pale mint-green, knee-high boots with thinning turquoise flapping buttons fixing them to each thigh. Lastly, for her hands, she wore yellow gauntlets with turquoise spirals attached to her wrist guards and ankles. No mask though, no coverings for her face whatsoever.

Now the final member, Tamaki Amajiki. Despite his blatant social anxiety, his hero costume ironically stood out the most compared to his peers. He had a black bodysuit decorated with gold plating wrapped around his arms and shoulders. Over the suit, he wore a white tunic with a matching white cape, scarf, and hood topped with more gold colored layerings. For his face, he wore a purple mask around his eyes and had a silver mouth guard which he let hang from his collar at the top of his scarf. Lastly, his feet and hands remained bare so as to not hinder his quirk and wore a purple carrier vest with red straps which would hold all his food stores.

'He picked a rather expressive costume for an extreme introvert,' he muses.

Hero suits nowadays seem to exist simply for marketing reasons. Many of them were made to be distinct so they could stand out to the general public. It was as if the designers were putting their own personal name into the fashion industry. It wouldn't necessarily be a problem as things can look fashionable and functional at the same time. His one major criticism is that nowadays, the modern trend seems to place more focus on appearance rather than actual utility.

Lowering the stop watch, he flatly comments "You managed to make it in a timely manner. Adequate, but I expect better in the future. Before we begin, I need you all to fill these out and sign them."

He pulls out a folder from behind and pulls out three forms, pens, and clipboards and hands them out.

"These are non-disclosure agreements."

A look of confusion permeated throughout the group as the forms were passed to them, but none of them dared ask a question.

Taking upon himself, Mirio steps forward and asks "W-what about Mendez-san?"

"He's already been briefed and is getting together his hero costume and support gear for today's combat training."

The trio grew uneasy but remained silent as they filled the forms out. When the last one was completed, they were collected and stored into a locked drawer nearby.

His eyes grow a little softer but quickly hardens as he unwaveringly says "This will be your last chance to leave if you have any second thoughts. I'll transfer you to Class 1-B."

The silence was deafening as the pressure started to set in, but the three students held firm. They were set on seeing this through.

"Everything said past this point will not leave this room," he says gravely. "We were originally going to wait until your hero debuts, but since only four of you remain in this class, the school has decided to push this to you now." He scowls and grumbles "Despite the advice of myself and a few others."

Aizawa exhales sharply as he recalls the meeting. Mendez, himself, and even Keigo adamantly advised against this but Dr. Nezu's decision was final. Shaking off the lingering frustration, he continues with the briefing.

He sternly warns "Before I start, I am legally mandated to tell you this. Some of what is about to be revealed to you has been classified as Top Secret SCI which stands for Sensitive Compartmentalized Information. This is about as high as it gets, if you breathe a word of what you hear, you will do time for the mishandling of classified information, and there won't be a thing that Dr. Nezu or I can do about it."

To everyone's surprise, Tamaki shakily raises his hand and meekly asks "W-hat would….our penalties be?"

With an expressionless face, he replies "You would most likely be expedited back to the United States to where you will be tried and sentenced to up to five years in prison and/or fined up to the equivalent of ¥370 million. We could possibly have you serve out your sentence in Japan instead, but that would be the best we can do. It's our hands at that point."

Their eyes widened at the list of penalties. The look on Aizawa's face read that what he said wasn't a warning or threat, just a statement of fact. Mirio, as the de-facto leader, looks back and forth between Nejire and Tamaki. There were no refusals, thus he turns back to their stern teacher and nods confidently. Aizawa proceeds to begin the actual briefing, the reason for all of this.

"Almost six months ago, Downtown Tokyo was attacked by an unknown enemy force. Nothing has been stated about their origins or motives, it is unknown whether this was just an isolated event or if this was a scouting party for an invasion. All that has been revealed to the public is that these creatures were extraterrestrial by nature, and were incredibly hostile. Upon their arrival, they immediately began firing into the crowd."

How could anyone forget? The Downtown Tokyo Incident, The Shinjuku Prefecture Shootout, Bloody Sunday…whatever the name, people from everywhere knew. The raw camera footage became one of the most viral videos in history. The three remember watching the whole thing live, the nation as well as the world basically froze in that moment.

"Other than learning that humanity is not alone in this universe…" Aizawa continues. "We also learned that our current hero society and law enforcement as a whole were close to useless throughout the fight."

Aizawa's hands closed into a fist. He had taken their actions personally. Hell, he was one of them, if it weren't for Mendez pulling him out of it, he would probably be among the dead.

"When the heroes arrived, many of them froze in fear on the spot. The majority of them stood around waiting for heroes with stronger quirks to show up. The Covenant, as they call themselves, didn't wait."

Aizawa pauses as he solemnly recalls that dreadful day. As he closes his eyes, he can vividly recall how quickly the uniformed and costumed personnel were overwhelmed. He recalled how the streets piled up with the dead, but surprisingly not a lot of blood given the amount of bodies. Turns out plasma did a wonderful job at boiling all the blood away. He had to forcibly hold back a gag as he remembered the revolting smell of burnt flesh. If he were to describe it in a word, it was Hell, but Hell is just a word, reality is much worse.

"Sensei…."

It was Mirio who had spoken, breaking Aizawa from his thoughts. He broke his trance and met the blonde's concerned eyes.

"What about the American hero?" he asks. "The soldier I mean."

Shaking off his thoughts, he corrects "You mean the seaman."

More confused looks.

"He's in the navy," he quickly corrects before continuing. "Yes, the unnamed seaman in advanced experimental armor managed to rally the local forces. He then proceeded to successfully lead them in neutralizing the hostile alien force before the heavy hitting heroes arrived to finish them off. I'll come back to him later."

Since a large portion of the battle was caught on live TV, the press pretty much had a field day. The following weeks had numerous stories on the topic with a good portion of them focusing around Sam and the heroes that were there…mostly All Might. Aizawa was focused on one topic in particular.

"The public's negative reaction to the general poor performance of the hero community during the event had started to put into question the quality of the hero academies, UA included. I for one agree," the home-room teacher growls.

The trio, one after another, began to pick up on where their teacher was going with this.

"Is that why there are only four of us?" asks Mirio.

"Originally we were going to wait until you guys chose your hero names…" Aizawa frowns and then acerbically retorts "Recent changes to our class has…shifted our priorities."

He let's a tired sigh, he was really hoping for a full class for this, but he knew that most of those kids weren't ready for this. The moment they opened their mouths, Aizawa knew he would never trust those kids to work with Mendez. There was a lot riding on this little experiment and with God as his witness, it will work.

With a hard and determined glare, he growls "We really need this to work and it starts with you. You four are going to be the first students to go through our newly overhauled hero course from behind to end."

It was Nejire who spoke up this time.

"But….why us, sensei?" she bluntly asks, the other two nod in agreement.

"Because someone sponsored you. His counsel is why you weren't expelled with the rest of the washouts. He's also the reason why you four are currently being pushed through the process for your security clearances."

That made their eyes all widen in shock. Security clearances?

Sensing their confusion, Aizawa quickly notes "This program requires a Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information, the highest the US government can legally grant you. You will also require a Project Access Request in order to further work within the program. That will be put in after your TS SCI clearances go through."

Any lingering doubts left had just been squashed, this was really happening. The question was on the tip of their tongues. Upon hearing ever so faint steps approaching from behind the closed doors, Aizawa ultimately decided the man could speak for himself. All heads turn towards the entrance. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

Their faces each had a variety of emotions ranging from shock and awe, to fear, excitement, and curiosity. They watch in awe as the real life equivalent of an Astartes casually enters the room. It was unsettling to them how unnaturally smooth and silent he was as he strolls up to them. Every step, every movement was carefully calculated with a machine-like efficiency with no energy wasted.

Aizawa notes that this would be the first time since the battle where he got a good look at Sam in his armor. The highly flexible and deceptively durable black material of the under armor, with the emerald armored titanium alloy plates bolted directly to the suit's superstructure. As he recalled from the original brief, this allowed Sam maximum mobility without the plates shifting from their place. It made the massive plates seem as if they were hovering over the under armor.

Then there was the presence that Sam exuded by just being in his armor. Sam was already three inches taller than All Might, combined with an extra four inches and a half a metric ton of mass, he stood out greatly when compared to the other pro-heroes. When placed amongst his peers, he dwarfed most of them.

When the armored warrior came to a stop, Aizawa politely greeted him, "Nice of you to join us Mendez-san."

Silence. The three students just started while their teacher looked at them with a rather bemused look. They stood there and continued to wait while having a staring match with their teacher. As time passes by, it quickly dawns on the trio that their teacher wasn't kidding. With wide eyes, they begin to look over the fourth member of their class.

Out from the helmet's speakers, their classmate's unmistakable voice curtly crackles "Pleasured to be here, sir."

Aside from the usual shock and surprise expected, there was a flurry of other emotions amongst the trio.

Mirio was in disbelief, his friend had been the armored warrior this entire time. His friend is an incredibly tall guy with impressive physical abilities with an incredibly rigid personality indicative of someone who has lived a strictly regimented and disciplined life. When they hung out, Sam was constantly on alert no matter how casual of a setting it was, and is at times really uptight...like annoyingly so. This wouldn't be weird on its own as the US military still had several installations on Okinawa, so occasionally you're gonna run into a military brat in Japan. Then there were the rather sci-fi inspired guns Sam came to the exam with. These are all things that Mirio had previously overlooked due to how easily they could be explained away. Now because of the reveal, Mirio could not help but focus on those previously disregarded traits.

Nejire on the other hand, was feeling very ecstatic, she had so many questions she wanted to ask. On the other hand, she also felt betrayed that her friend had kept something this huge from her. It would seem she has overlooked the whole "illegal" aspect of Sam spilling classified information to an unauthorized person. She was practically jumping at the fact she is getting to meet the Green Knight of Tokyo Square. One thing was for sure, Sam's coolness rating shot up exponentially upon the reveal to her.

For Tamaki, he was a lot more subdued in his reaction. The slightly widened eyes he had definitely showed he was surprised by the revelation. Despite his growing concern, he quickly shrugs off any doubts and then relaxes before patiently waiting for their teacher to continue. His new friend's actions may have been controversial as he had acted as a vigilante, but he could not deny that Mendez's actions had saved a lot of lives that night. Tamaki starts to sweat slightly but calms himself, this is why they are here, to be like Mendez. Regardless, Tamaki instead chose to simply wait and see what happens.

With a scowl, the Eraser Hero sternly states "As a reminder, any discussion of what is revealed to you here is strictly prohibited outside of this building, period! That includes the hallways."

Not wanting to waste anymore time, Aizawa quickly proceeds along with the rest of the test briefing.

"Some of the best minds in the world have taken part in the creation of the suit before you. It's been specifically tuned to function perfectly with Mendez-san's quirk. The true capabilities of the armor shall remain classified, " he flatly explains. "Even as your clearances get approved over the next coming months. Any questions?"

"What are we testing?"

All heads turn towards the indigo haired teen. As the attention guns to him, he began attempting to physically shrink down into his shoes. It was the first words Tamaki had uttered since entering the classroom, and it was barely above a whisper.

"The armor just recently got repaired from the fight and had a full sweep of new additions," Aizawa simply put. "Make no mistake, you're here to be a hero. The armor combat trials aren't your responsibility, but you'll get extra credit for participating…"

Their eyes seemed to light up at that announcement.

"If you remain an active participant in the testing….kinda hard not to be if you remain in this class," he sarcastically adds. "Because of the sensitive nature of our testing, on top of the 10% increase worth of extra credit…." He comically pauses for dramatic effect. "You will also be rewarded with a recommendation letter to a hero agency of your choice."

Given their reaction, it was safe to say the three were well motivated to see this course through given their new incentives. He draws their attention over to a projector and puts up the plan for today's class.

"Like the normal Battle Trials, there's a hero team and a villain team," he explains as he flips through the PowerPoint.

The slide switches to a detailed diagram of the building.

"The villain team is to defend a mock nuclear device that they've hidden within the compound. The hero team must subdue the villain and defuse the device within the time limit of ten minutes. The heroes win if they can land a touch on the device while the villain team wins if they can successfully defend the bomb until the time runs out or if they manage to subdue the heroes."

He pulls out a few rolls of white tape and presents it to the students.

"When completely wrapped in this capture tape, the student will be officially knocked out of the exercise regardless of the state the student is in. Any questions on what I just presented to you?"

Mirio could be seen taking notes as their teacher briefed them. He raises his hand.

Aizawa nods and the blonde asks "How will the teams be set up?"

With a deadpan stare, Aizawa motions at them and says "You three will be on the hero team," he points to Sam. "He will be the villain."

Confused stares we're quickly followed by concerned ones. The trio looks between Sam and their teacher as they process what they were just told.

With a troubled look, Nejire nervously asks "Isn't that a little unfair?"

While incredulously looking over at the bluenette, Mirio murmurs "For us or for him?"

The look the girl gave him confirmed she meant the former. The live coverage of the soldier-Sam's one-manned assault against the aliens had been the most viral video in history. It would have been almost impossible for people to have at least not heard of it at this point. While Tamaki's and Nejire's quirks could easily wipe out Sam given the opportunity, the problem is actually landing a hit on the armored teen.

They've all seen the recording and it was like watching a demon. Tamaki even had the pleasure of getting to see Sam in combat without armor and he recalled the ease in how Sam violently disassembled the test bots with brutal efficiency. He also pointed out that Sam's only trip up was when he purposefully placed himself in a dangerous position in order to save Tamaki.

Sensing their anxiety, he calmly reassures them that they aren't at risk of getting expelled if their team loses, winning and losing aren't the point of the exercise. He also emphasized that this was a controlled training environment and he wasn't about to let them get seriously injured on his watch. He did expect them to perform at their best, but they were still going to be held under strict supervision. As they advance further in their training, naturally those restraints would slowly be peeled back but for now, they have nothing to worry about.

His eyes glance over to the armored student and quickly adds "Mendez-San, I'm going to need you to pull your punches where for the time being. We don't know the full extent of your suit's abilities plus I know what it looks like when you don't hold back out of armor. I'm going to need you to practice restraint when training with the other students until further notice, is that clear?"

Sam curtly nods and replies "Got it, sir."

"You three are to do whatever is necessary to stop Mendez's assault within the safety parameters provided. I'm not asking you to seriously maim him, but do not hold back. I'll know if you do," he sharply growls. "Treat this like it's real, Mendez may have been instructed to restrain himself, but real villains won't. During your career, you will end up in a situation where if you make the wrong move, it will result in either death or injury of yourself or whoever you're with."

The idea was definitely sound in theory: bridge the philosophies of counter-terrorism and special forces units with that of heroes. The teacher walks off and gives the students a few minutes to prepare for the actual trial.

Nejire walks up to Sam with a hurt expression to ask what everyone wanted to know.

"When were you gonna tell us?"

Sam tilts his head.

"Today," he answers.

His voice had a slight pitch shift as he expressed his confusion.

"Y-it was you…our sponsor" Tamaki gasps, eyes wide in surprise.

Sam shook his head.

"I actually wanted to wait until your clearances were approved, or at least we officially had our hero debuts…" he turns to the three and sternly says "They made an argument in your favor, though I was the one who wanted you three in particular."

"Why us though?" Mirio agreed, stepping forward in front of the other two. "You could've picked anyone, like actual pro-heroes for one."

It was Aizawa who spoke up this time.

"It's easier to train someone from scratch rather than training someone with prior knowledge," he lazily explains. "A pro-hero would need to be deprogrammed first from their previous experience before being taught what we want for this course."

Sam then sheepishly looks away and murmurs "And I….felt more comfortable around you three compared to some of the candidates they wanted me to work with."

"Aw," Nejire smiles. She turns to the two and chuckles "He didn't wanna go without us."

Mirio concurred, laughing "How thoughtful of him."

"And…" Tamaki looks to his companions before looking between Aizawa and Sam. He asks "And, if we can't? If we aren't cut out for it."

After a brief pause, Sam replies honestly, "Then you'll get kicked from the program and transferred to the normal course. If you have a clearance by then, it probably won't be revoked but it won't be renewed if it expires, and if you break your NDA you'll go to prison."

Didn't seem that bad of a penalty. To Mirio, this was the beginning of something special, and Mirio wanted part in it, even if just a small one. Mirio nudges Nejire and places a firm hand on Tamaki and gives him a firm shake. The blonde smiles as the other two reflected the same feelings.

Aizawa announces "Let's begin."

As they make their way out, Aizawa stops Sam and whispers "Take two of your grenades, leave the rest, you may keep the one actual support item you have brought. I want to see what they can do."

Without hesitation, Sam replies "Yes, sir."

Linebreak

It was quiet. All Mirio could hear was the breathing of his companions and his own steady heart beat. During their prep-phase, the three had tried to formulate a plan of attack. The biggest thing they had to account for was the limited information they had about the extent of Sam's abilities. They also didn't know what support equipment he had brought nor did they want to find out what getting hit by chalk bullets felt like.

Within the first two minutes of entering the building, the lights shut off and the team was plunged into darkness. The current floor they were in was a large room with several large concrete support pillars lining the area. The only sources of light remaining were coming in through the windows sending random waves bouncing throughout the room. This left the areas between the pillars well lit while the space behind the columns were completely shrouded in darkness. Mirio advised against being too near the windows as it would highlight their silhouettes like a spotlight.

As Tamaki was taking another stock of his food stores earlier, he noticed cutlets of meat that he for sure didn't pack. The meat had been conveniently wrapped and labeled as "American Alligator," "Black Bear," and simply "wild boar." There was also a small note with basic information about each of the animals written on them. Tamaki came to the conclusion that Sam must've slipped these to him at some point as to give them another edge against him. When he brought it up to his team, Mirio's eyes widened slightly before pulling his team behind one of the hallway pillars.

"We're being hunted," Mirio gravely states.

"W-what are we doing here then?" Nejire protests. "He's going to be here any second!"

"That's why we can't move just yet," Mirio murmurs while looking between the shadows.

His eyes turn to Tamaki as he consumes cutlets of alligator and wild boar. He grows a pair of pig ears and his eyes transform from human to reptilian ones and begins diligently scanning the surrounding area. The eyes narrow and the ears stand up straight as Tamaki completely freezes. Mirio looks over to him and points ahead of them in an asking manner. Tamaki gives him a sharp nod.

Mirio draws a circle in the air and mouths *Where?*

Tamaki pauses and begins to listen closely to the ever so faint footsteps. Suddenly it stopped. While the two were trying to figure out Sam's position relative to them, Nejire glances away and spies sunlight seeping through the columns. Scanning the area, she sweeps past a strange looking shimmer and immediately looks back only to see it had disappeared. A pit starts to form in her stomach as she was positive that there was something there. Without breaking her line of sight, she frantically reaches over and grabs Mirio.

A rock-like object lands beside them drawing all their attention. Without thinking Mirio, jumps on top of the device thinking it was a grenade. Strangely, it never exploded, it instead outs out a strange whining noise and a series of beeps. Nejire snaps her head back and sees the shimmer shift before being violently kicked forward to another column as the previous spot she was standing was lit up with automatic fire. Mirio tries to flank around the previous column but another burst makes him stop to reconsider.

"Now what?" asks Tamaki to Mirio.

With their earpiece, Nejire says "He can't shoot all of us at once right?"

"He can if he sweeps," the blonde warns.

"Guys, Ima give you an opening, but you gotta move!" she declares while charging up her quirk in one of her fists.

Mirio turns to Tamaki who nods. Mirio nods back to Nejire and holds up his fist and begins counting down with his fingers.

*3…2…1…0…*

Nejire and Mirio round both of their pillars on opposite sides in order to create as much space between them as possible. A burst was fired at Nejire and one round grazes her arm, sending her reeling back behind cover. Sam swings the SAW around and fires three long bursts at the running Mirio. The third burst was a successful hit as the blonde was zipped by three chalk imprints up his leg. The third round unfortunately hit Mirio in his right butt cheek and sent him flopping over. Unfortunately for the blonde, he happened to be in the process of activating his quirk. When he strikes the ground, he phases through it and falls down two floors and lands on the third with a loud *whump*!

Reactivating his cloaking, Sam stalks forward, suddenly the left side of his vision is lit up. He side-steps back behind cover and watches as a large wavey energy beam from Nejire lights up the spot where he was previously standing. Rounding the opposite side of the column, he sweeps her direction with automatic fire, peppering Nejire's position. Before she could retreat into cover, she was struck an additional two times: her upper thigh, and her left hand.

She lets out a pained scream as she crouches back behind the column. Sam hears a pounding of hooves. Snapping his head to the right, he sees Tamaki charging at him with the legs and head of an American Bison. He leaps back just as the opposing teen slams into the columns, collapsing it.

Snapping his SAW up, it is suddenly wacked out of his arms by one of the tentacles on Tamaki's transformed arms. The other three wrap themselves around Sam's neck and upper torso and attempt to pull him in for the finish. With a firm grasp on the tentacles, Sam smoothly shifts his weight and pulls the other teen in. Using his built up momentum against him, Sam shoulder chucks Tamaki into the wall behind him.

His motion tracker detects additional movement and he sees a blue blur shift in the corner of his vision. While relying on the suit's sensors and his peripheral vision, Sam draws his magnum and fires twice. There was a sharp cry of surprise and pain, quickly followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor. Glancing over, he sees Nejire's downed body.. He looks back to Tamaki only to see that the teen had slipped away.

While activating his VSER, he unholsters the friction-lock baton with his left hand and extends it. While eyeing his motion tracker, he slows his breathing and heartbeat, and listens as he scans around for the teen. There's a spike on his motion tracker detected followed by a sort of slippery squishy noise directly behind him. He instinctively swings the gun around and fires. The shot goes wide and misses as an invisible force firmly grasps his arm and jerks it to the side. Sam reflexively swings the baton at whatever is from him only to have it catch an invisible force as well.

Narrowing his eyes, Sam could spot the strange ripples as the thing tried to wrestle the gun and baton from his hands. Tamaki reveals himself as his octopus based camouflage shifts back to his natural colors. Try as he might, he is unable to remove the weapons as Sam's firm vice-like grip maintains positive control over them.

After a brief struggle, Sam rears his head back and then smashes it into the other teen's face, breaking Tamaki's nose in the process. Stunned by the blow, Tamaki releases Sam and staggers back while clutching his bleeding nose. Seeing his opening, Sam surges forward and firmly grasps Tamaki's leg. In one smooth move, Sam performs a single leg takedown, slamming the other teen into the ground.

With Tamaki now incapacitated, Sam mounts him and prepares his capture tape. A yellow flash briefly illuminates the immediate area once again making him glance up. Before he can react, a beam of energy slams into his chest, launching him ten yards back. Tamaki looks over to Sam's motionless body and sees this strange electrical spark that traces along his armor. He turns to the opposite direction and sees Nejire propping herself up against the wall.

"Wave…" she grunts.

Tamaki slowly gets up and gives the girl a curt nod. Nejire nods back before grabbing her coms and calling Mirio. As she reported their status, neither noticed Sam's hand suddenly twitch.

Mirio painfully flops onto the cold concrete ground of the first floor, roughly knocking all the air out of his lungs. There was a sucking noise as he just laid there and slowly inhaled.

"Mirio…" he radio crackled, it was Nejire. "Mirio, can you hear me?"

'...Here," he wheezes. He slowly stands back up and repeats "I'm here."

"Where are you?" she asks.

"First floor," he sighs. "What about Mendez-kun?"

"He's down," she replies, also noticeably out of breath. Nejire reminds him "Hurry back, we still need to find the nuke."

"Got it," he replies and hangs up.

Standing back up, he charges up his quirk and begins flying through the floors of the building, searching for the bomb location. He is flying so fast, he actually doesn't see it on the first pass and almost misses it again on his second. Coming to a stop at the third floor from the top, he takes in his surroundings. To no surprise, the power to the building was still off, so most of the floor was shrouded in darkness. What was lit resembled that of an office hallway, and there the device sat at the end. It was too easy, something felt very wrong.

"Hado-san, Amajiki-san," he radios in. "I've found the bomb," he whispers.

There was no response.

Confused, he tries again and says "Nejire, Tamaki, you hear me?"

Once again silence, upon the third try, it begins to dawn on him that there was something wrong. Whether it was damage to equipment or something else, he didn't know. He has no idea how long they've been silent, what he did know was that he had to move, now.

"Ah screw it," Mirio mutters to himself.

He then takes off for the bomb. As he takes a few strides forward, something rolls in front of him. He has enough time to see that it was a grenade as it explodes in his face, filling the entire room with smoke. His heart spikes and he jumps, fearing he just got hit with a CS gas grenade. He calms when he realizes his lungs and throat weren't on fire. Turns out, the smoke was just smoke.

Mirio takes a step forward and feels the air shift behind him. He turns and catches a glimpse of a large dark figure emerging from the smoke. The figure sweeps past him and clips him in the back of his leg, knocking him down to his knees. Looking around, he briefly catches Sam's armored form disappearing into the fog.

Still reeling from the strike, Mirio stumbles forward while wearily scanning his surroundings for his opponent. Sam makes another pass as he flies straight out in front of Mirio and belts him in the gut with his baton. When Mirio doubles over, Sam strikes him in his exposed tailbone making him cry out and arch his back in pain. In his moment of imbalance, Sam wraps his wrist behind one of Mirio's knees and sweeps him off of his feet.

At the last moment before impacting the floor, Mirio activates his quirk and he falls through the floor. While phasing, he quickly deactivates it and launches back almost half the length of the hall. While wheezing and reeling from the precious blows, he shakily picks himself up off the floor once more.

By now, the smoke from the grenade had dispersed by a substantial amount allowing for a clear view of the hallway. Standing before him at the center of the room stood a stoic Sam. The bomb was directly behind him and Sam was the only thing that stood in the way. Mirio stared down at the other teen, and he stared right back.

He knew there was no way for him to directly take down Sam in a fair fight…..hell, he isn't even sure if Sam would even feel a hit from him. On the other hand, it was the opposite for Mirio. Even with his reinforced gloves and boots, it was more likely for Mirio to hurt himself in the process than do any reasonable damage. He lowers his head, clenches his fists and then relaxes and takes a deep breath.

Sam snaps up his SAW and fires as Mirio activates his quirk. The blonde falls through the floor as Sam's rounds pass harmlessly through the space he had previously occupied. Sam tilts his head at the move, it intrigues him. This would be the first time he got to see Mirio's quirk in close combat. Anticipating his friend's move, he scans the floor, walls, and ceiling for any hints of a disturbance. He had to be on guard as Mirio's quirk didn't necessarily give off a warning save for the slight changes in the ambient air pressure or the shifting of the dust around his emergence area.

His patience was answered as a white blur shot outward into the ceiling and phased through it. The same blur came back, pinging between the walls like a bouncy-ball. There wasn't much Sam could do without causing serious harm. At the speed Mirio was flying, just grabbing his arm would result in Mirio's arm getting torn from its socket. Sam is forced to do nothing except watch as Mirio passes by him. Sam still had one last trick, he just needed an opening.

For Mirio, he had failed to notice that something was off as he shot directly for the bomb. With a wide smile, he reaches out for it only for it to simply not be there. He touches the bomb, only instead of coming to a stop, he just keeps flying through like nothing was there. As he rolls to a stop a few feet from the bomb and looks back and notices a strange film that seemed to run along the edges of the bomb. Mirio reaches his hand out only to pass completely through to the other side. He crashes into the floor and lands into a heap somewhere behind where the device was.

He couldn't believe it at first, why wasn't there a bomb? Shocked, he looks back and peers at the device, finally noticing the film, he also sees that the bomb wasn't even casting a shadow. While examining it, he spots a small disk-like object on the ground beneath the device and quickly realizes that the bomb was in fact just a hologram. The projection drops revealing Sam standing behind the bomb at the opposite end of the hallway.

Mirio gets just enough time to widen his eyes before getting slammed by a six-round burst from Sam's SAW. He collapses onto the floor, as the adrenaline starts to wear off, the fatigue from the entire match starts to kick in. The blonde starts finding it increasingly difficult to keep his eyes open. With the last of his energy to lift his head up and looks only to see the real bomb behind Sam at the other end of the hallway. Glancing back, he realizes that he is back where he was when he first came into this room, Sam had managed to completely turn him around. He manages to let out half snort before his vision fades to black.

When Mirio woke up, he found himself in the school infirmary. Taking a quick look around the room, he could see that he wasn't alone.

"You're finally awake," Sam tells him.

Looking over to his right, he can see Sam diligently scribbling into his notebook. His two other classmates could also be seen sitting around his bed. On his left was Tamaki, he was closest to the corner and could be seen reading a book. Nejire was on the same side, but at the foot of his bed, she was reclined in her chair with her feet propped up on the bed frame and was devouring a cup of Jello. He sits up in the bed, stretches, and starts rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"How long was I out?" he asks.

"An hour and a half," Sam replies.

They turn and see Recovery Girl entering the room.

"Good, you're awake," she notes.

Mirio blinks owlishly before turning to her and asking "And how bad was I hit?"

Picking up his charts, Recovery Girl reads aloud "Some bruising, a couple broken ribs, and a light concussion." She comments to Sam "Thank lord that was all."

Sam replies reassuringly "Not much worse than the others."

"Still can't believe you tanked my Wave wave," grumbles Nejire.

"Why, how strong was it?" asks Sam.

"I put like 30% of my output into it," she whines.

Sam lets out a slight hum. Plus side of her quirk was that the actual energy wave didn't travel at light speed. It in fact traveled just slow enough that it provided Sam enough time to slightly adjust his stance and activate his suit's Armor Lock. Theoretically, the shields generated by the armor lockup would allow Sam to survive a blast from a low-yield tactical nuke. They didn't need to know that though.

"I mean…." he sheepishly replies.

"Don't you dare try to play down the hit you took!" Recovery Girl scolds. "I saw the bruising on the side that you took. Just because you have your enhanced abilities, doesn't make it any less serious!"

"Healing ability?" Tamaki mouths.

"I thought I hit you square in the chest," mutters Nejire. "Dang I really gotta work on my aim!"

Calling Sam's augmentations just "enhanced" was a massive understatement. The elderly hero wanted to scold the young man further, yes man. Sam deserved that much respect, but it didn't make his actions any less reckless if not foolish. She swears it was like talking to an All Might 2.0, same lack in social skills included. Ultimately she relented from further critiques as she didn't want to risk spilling any sensitive information.

"Other than that…." She places down the clipboard. "You're good to go, here are some gummies. I'm going to fetch your discharge papers."

She hands him a few pieces of candy before promptly exiting the room.

"What I miss?" he asks while turning to the other two.

It was Nejire who answered this time.

"About an hour of Aizawa lecturing us and analyzing our match," she grumbles.

Tamaki handed him some notes he had taken in the blonde's absence. Sam's smile slowly fades and a more pragmatic look replaces it.

"You guys did good," he truthfully states.

"B-but…" Tamaki shifted nervously as the eyes turned onto him.

Mirio comfortingly grabs his wrist and gives him a reassuring nod.

Tamaki swallows before continuing, "But we lost."

Sam counters with a question.

"What did Aizawa-sensei say?"

Mirio wasn't there for that lecture, so he was also curious. Tamaki shifts nervously, Nejire chooses to speak up for her socially awkward classmate.

"He congratulated us but told us it was going to get tougher."

Sam nods in agreement.

"You fought well, you all almost had me on several occasions," Sam replies truthfully.

Tamaki decided to ask a question that he had been holding onto, but had been bothering him since the end of the trial.

"Mendez-San…" He exhales sharply. "How long were you watching us?"

The confused gazes made him stumble on his words, but Sam's gaze remained ever steady.

"I watched you enter the room."

Tamaki freezes and Mirio exasperatedly rolls his eyes. Nejire places down the Jello cup before standing up to face Sam.

"Wait…" Nejire murmurs, voicing what they had all come to the conclusion of. "Why didn't you just take us out then? We would have never seen it coming."

Mirio joins in.

"Yeah, in our battle you waited until I saw you and you even let me make the first move," Mirio throws up his arms in disbelief. "I also know you could have ended any of us within a single punch. You even gave us only wounding shots with that gun of yours!"

"Yeah, why did you drag out fights out?" Nejire asks with her hands on her hips while shooting another accusatory glare at him. "Were you just playing with us?"

"No," he bluntly answers.

"Then why?" she presses.

"It wouldn't be an effective training session if I had just wiped you all out before you even got a chance to react," he replies without a second thought. "What would you have possibly learned from an experience like that?"

The question was rhetorical, but the message he was trying to convey was clear. Train at a disadvantage. There will come a time in their career where the unthinkable would happen, no matter how unlikely.

"We've only just started, and it will only get harder from here," he ominously warns.

There was a dreaded silence that permeated the air. Sam may not have been 100% on board with letting them into the know...actually he was against revealing anything in regards to his past period. It was only his lack of options and at the behest of Bobs a Little that he would budge on it. Sensing their growing anxiety and stress, Sam gives them a warm smile.

"Which means more work for me!" a voice rings out.

With a bemused smile, Sam looks over and sees a rather displeased looking Recovery Girl walking back to them with a clip-board in hand.

She hands the clip-board and pen to Mirio and politely requests "Sign here please."

A few seconds pass, she then takes the clipboard back and hands him a plastic bag containing his uniform and shoes.

"Don't worry, they're not going to drop everything on you at once," he comfortingly reassures. "Take it one step at a time."

Just barely audible, Tamaki whispers "Baby steps."

He looks directly at Sam and locks eyes with him prompting Sam to nod. That statement seemed to lift an invisible weight off all of their shoulders.

Sam get's up to leave and nods to the others "It's lunch right now, get back in your uniform, we'll wait for you outside."

"Finally!" Nejire joyfully exclaims. "I'm starving, I can even feel my insides rumbling!"

Later, as the three head down to the cafeteria, Sam's mind begins to wander. Looking over, he can see their excited, playful, and optimistic faces. It made Sam feel warm for some reason. The three even kind of reminded him of his team, it felt like home. Sam immediately shoved those thoughts down, eventually he will have to return to his universe. It will be a tough, unavoidable conversation, but for now, he was just going to sit back and appreciate the moments as they came.

Author's Note: If you are still here, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. I should probably address some things here. While I am trying to stick to the correct cannon, I may have to buff the Halo stuff in certain areas. Mainly powerwise in things like shield strength and the raw strength of a Spartan 2. I loved The Fall of Reach, but it's safe to say that Eric Nyland wasn't very great when presenting actual scientific data.

Really, before we go, quick, some review responses.

sharkyawesomeness5- I'm happy to have provided that experience for you.

Hellothere45- That is the direction it's going to go, but the issue with that is that all of that is months to even a year away. To accomplish that, I would have to do time skips for months at a time, I'm still working on how to properly do that.

StalinWithDaSpoon- Blarrg!

DarkySunRise- I already DM'ed them about this, but in case anyone else was confused, I was editing the other chapters for things I may have missed.

Deltoren- To address both of your reviews. The first one, you're right, I had to buff the fuel rod cannons a bit. The second review, the Huragok pulled it, that stuff may have been classified, but it can still be recovered and there are things in that meeting that were discussed that Sam isn't aware about.

El Basurero- Gracias.

The god Engineer- Maybe, but disaster relief and search and rescue seem to be standard hero stuff. I may actually reference Rainbow Six for potential training ideas.

Once again, thank you for your time, until next time.