Ice.

Lots and lots of ice. More ice than anybody knew how to deal with, a sheet of frozen water a foot thick covering the entirety of the stadium ground, leaving every single student trapped.

All, that was, except one.

Shoto Todoroki was no fool. He'd been completely outplayed by Izuku Midoriya in the last event, made to look like an idiot compared to Midoriya's genius first and only attack. The other boy was smart, Shoto could admit it with ease. And a Warp Quirk was nothing to sneeze at; the shadow-man from the USJ incident was proof enough of that. But Shoto had his mother's ice, one of the most powerful Quirks he or the world could think of. Russia's greatest hero, General Winter, was equipped with a similar power, proof enough that Shoto could easily make it with just his right side. He didn't need his left, his father's curse.

He would prove that today, in the Sports Festival, with millions around Japan and the world watching. He would show them all that he was more than his family name and a patch of red hair. That he was the opposite of Enji Todoroki, of Endeavour. He would show them that he was Shoto Todoroki, and he was not his father's son.

He heard cursing, screams. Bakugou, of course, the only hero student willing to be that vulgar in front of a crowd. Todoroki focused his ice as Bakugou blasted free, trapping him within even more of his glacial power. Up to his waist, his wrists trapped as well. Bakugou needed to sweat to make his explosions; if Todoroki froze the sweat and covered the glands, there would be no explosions. He had planned for that.

Bakugou. Yaoyorozu. Iida. Shiozaki. Those were names he had to watch. Each had a reason to be dangerous. He had added Midoriya to the list after his display at the first combat training session. A Warp Quirk.

Todoroki remembered dreams of gunfire, a car chase, blood. Of an impenetrable defence. And of ice, only ice, with no wretched fire to remind him of the bastard he knew as his father. He always remembered the dreams when Midoriya and his Quirk came to mind. He did not know why, and he couldn't have known. Midoriya was troublesome, a twist on the formula. Strange, confident... Todoroki hated that confidence, that this boy who had such a similar Quirk to his own, two unrelated powers that combined to create something so deadly, could be so content.

A sudden impact. Todoroki was knocked forward when something crashed into him from behind, whirling around to see... Blackmore. Midoriya's little pet in the mask. Of course, the liquid form. He would've been able to slip free with ease. Present Mic was shouting, ecstatic that the audience would get to see a one on one fight so early. With that, Todoroki knew the final event immediately.

"Stand and present." Blackmore said, voice low, face hidden behind that mask. His stance dropped, his fingers curling into fists.

Todoroki took a step with his right foot, channeled his ice. He tried to freeze Blackmore in place, surround him in ice. The liquid form would let him escape anything else, and Shoto couldn't let that happen.

Blackmore went up. Catch the Rainbow, such a strange name for a Quirk, cared not for your petty physics. It could go anywhere it pleased. A streak of blue and white and red circled around Todoroki, before reforming into Blackmore. Todoroki ducked a flying kick, sending a wave of spikes after Blackmore. No such luck; as liquid he was faster than Todoroki's channeling. Unacceptable.

Todoroki felt something rumble beneath him. Then he heard cracking sounds. He blinked, looking all around. His ice was spiderwebbing, freaking as something sent pulsing vibrations all through it. Almost like a heartbeat of some kind...

Jiro. He scowled, before twisting all around to find her. No such luck, until he saw Midoriya's head of green hair. She would be there, they were on a team together, and he began channeling his ice again.

Blackmore slammed into his back, knocking him down and sending him sprawling onto his own ice. Shoto grunted, feeling the arctic sheet he'd laid down shift, then crack even more... then there was a ferocious roar as the whole affair splintered and broke apart, and Katsuki Bakugou blasted free of his prison, hurtling skywards with a series of detonations. All around the arena other students were breaking free, climbing atop the broken sheet, slipping and tripping all over.

Shoto was infuriated. Two students far less powerful than him had countered his attack so perfectly, so absolutely that his plan had literally fallen to broke pieces all over the floor. Blackmore streamed away in liquid form, back towards his team who were now pulling themselves free. Bakugou came screaming back to earth, blasting an entire team sprawling before snatching their flag between his teeth and blasting off again.

Izuku sighed and nodded to Tsuburaba, who grinned and took a deep breath. Other teams were struggling to navigate the ice; but his team didn't need to worry about that much at all. Izuku glanced around as Tsuburaba began forming the first of their platforms, curious. He thrust his hand into the broken ice and watched as it popped up over fifty feet away, right beside another team. He hummed, before pulling his hand back and trying again. Perfect. His hand was right beside their flag. He saw one of them, Tsuyu, spot his hand, and he pulled it back. One of her teammates was on his back, Aoyama, it looked like.

Izuku pulled up a large sheet of ice, crawling under it, and then grinned as he let it fall. He triggered D4C and materialized again between Aoyama and the ground, crawling out from under him. He snatched their flag, Tsuyu too busy looking the other way, and wrenched it away back under Aoyama. Tsuyu turned just in time to see him smile and disappear with the flag.

Arriving back, he found Tsuburaba standing some ten feet in the air, having built a series of air platforms like stairs. Tororo was beside him, while Jiro kept looking around, keeping an eye out for opponents bold enough to seek their flag. Overhead, Katsuki was blazing through the sky. Izuku grinned; they would soon be stealing that particular advantage from dear old 'Kaachan'.

"Tsuburaba, are you ready?" Izuku called, as the taller boy continued climbing toward the sky.

"Just about!" he replied, blowing another platform into existence. "Just gimme a minute!"

Izuku heard something moving fast across the ice, constant crunching sounds giving him warning enough to turn and see Tenya Iida hurtling across the field toward them. Izuku dropped his stance and readied himself for his attack. Tenya jumped; one of the flying kicks he'd see during the entry exam, then. Izuku had a counter in mind.

He pulled off his top, again, something he seemed to do a lot of with D4C, and dodged away from Tenya's kick. With luck, the boy was the right size... he slung the jacket toward Tenya, activating D4C. The boy's leg caught the jacket, and was teleported elsewhere in the arena, coming out between the ice between one of the Class 1-B students legs, tripping her up. Tenya, now short a leg, panicked and tried to recover in mid-air, giving Izuku a perfect opening.

"Kensuke!" he shouted, hoping the boy would understand.

A series of glittering threads, five in total, came flying through the air and wrapped around Tenya's arm, leg, and chest. Kensuke gasped with surprise at his own success; he had just caught a hero student with his Quirk! That was incredible! Tenya bucked and twisted, wrenching away his leg from Izuku's jacket and out of the portal, giving him access to the rest of his bodily functions.

Tenya narrowed his eyes as he pulled at the threads surrounding his limbs. Sturdy, quite so. The boy holding them, however... Tenya took in his thin shape, the obvious lack of any muscle tone, and nodded. The throttle on his free leg kicked in and he spun, wrenching Kensuke forward, concluding his spin by kicking the boy in the head.

Kensuke went down like a sack of potatoes, his threads disintegrating. Emitter type, then, not a mutation. Good and bad; it meant he had freed himself. On the downside, the boy could likely create new ones the moment he recovered. Tenya heard Izuku approaching and took a step forward; the boy's attack had confirmed his other major suspicion; Izuku's Quirk, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (another bizarre Quirk name), required the item or person it was warping to be surrounded on at least two sides by other objects. The narrow tunnel at the start of the race, the banner against the wall, the second archway... not to mention that long coat he wore as part of his hero costume.

Tenya knew now how it worked. And he knew how to avoid it.

He twisted, hearing Izuku approach from behind. No... no Izuku. He wasn't behind him, or to the sides... that could only mean he was below! Tenya dodged to the side as a hand came up from below the ice, grasping for his leg, narrowly dodging it before kicking at the arm that followed. It sunk back below the ice, and Tenya nodded. He was underneath, which was where he was most dangerous; he would be able to move his body as he pleased by staying under the ice.

But while under the ice, he couldn't know where Tenya was. So if Tenya kept moving, he would be able to avoid any more attacks. He backstepped again, scanning the ice. So many pieces that could serve as portals for Izuku's hands or feet to emerge from, so much cover... no doubt Todoroki had sought a quick victory. All he had managed was to give Izuku the ideal arena with which to demolish the other teams!

Shoto Todoroki was on the defensive, clearly on the brink of exhaustion. His body quivered in the cold he had made, his right side turning blue at points as his blood-flow grew sluggish. He ached bone deep in the chill radiating from his right arm and leg, the feeling one got when they had been out in the snow for far too long. He fought through the pain, however. He was not his father. He was Shoto Todoroki. He would never give up.

Midoriya and Tenya's duel caught his eye. A curious fight, almost comedic from the third person, but he was certain Tenya didn't regard it as such. No matter; those two were class powerhouses. If they were busy with each other, that would give Shoto the time he needed to retake the initiative and push his team to the top. Yaoyorozu was watching their flag along with Sero Hanta and Shoji Mezo. They had agreed Shoto was the best choice for the attacker, with the power of his Quirk and the mobility it gave him.

But his opening gambit had failed in doing anything other than create difficult terrain and give him less than ten seconds of a head start. He was already weary from fending off Blackmore and several other students eager to take down one of Class 1-A's most powerful students before he could threaten their chances. Shoto's expression twisted into an angry scowl, before he channeled his ice again. If he couldn't eliminate them all, best to start with the two biggest problems he could handle.

Tenya backstepped another of Izuku's grasping hands, before he felt a chill around his ankles. He looked down to see ice creeping up over his feet, slowly crawling up his legs. He tried to kick it away, but it had already grown thick and strong.

Izuku grabbed at his leg again, not knowing the danger. His hand was soon being consumed as well, swallowed up by the growing ice. He tried to pull away too late, and after a moment the rest of his body emerged from under the ice, crawling out awkwardly. He looked up at Tenya, who was still struggling. Crap. Nothing to be done about it then… he'd have to use his other main trick already.

"Tenya, when I say go, you need to kick backwards away from me as hard as you can, okay?" he said, meeting the taller boy's eyes. "Use your Quirk or just your muscles, but I can't get us out of this without your help."

Tenya looked at him for a long moment, before nodding. The ice was approaching his knees, its chilling touch extending. Izuku closed his eyes and concentrated. His hand was surrounded by ice; it was between surfaces. That meant he could warp it. He had to ignore the sensation of his hand being restrained and focus on the power of D4C. The power to move between realities. He felt the ethereal touch of the Stand form around him, and took a deep breath.

"Go." he said, as his hand disappeared from his body up to the wrist.

Tenya kicked away, the sudden pocket of empty space in the ice giving him a weakness to exploit. The ice broke, allowing him to dodge backwards and giving Izuku a moment to pull his hand back. His hand quivered from the cold, but he stuffed his fingers in his mouth to warm them and looked up at Tenya, who was himself looking to Todoroki. He didn't even spare Izuku a second glance, rushing away toward their heterochromatic classmate with the engines in his calves flaring with power.

Izuku took a step back, letting himself breathe. Those two would tie each other up for a time, hopefully. He took a look skyward and grinned. Tsuburaba had finished their primary plan, and not a moment too soon. He scooped up Kensuke, who was still unconscious on the ice. No man left behind, a theory Valentine did not contest but did disapprove of. But Izuku was going to be a hero. Heroes didn't leave people behind. No matter what.

Izuku dropped on top of Kensuke, letting him materialize between two of the air platforms Tsuburaba had created, right where Izuku had instructed him to build them. A narrow corridor leading to a large flat platform, one capable of suspending their whole team. Their own personal airbase, one Izuku could defend from any angle due to the many invisible walls Tsuburaba had constructed out of his Quirk surrounding it.

Izuku reappeared next to Kensuke after sandwiching himself between the ice and the ground again, sitting up immediately. Kyoka seemed surprised to see him, but he waved her off and nodded to Kensuke. She began dragging him toward their central platform. Izuku took a long look at the field below them, quickly distracted by the sight of Katsuki's meteoric ascent toward them. Izuku waited, glancing to Tsuburaba, who nodded.

Izuku pointed a finger at the invisible corridor Katsuki had entered, one of many Tsuburaba had built, and grinned as D4C appeared. There was a satisfying moment where Katsuki's eyes widened before he disappeared from sight, rematerializing under the ice and cursing as he blasted his way free. Izuku took that as an opportunity to dash between two of the invisible walls himself, materializing right underneath another prone form. He pulled himself free from under them, muttering an apology, before freezing.

Tsuyu Asui was laying on the ice, and when he had touched her to move her, she had been deathly cold to the touch. Izuku swallowed.

Amphibian mutation. Cold blooded. A field covered in ice. His eyes went wide. She was in danger. Severe danger. He pulled off his jacket again, throwing it over her and warping away, back up to the sky platform. Tsuburaba seemed surpriside to see him, and Izuku beckoned him to approach.

"Her Quirk is an amphibian type mutation." Izuku said. "She's cold blooded, and it's like a deep freezer down there. Not a problem for most of us… but she's in danger. I need you to hold down the fort while I take her to the nurse's station."

Tsuburaba stared at him for a long moment, before nodding.

"I've got it." he said. "Besides, nobody seems too eager to come at us up here besides that explosion guy. But if he hits this main platform with one of those explosions… we're all going down."

"Don't worry about Katsuki." Izuku said, shaking his head. "He doesn't care about you or the others. He only wants me. I'll be back soon."

The bright side of possessing a Warp Quirk was that nobody really questioned it if you spontaneously disappeared. It was part of your Quirk, part of your power you were supposedly born with. So when Izuku disappeared, nobody noticed him go. And even when he took Tsuyu with him… she had been a mid-placer in the race. Nobody noticed her go either, besides a few curious eyes.

But when Izuku materialized in the announcer's booth, the only place he could think of where he could both see it, knew people within it and knew it was likely warm, he didn't account for the fact that Shotaka Aizawa would be present as well. He hadn't heard a single one of her quiet interjections over the speakers, too focused first on disrupting the race and later capturing flags and not getting turned into a Midoriya-cicle. She turned to see him immediately, feeling the same strange sense of premonition she always felt when Midoriya was near. They were linked by D4C, he had explained; he always knew where she was now. That would have been creepy, but Midoriya had said it with a tone of shame that dually relieved and worried her.

"Midoriya, why do you have Asui with you?" she asked voice low to avoid distracting Mic, who was busy screaming his head off as another student did something ridiculous to capture a flag. "What's going on?"

"The field is covered in ice and Tsuyu is cold-blooded." Izuku said in way of a quick explanation in as few words as he could manage. "I needed to take her somewhere warm and this was the only place I could see that I could also warp to."

Shotaka nodded, reaching out and touching a hand to the frog-girl's head. She was very cold, that much was true, and when she felt for a pulse she nearly panicked until she felt a single sluggish beat. Then another. Then another. She had clearly entered some kind of dormant state, a hibernation of a sort. Shotaka took a deep breath, steadying her own heart-rate, then nodded to Midoriya.

"We need to get her to the nurse's station." she said, picking up the girl in her arms and holding her close so her own body heat could help warm her. "Get back in the arena, Midoriya. I'll take care of this from here."

When she looked back at Midoriya, she almost recoiled. The boy was glaring at her, a look of conviction severe enough to give her pause. It was a fearsome look, one that said 'pray you do not fail'. Shotaka felt that strange premonition sense again, and swallowed. It was like a pressure, an aura of menace.

"Take care of her." he said, voice suddenly low, before he shook his head and smiled. The menacing aura "I-I mean… please take care of her. I don't want her to miss out on the rest of the Festival."

He stepped between two of the concrete support pillars in the walls, disappearing from sight, and Shotaka swallowed. What was that? Why had she felt so… afraid? She looked down at Asui again and nodded. No time to worry about that little display. She had to get Asui to the nurse. The frog girl was shivering, giving Shotaka a reason to hurry.

Izuku stepped back into the battlefield and sighed. Aizawa could take care of Tsuyu. His team still possessed three different flags, and when he checked the scoreboard he noted that they were pulling into the lead. Second place, after Todoroki's team. Good…

'But not great.' Funny Valentine said, and Izuku nodded in agreement.

"Let's show them great." he replied, before diving forward off the platform, phasing between two of Tsuburaba's platforms and materializing right between two competing students, locked in a brawl. He took a step back from the stunned pair and grabbed the backs of their hands in his hands, bringing their faces together in a double-headbutt that saw both of them fall. A nearby explosion rocked him on his feet, and he grinned before turning. Katsuki, blasting away at Blackmore's team trying to get his hands on their flag.

A redheaded girl with enormous hands was blocking the impacts, but it looked like she couldn't hold up much longer on the onslaught. Izuku charged forward and reached out, the sheer amount of noise Katsuki's own attack was making disguising his approach well. He grabbed Katsuki's collar, wrenching him backwards and throwing him down onto the ice. There was a shout of anger, and a wayward explosion caught Izuku's right arm, but he successfully dropped his old bully to the ground, before grinning and dropping on top of Katsuki himself.

There. Now he was somewhere under the ice, no doubt further enraged, and refocused on Izuku. Exactly what he wanted. Izuku nodded to the redhead, who waved at him with a confused expression, before diving back under the ice and disappearing again. He had one more flag in mind, a perfect addition to his impending collection, and he reached out for it. Tenya was gone, still battling Todoroki in the centre of the field. The timer was running low, and so the other teammates were gone. All that remained was a single girl with cold blue eyes and jet black hair.

Izuku grabbed the flag and dragged it under the ice, grinning as he did so. One last flag, worth some two hundred points. Perfect for bringing them to the top. He appeared again on the sky platform, noting that Katsuki was still searching for him on the ground level, and dropped the flag on their small platform. Kensuke was back on his feet, rubbing the large bruise on his temple and looking quite sheepish, while Kyoka stood nearby with her jacks plugged into two of the invisible walls.

Izuku looked at the scoreboard. His team jumped up to first right after he dropped the flag onto the pile, and he smiled at the sight, hearing Tsuburaba cheer.

A moment after, Present Mic loudly declared the game over.

Izuku took a long breath and sat down beside their flags.

'The day is once again yours.' Funny said.

"I couldn't have done it without those three." Izuku replied, shaking his head. "The day is ours."

He said the last line louder, so his team could hear it. Kyoka smiled, a rare sight, and Kensuke looked once again flabbergasted. Tsuburaba just cheered again, throwing his hands in the air as Present Mic declared their team as the first place victors. Izuku accepted an offered hand from Tsuburaba, who pulled him to his feet and clapped him on the shoulder.

"That was awesome!" he declared, grinning. "You guys are hardcore! If you ever wanna team up like this again, let me know!"

"I will." Izuku replied, nodding. "For now though… let's just take a break. I'm exhausted."

Tsuburaba voiced his agreement, and Izuku saw Kensuke nod out of the corner of his eye. Kyoka approached as well, and Izuku smiled.

"Alright, let's get everybody out of here." he said, removing his jacket again. "I'll make you all show up near the exit tunnel, okay? Just don't try to move while I'm moving you, or you'll end up falling over."

"Speaking from experience?" Kyoka asked, smirking.

"Why do you think I warp laying down so much?" Izuku replied.

AN:

And that's a wrap for event two! Nothing from the outside world this time; I wanted to give the second event an entire chapter to itself before we went back to the wider world. Don't worry about the Best Boys; they're handling things. Mostly. Eri's helping.

Izuku hasn't even had to break any limbs yet, fortunately. Don't worry, sadists in the audience; there's plenty of finger-snapping coming for the Todoroki fight that I've decided is almost definitely happening now.

Kensuke was mostly a non-presence. This wasn't originally my intention, but this chapter ended having a lot more Iida than I anticipated. Probably a good thing considering the next major arc is kind of a big deal for him. Kensuke will probably stick around, however; I've got an awesome fight in mind for him.

Next chapter; Ibara and Izuku finally confront one another. This is something I've been hyped to write since Chapter Eight, and now here's my chance!

Thanks once again to my most dedicated reviewers; you guys are a serious help, and you know who you are.

Hope you all enjoyed!