Midnight gathered the top forty-two students into the center of the stadium to begin the next event. "The top forty-two made it to the next round. It's unfortunate, but don't worry even if you didn't make it! We've prepared other chances for you to shine. The real competition begins next! The press cavalry'll be all over it!"

The holographic wheel spun again, and landed on "Cavalry Battle".

Midnight turned to the board, as a funny image of the teachers, including Thirteen, Present Mic, and All Might popped up. "Let me explain. The participants can form teams of two to four people as they wish. It's basically the same as a regular cavalry battle, except that people have been assigned a point value based on the results of the obstacle course. The points assigned go up by five starting at the bottom."

The assigned points for each person popped up on the board. Mina scanned the top, looking for her name, and was immediately drawn to Izuku's instead.

Ten million!?

Next to her, Izuku let out a quiet "Oh no."

Midnight smirked. "That's right. It's survival of the fittest, with a chance for those at the bottom to overthrow those at the top!"

She went on to explain the rules of the cavalry battle, and how the top rider would wear a headband with the group's total number of points. The goal would be to grab the other group's headbands within the time frame of fifteen minutes. Headbands could only be worn from the neck up. Quirks were allowed, but red cards would be given for deliberately trying to make other teams fall.

"You have fifteen minutes to build your teams," Midnight announced. "Start!"

Mina immediately turned to the rest of the Mystery Crew. "So how are we going to play this? We've got the biggest target on our backs now, and by a long shot."

"Ochako should ride on top," Shouto said immediately. "With her power, she has the best chance at both snatching headbands and defending ours from being stolen."

"I could also just lift us over people's heads if need be," Ochako agreed. "Which is definitely a strategy we can use."

Izuku nodded. "Yeah, Ochako as rider is the best. Besides the fact that her power will work regardless of her placement, being on top is still best suited to her. And with Mina's strength, plus her acid, my full cowling, and Shouto's ice, us being on the bottom means good maneuverability whenever we're on the ground. Shouto's power is best for frontal attacks and defense in this instance, so he should also go in front, while Mina and I each take a wing. We could always play defensive, because as long as no one takes our headband, we've got an instant win condition, but again, with Ochako's power, if need be we can also steal headbands that way."

Man, Mina was lucky her friends were so smart. "There might be a lot of teams who come after us at once. What should we do then?"

"I can always make ice walls to separate us from the rest," Shouto pointed out. "I'm sure there are quirks that can blast through them, but not every team will have one of those, and especially not one that can blast through quickly, which will give us more time to deal with whatever team does get through."

"Like whatever team has Kacchan on it." Izuku grimaced. "I wouldn't be surprised if he goes for us immediately." Then Izuku tapped his chin, his look becoming more thoughtful. "Or maybe not? He might decide to build up a lot of other headbands before coming after us. That way, even if we take one, he probably figures that we can't take them all."

"Ah, the complexities of whatever the hell goes on in that guy's head," Mina sighed dramatically. "But yeah, that all sounds like a plan to me! Plus, we're pretty good at coming up with stuff on the fly. If our plans need to change during the battle, I'm sure we can work around whatever problem we have."

Her gaze drifted over to the pink-haired support course girl, who'd made it into the cavalry battle and was now talking with Iida, Yaoyorozu, and Tokoyami. "Hey, do you think after this I can ask her about making me a temporary grappling hook for the tournament? It feels so weird, not having mine."

"You should go for it," Shouto encouraged. "Maybe once we're done fighting each other, though."

When it came to the four members of their class that had been kidnapped, never had the discrepancy between their skills and the skills of the rest of the class been more apparent than in the obstacle course.

Those four had dominated the race. It hadn't even been a contest. Even when Bakugou had gotten close, Todoroki had thrown him back with a gust of wind. Momo hadn't even known he could do that. She wondered why he hadn't used it back in the recommendation race against that one boy with the wind quirk.

It wasn't just their individual skills, however. Even in the race, where the event was every student for themselves, they'd helped each other without even thinking, creating openings and laughing together and teasing each other while the rest of the students struggled.

And she knew those skills had come at a price - three entire months trapped in a foreign country, away from everything they'd ever known, had to be hard, no matter how much they played it off. And considering their strange new abilities, and how much they brushed around talking about what happened to them there… Momo wondered if something much more dangerous had happened in Oregon, something that the four of them weren't talking about. The rest of them had fought villains, but those four seemed even more experienced - so what exactly had they been through? With all that in mind, it was personally hard to be too upset at them.

Momo, for her part, was very glad that at this point, she could reasonably count them as friends, having sat with them at lunch for the past few weeks, as well as sparring with them on Saturdays. In fact, because of their spars, she'd been able to easily react to Mineta attempting to stick himself to her and stop his attempts.

Now, however, watching how the four immediately turned to each other to strategize, unconcerned about the target Midoriya's ten million would paint on them, Momo couldn't help but feel a pang of envy. They were so tight knit, and she… she wished she could have something like that as well.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see Iida smiling at her. "Apologies if I startled you! I was wondering if you'd like to be on my team?"

"I'd love to!" Momo agreed, relieved. Iida was another person she'd found herself becoming close friends with, and as possibly harsh as it was to say, he seemed more approachable than the other four.

"Excellent!" Iida beamed, then followed her gaze towards their friends, and his smile softened into something more understanding. "They've certainly bonded, haven't they? I suspect it would be wise to avoid trying to go after them, and instead focus on more attainable targets."

"Agreed." While others might see the high number they carried and think to target them, Momo wasn't an idiot. They were only one team, and four teams would make it into the next event. They would simply have to make sure they were one of those four.

"As for our other members…" Momo scanned the crowd for Kirishima and Ojiro. They were also a part of the group that sparred on weekends, and Momo could tentatively count them as friends as well. Kirishima was already with Bakugou, however, and Ojiro seemed to be joining a multi-class group with Aoyama, someone from class B, and the purple-haired general studies student.

"Excuse me?" She turned to find Tokoyami approaching her, followed by the pink-haired support course girl. "Would you be amenable to me joining your group? Dark Shadow has strong defensive and offensive abilities. I believe that combining this with your mobility and adaptability would make a formidable team indeed."

"Me too!" Support Girl chimed in. "I've got additional mobility to spare that can help you out. "And Yaoyorozu, right? I've been wanting to talk to you for a while now! I think that with your quirk and my inventions, we could create some amazing babies!"

Momo blanched. "Amazing-!?"

"She means her inventions," Tokoyami clarified. Momo sighed in relief.

"I don't see the problem with that." Belatedly realizing she might've sounded like she was making an executive decision for the both of them, she turned to Iida. "What about you?"

Iida waved his hands around excitedly. "I think it's an excellent idea! Tokoyami, I've seen Dark Shadow in action during class, and it truly is a force to be reckoned with. I'd be delighted to have you working alongside us. And you as well…"

"Hatsume Mei! Nice to meet you!" Hatsume grinned. "Oh, this is gonna be awesome! Let me show you what I've got for us."

"Glaring at them isn't going to help, you know."

"Shut up," Katsuki growled. Shitty hair was one of the few people he could stand, and he was definitely going to be useful on his team, as someone who could take Katsuki's explosions. Flat Face gave them mobility, as well as the ability to make sure Katsuki wouldn't touch the ground if he needed to fly off and steal some headbands, and Sparky added a bit of extra attacking power.

None of it fucking mattered though, because Deku and his three bastard friends had of course teamed up immediately, and Katsuki wasn't a fucking idiot. He knew how badly he'd been beaten in the obstacle race. The one time he'd caught up, Icyhot had blasted him back with fucking wind, which shouldn't even be fucking possible, except literally nothing about those four should be possible, and Katsuki was soundly crushed.

Which, fine. Fine. He could deal with that for now. He wasn't obsessed, no matter what that half-and-half bastard said.

What mattered in this stupid round was making sure that he made it into the tournament, and making sure his teammates didn't look like fucking idiots, or make him look like an idiot, while they did it.

Once they were in the tournament, then he'd crush them. He just had to make it through this event.

It was regrouping, that was all. Katsuki hadn't given up. Not by a long shot.

"After fifteen minutes to form teams and talk strategy, twelve cavalry teams are lined up on the field!"

"There are some interesting teams out there."

"Now, raise those battle cries! It's time for UA's bloody battle!"

Stan rubbed his hands together. "Now this is gonna be good. Let's see them kick some more ass!"

Fuyumi tapped her chin. "Their best strategy here is probably staying on the defensive, actually. As long as they can keep their headband, they win."

Wendy nodded. "As cool as it would be, going after other teams wastes energy and gives those teams a potential opening to take their headband. They should definitely play defensive."

Stan pouted. "But that's not nearly as much fun."

"Don't worry Mr. Pines, we can watch the other teams go at each other! And probably try to go after the crew, and fail. That could be funny."

"That could be funny," Stan begrudged. "You're right on this one, Soos."

Fuyumi gave Stan the side-eye. "You know, I'm starting to see where my brother and his friends picked up all those strange quirks from."

"In the metaphorical sense, right?" Wendy clarified, amused.

"Oh, you know what I meant!"

"Shush, they're starting!" Present Mic counted them off, and immediately most teams started rushing for their kids. Fuyumi sucked in a breath, clutching her hands tightly together.

Immediately, Shouto let out a wave of ice, creating a massive wall between them and the rest of the teams, forcing the other teams to stop before they crashed into it. Fuyumi let out a sigh of relief - as competent as she knew her little brother was, there would always be a part of her that worried.

"Oh, look at that." Wendy nudged her. "Two of the teams are working on taking the armbands of others while everyone else is distracted. That's smart of them - holy shit it's cannon girl! She just pulled a massive mallet out of her stomach!"

Sure enough, she had, riding on top of her team and using it to break an air shield that one of the other teams was throwing up.

"Oh, I know who she is!" Fuyumi realized. "That's Yaoyorozu. Shouto's talked about her. And Iida too, the boy with the engine legs? They're both friends."

Soos leaned in closer. "Oh yeah, they mentioned Iida to us as well. Well, aside from the obvious, I guess I'm rooting for them too. You go get those headbands!"

There was a massive explosion - the explosion boy, Bakugou, had blasted open Shouto's ice wall. Instead of jumping in to attack them, however, he and his team seemed content to let the other teams go after Fuyumi's brother and her friends again, taking advantage of the chaos to go after other's headbands. A smart move, even if Fuyumi didn't like it.

Of course, in response to this, Ochako lifted everyone up into the air, away from all of their pursuers. After a while of different teams trying to reach them and failing, Fuyumi watched as more and more groups seemed to give up and start going after each other's headbands.

"I wonder how long Ochako can actually keep them up there?" Stan mused.

"Hey, Ochako? How long can you keep us up here, exactly?"

Ochako pondered this. "Well, it's way below my weight limit, so I'd say… maybe forty-five minutes? An hour at most."

"The match only lasts for fifteen," Shouto pointed out. "That's more than enough time."

Mina hummed, considering. "Should we just… stay up here, then?"

"I mean, that's kind of anticlimactic."

"Is it even allowed?" Izuku wondered.

Mina cupped her hands together, before shouting down towards Midnight. "Hey, Midnight! Are we allowed to stay up here the whole match?"

Midnight shrugged. "Most of it, sure! You'll have to be on the ground when the clock strikes zero though."

"Thank you!" She looked back up at the others. "I guess we just hang out up here then! See if anyone else wants to take a crack at us."

Izuku grinned sheepishly. "We're totally gaming the rules, aren't we?"

Ochako laughed. "We're the Mystery Crew!" Gaming the rules is what we do! Wanna play a game of I Spy?"

"Looks like Blondie just pissed off the wrong guy," Stan commented, as they watched that Katsuki kid deck it out with another blond-haired boy's group. "I mean, those attacks did seem kind of targeted, so I guess it makes sense."

"Yeah, no kidding. Oh wow, they're really going to town now." Wendy munched on her popcorn. "Wait, can Blondie copy quirks? That's pretty cool."

"But does he know how to use them well?" Fuyumi wondered. "Oh, I think he just copied the electricity boy's quirk… oh no."

Stan cackled as Blondie tried to use the electricity quirk and fried himself, allowing Bakugou's team to steal back their headband, along with multiple other headbands that Blondie had collected. "I may not like that brat, but he's got spunk! And seriously, electricity? Blondie should've known better."

"If he can copy quirks, I wonder if that means that Electricity Boy fries himself as well?" Fuyumi mused. "I hope not, that would be horrible."

"If he is, I bet the teachers are working with him on it," Soos offered. "Wow, our dudes are really just chilling up there, huh?"

As the clock counted down, with ten seconds left in the game, Ochako touched them down gently on the ground, and Shouto threw up another ice wall, so that no one would try and take their headband at the last second.

"And, time's up!" Present Mic announced. "Now, let's take a look at the top four teams right away! In first place, team Uraraka, who kept their cool million for the entire match!"

Izuku looked up at the board, and sure enough, there they were, right on top.

"Wait, why is it my team all of a sudden?" Ochako wondered.

"'Cause you were the rider!" Mina pointed out. "That means you stood out!"

"In second place, team Bakugou! In third place, team Yaoyorozu!"

Ochako beamed and waved their friends over. "Congratulations! You guys did great!"

Yaoyorozu smiled. "Thank you. You also did extremely well."

"Iida, that special move was so cool!" Mina gushed. "I didn't know you could do that!"

Iida puffed out his chest slightly. "Well, we've all been working hard, haven't we? I was saving it for the right moment."

"Fair, fair." Mina nodded mock-seriously, then turned to the support course girl. "You're the one who made all of those cool support course items like the hover boots and grappling hooks and such, right? I have so many questions about those!"

Support course girl beamed. "That's me! Hatsume Mei, at your service! And I'm always ready to talk about my babies!"

"In fourth place, team Tets- wait no, it's team Shinso! When did that happen?"

Izuku looked over and spotted the purple-haired gen-ed student, Shinso, apparently, looking smug. Behind him, Aoyama was cringing, the 1-B boy was staring off into space, and Ojiro looked immensely confused.

"Well, I'm glad that Ojiro got in!" Izuku said. "He doesn't seem very happy about it, though. What happened there?" Could it have been Shinso's quirk?

"These four teams will advance to the final round! Now we'll take an hour's break for lunch before we start with the afternoon festivities!"

Stan groaned as he got up. "It's about time. The kids have said that the food here is restaurant quality. Why don't we put that to the test?"

"We might not be able to," Fuyumi pointed out. "I mean, Father might have a pass for the Lunch Rush food, but even if we've commandeered his skybox, he's still going to use that."

"Nah, don't worry about it." Stan flashed four passes in front of her. "We've got our own way to get that food."

Fuyumi blinked. "Where did you… get those?"

"Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to. Now, it's lunch time!"

"Shouto?" Izuku looked at his friend curiously. "What's wrong?"

Shouto, who had been staring at the student and faculty entrance, shook his head. "It's… nothing. Weirdness knowledge, I guess. I thought I'd already filled up my quota of that for today. I'm not sure why I'm getting it again."

"Oh." Izuku could see why that would be unnerving. "Do you… want to talk about it?"

"I guess. It's not bad, just… strange." He shook his head. "A weird image of us talking right there. Me telling you about my home life, I think for the first time. Which obviously makes no sense, since you already know about it."

That was weird. Izuku frowned, considering this. "Maybe it's a sort of "what could've been" scenario? Like, if we hadn't ended up in Gravity Falls? Although in that case I don't know if we'd have become friends like we are now, and that doesn't explain why you'd tell me that sort of thing here and now."

Shouto seemed to contemplate this. "I think… maybe by this point I'd have figured out that you had some connection to All Might. And considering how obsessed my old man is with beating him, maybe I wanted to warn you in case Endeavor made that connection as well." He sighed. "It doesn't really matter though, does it? That's not what happened here."

"Yeah." Izuku looked at the entrance for another moment, before nudging Shouto slightly, and smiling when he turned to him. "Whatever the case, I'm glad we're in this timeline. "I'm so glad we're friends."

Shouto's gaze softened. "Yeah. Me too."

"You look down," Kirishima noted, as everyone gathered together for lunch. "What's wrong? You got in!"

Ojiro frowned. "Yes, but I don't remember how. It just… it doesn't feel right. I think… The general studies student, Shinso, he asked me something, I answered back, and then suddenly I was jolted and the match was almost over. I don't remember anything in between those two events."

"How strange!" Iida considered this. "Perhaps it's his quirk? A brainwashing quirk, possibly?"

"And it sounds like one that activates through responding to him," Momo agreed. "We'll need to be careful, if we end up facing him during the tournament."

Ochako looked at Ojiro, who still seemed down. "Hey, don't worry about it! Maybe you'll get a rematch with him this afternoon, and you show him that he never should've done that!"

Ojiro made a small noise of agreement, but still looked conflicted. "I guess. But… I don't think I will. Everyone's worked so hard to get here, and I can't even remember how I did it. Fighting in the tournament just… doesn't seem fair. I think I'm going to step down."

"You shouldn't," Shouto said. "Even if you don't remember, you still earned your spot in the tournament. You shouldn't let what Shinso did stop you from proving your own merits this afternoon."

"Maybe." Ojiro didn't look convinced, and Ochako shared a look with Shouto. Hopefully Ojiro would change his mind and stay in, but it was still his choice, and they couldn't stop him.

She still hated that this was happening to her friend, though. She hoped that whoever went up against Shinso kicked his ass. If it was her, she definitely would.

"What are you doing here?"

Next to Wendy, Fuyumi flinched.

Still, Shouto's sister smiled. "Hello, Father. I'm here to watch Shouto. He's doing really well so far, isn't he?"

This was the first time Wendy had seen Shouto and Fuyumi's dad. The flaming mustache and beard looked ridiculous, but the way he glared down at his much shorter daughter changed him from ridiculous to intimidating. It also made Wendy's blood boil.

"You would say that, knowing as little as you do," Endeavor scoffed. "I didn't say you could come. You've been more than enough of a distraction to Shouto lately. You'd do well to remember how different he is from you. If I see you affecting his performance today in any way, there will be consequences." He took a step forward, and Fuyumi flinched again.

Wendy glared at him and opened her mouth, but Fuyumi caught her eye and shook her head slightly. "Of course, Father."

"Hmf." With that, Endeavor walked past them, and Stan and Soos, who were lagging slightly behind, without sparing another glance at his daughter.

"So that's your old man, huh?" Stan mused, glaring in Endeavor's direction. "What a bastard."

"What did he mean by how different you and Shouto are?" Soos wondered.

Fuyumi winced. "It's… Father wanted a child with both his fire and Mom's ice. Shouto was the only one who got both, so the rest of us were considered failures. Not that Shouto's had it any easier for being the success, of course. Usually it isn't too bad for me. He mostly ignores me."

"He's a dick," Wendy stressed. "You and Shouto both deserve better than that."

Fuyumi blinked, as if she couldn't believe that someone would include her in the "deserving better" category, before smiling sadly. "Thank you."

"In the meantime," Stan smirked and held up a wallet that definitely wasn't his. "I'm going to hide this somewhere funny. See how long it takes for your old man to realize it's missing and find it."

Fuyumi made a noise that somehow conveyed shock, dismay, and amusement, and Wendy laughed out loud.

"Us cheerleading? With those girls brought in specifically to cheer, who have an entire routine that they've practiced for ages and we don't know?" Mina rolled her eyes. "Very funny. The sports festival has never done that before, and they're definitely not doing it this year."

"No, it's true!" Mineta insisted. "You guys need to change quickly, or you'll all look bad when all the other girls show up in their outfits!"

"The fact that it's you insisting on this makes it clear that it's fake," Ochako said dryly. "Now go away and let us finish our break."

Kaminari, who was standing next to Mineta, shrugged, amused but unbothered. "I did tell you they wouldn't fall for it."

"Oh, come on!" Mineta whined. "You'd all look so sexy in them! And I bet it would get you even more sponsors! You know the kind of assets people really want to see on female heroes!"

There was a pause as all the girls stared at him, unimpressed. Then Yaoyorozu turned to Ochako. "Did you bring the flashlight and the Jar?"

"No, not the Jar again!"

"Sure did." Ochako held Mineta in place with her power before he could run away, before getting the flashlight that Izuku had packed, as well as the Jar. "Looks like Deku was right to bring it!" She shone the flashlight on Mineta and plopped him in the Jar again.

Jirou glared at Kaminari. "Don't think you're off the hook either. Did you seriously think it was a good idea to go along with him?"

"I just thought it would be funny…" Kaminari trailed off as he finally read the room. Then he grinned awkwardly and put his hands up in surrender. "Yeah, that was uncool, sorry. My bad. Won't do it again. Please don't put me in the Jar."

"Kaminari, you sellout!" Mineta squeaked. "This sucks! I'm too small already, without being shrunk even further! If I have to be this small, you could at least let me nest in Yaoyorozu's boobs!"

"...Uraraka? Shake the Jar, please."

"On it." Mineta yelped as Ochako gently shook the Jar, not nearly hard enough to give Mineta any actual injuries, but just enough to rattle him a bit.

Tsuyu raised an eyebrow. "Hey, Mineta. Why do you even want to become a hero? I don't think you've done a single heroic thing since we started school, aside from helping me round up those water villains. And that was only when your own life was on the line."

"Isn't it obvious? Heroes are cool and famous, and get all the hot girls!"

"Except we all hate you," Mina pointed out. "Literally no one in this class thinks you're cool, and all of the girls despise you. If you keep acting this way, what makes you think things will change once we graduate? You think hero agencies will want to hire someone who doesn't actually care about saving people and only ever harasses their female employees? You'll be blacklisted within a year."

For once, Mineta seemed stunned enough that he had nothing to say.

"Think about that for the rest of the break," Ochako said quietly. "We'll let you out before the tournament starts."

"Now that lunch is over, it's finally time to reveal the last game! But before that, there's good news for all of you who didn't make it to the finals! This is just a sports festival, so we've prepared recreational games that everyone can participate in too!"

Before Midnight could draw out the teams, however, Ojiro stepped forwards to withdraw. Mina winced, because she had hoped that he would change his mind, but it seemed like he was pretty set on it. At the very least, drawing attention like this would still make some pros look at him, right?

Shortly after that, the boy from class B on Ojiro's team withdrew as well, while Aoyama decided to stay in the tournament. Shiozaki and Tetsutetsu were moved up and into the tournament, and finally, lots were drawn.

Above them, on the screens, the tournament bracket finally popped up. Mina searched for her name, and found that Aoyama was her first opponent. Considering how she'd dodged things much faster than his laser before, she wasn't concerned. After that though, it was either Yaoyorozu or Tokoyami, and that would be a much trickier fight.

"Shinso first?" Izuku muttered. "Alright then, I can do that. But after that… oh, looks like Shouto and I will be going up against each other in the quarter finals."

"I was hoping it would be semi-finals, at least," Shouto agreed. "I'm sure we can make it work. Put on a good show for the audience so that whoever loses will still get lots of interest from the pros."

"Sounds good to me!"

"Bakugou first, huh?" Ochako mused. Then she grinned. "Oh, that's going to be fun."

"It's you, isn't it? Midoriya Izuku? Looking forward to the first match."

Izuku jumped slightly, before turning around. Shinso, the jerk with the brainwashing quirk, was right behind him. Mina remembered what Ojiro had said about responding to him being some kind of trigger, and clearly Izuku remembered too, because he just silently nodded his head. Nothing about Izuku seemed to change, and Shinso simply smirked before leaving.

Mina nudged him. "How do you feel?"

"Normal," Izuku admitted. "I think his quirk really is triggered by verbal responses. I know I mutter a lot, and I respond to people on instinct, so maybe this isn't the best match… I'll have to be careful."

"You can do it!" Ochako encouraged.

"All right! Let's leave the tournament aside for a momentary interlude! Let's have fun with the recreation!"

Mina grinned. The first two events had showcased their quirks, powers, and abilities pretty well, but she hadn't been in a position to use her strength yet, or show her full range of mobility and combat skills. With the tournament, she'd finally get to put those things to use.

This was going to be so much fun!

Stan didn't take Endeavor's credit card because that's far too easy to track and Endeavor's not an idiot. He did, however, take every single yen out of that wallet and treated Fuyumi to lunch with it. He knows what it's like to be the unwanted child, after all.

Despite the change in the cavalry battle, the initial tournament match-ups are staying the same, because I have a lot of ideas for them. That being said, quite a few matches are going to go very differently.

As always, I hope you all enjoyed, and please don't forget to review, let me know what you think! You're comments fuel my inspiration for this story.