And we're back with another chapter! Hope you all enjoy!

"Hey, kids? The sky's gone weird."

"Hm?" Mina looked up from their card game and exchanged a glance with Ochako. They both headed over to Stan, who was frowning at the window. She looked outside, and her breath caught in her throat. "What is that?"

"Whatever it is, it's creepy as hell." Stan made his way towards the door.

"Wait, don't!" Ochako called out. "We don't know what's going on yet!" But it was too late, as Stan was already gone. She shared a wide-eyed glance with Mina. "Do you think this has to do with whatever Shouto and Ford were doing? They both ran out of the house pretty quick."

"So did Izuku," Mina agreed, frowning. "What do you think happened?"There was a there was a familiar, terrible, laughter.

Outside, Stan screamed.

Mina ran to the door to see Stan retreating from the form of a rapidly growing Gompers. Next to the goat, the periscope came to life, shrieking and heading to attack Stan… before something stopped it. The dome around the shack that they'd made with the unicorn hair flared to life, protecting them from whatever Cipher had done.

Stan scrambled inside the shack and shut the door behind him. "What the hell is all that!?"

"Cipher," Ochako said softly. "Somehow, he made it into the real world. I don't know how…" She turned to Mina, who shook her head.

"Me neither."

Stan started moving around the house, closing the blinds on the windows. The two girls rushed to help. "Right. And who is this Cipher guy, exactly?"

"He's some sort of…" Mina paused, trying to describe him. "A weird entity thing from a different dimension than this one, or even ours. He's yellow and triangle shaped, and he can invade dreams, possess people, and apparently wanted to get into the real world so he could cause havoc."

"He was the one who possessed Shouto, a few weeks after we first arrived here," Ochako added, and Stan's eyes widened with understanding.

"You mean when the kid suddenly experimented with my silverware in his arms?" Ochako winced but nodded. "Yeesh. Real bad guy, then. And now he's made a hole in the sky and is growing goats."

"Basically." Mina peered through the blinds to see the forest on fire, strange, impossible creatures and also a giant Gompers roaming through it. She turned away from the window and towards the other two people in the shack. "Shouto, Izuku, and Ford were outside when all of this happened. I don't know about Shouto and Ford, but Izuku was heading into town."

Ochako frowned. "Not to mention Soos and Wendy, Candy and Grenda, Pacifica… everyone. We might be safe, but we're the only ones that are."

"We could use the shack as a safehouse, since Cipher can't get us here," Mina proposed. "We just need to find the others."

Stan grimaced, before raising an eyebrow. "And risk your own lives to do it? What would the point be if you both get killed before anyone can be found?"

"We still have to try," Ochako shot back. "The others are out there! We can't just hide out in here while they're all in danger."

"That's not what heroes do," Mina agreed. Their friends were out there. Ford was out there. Shouto and Izuku were out there.

Stan looked at their determined faces, before sighing. "Fine. Go do your hero thing. I'll see how much supplies we have, and how long it'll last us. It's a good thing I stashed all those meat and beans away… see if anyone you find has any food as well."

Mina jumped forwards and hugged him. "Thanks, Stan. We'll be back, promise!"

Stan blinked down at her, before hugging her back. "Yeah, I know. Just… promise you'll be careful."

"We will," Ochako promised. Together, they headed out into the madness.

The first people they found were the gnomes.

There were fifteen of them, a far cry from the thousand they'd boasted at the beginning of the summer. The spokesperson for them, Jeff, recognized them immediately. "Hey, you! Yeah, you kids! What the hell happened to our forest!? First it was set on fire, and now floating eyeballs are turning my boys into stone!"

Mina blinked. "Flying eyeballs?" Then, clearly deciding it wasn't worth asking, shook her head. "It's a long story. We've got somewhere safe for you to hide out, if you're willing to cooperate."

"Most of us are either burned to a crisp or turned into stone," Jeff said flatly, and Ochako flinched. "Yeah, we'll follow your rules. Got a few other survivors from the magical part of the forest, if you're open to them as well."

"If they can all get along, then sure," Ochako agreed. Jeff nodded, motioning them to follow him. They moved as silently as they could through the woods, stepping over trees that seemed to have grown feet.

A red light shone suddenly through the trees, and Jeff froze. "Eyeballs incoming! Hide!" The gnomes panicked, diving beneath tree roots. Ochako and Mina stuffed themselves in a small dip behind another tree as the eyeball came into view.

It was massive, about half the size of Ochako, with bat-like wings on either side, and a red light shining from its iris. One of the gnomes was still out in the open when the eyeball moved around, and they all watched in horror as he turned to stone from the bottom up under its gaze, his cries suddenly silenced as his mouth stopped functioning, face frozen in terror.

Ochako kept her hands over her mouth to keep herself quiet. Next to her, Mina tucked herself into a ball.

After another moment that seemed to last an eternity, the eyeball moved on, dragging the gnome with it. They all waited, and when it was clear the thing wasn't coming back, slowly got out of their hiding spaces.

"Flying eyeballs," Mina said. "Right."

"We just lost Davey," One of the gnomes whispered.

"I know, I saw that," Jeff hissed back. "Let's get the other foresters before any more of us get turned to stone."

Thankfully, the rest of their trek was uninterrupted. They made it to a clearing, where the multibear, two manotaurs, and a unicorn half turned to stone rested.

The unicorn, who Ochako immediately recognized as one of the ones they'd fought yesterday (was it really just yesterday?), glared at her. "Why are you here, humans? To mock us?"

"No, we're not you," Ochako snipped back. "We're here to get everyone to safety. Our home is protected from all this craziness, so as long as you're inside, you'll be safe. She looked at the manotaurs and multibear. "As long as you can all get along, you can all come with."

The three creatures looked at each other, before shrugging. "We can put old grudges aside, for something like this," one of the multibear heads agreed.

"Sounds good then!" Mina managed a smile. "Can someone pick up the unicorn? We should head back as fast as possible."

"I've got it!" One of the manotaurs picked up the now rather huffy looking unicorn.

"My name is Lunarsolarflare, you know. Don't just call me "unicorn". It's rude."

"Lune it is then," Ochako agreed brightly. Lune huffed again, but was compliant the rest of the way back.

Their first trip into town was a lot more chaotic.

It seemed Cipher had concentrated his weirdness on the town itself, rather than the forest, which meant pretty much everything was in flames, and monsters were roaming around everywhere. There were flying eyeballs, but also various creatures and demons and even stranger entities of all shapes, sizes, colors, and body parts.

"Where should we check out first?" Mina wondered quietly, as a being that seemed to just be an amalgamation of tongues dragged itself past them.

"Somewhere a lot of people might gather in an emergency, I think," Ochako offered, thinking. An idea seemed to strike her. "Lazy Susan's diner? It's got lots of food, and plenty of people go there, especially around the time the whole oddpocalypse thing hit."

"Worth a shot." It wasn't too far from them anyways, so they made their way over.

When they finally got there, the first thing Mina noticed were the two flying eyeballs circling the diner. Its curtains were drawn tightly, which meant there were probably people in there, but they'd need to get past the eyeballs to get them.

Mina looked around, eyes catching on a large lamppost which had fallen down - or maybe bitten down was the right word, considering the jagged edges on one side. She tapped Ochako on the shoulder to alert her, then picked up the lamppost.

"Hey! Over here!" The closest eye to them turned towards the noise, and Mina dashed out from their hiding place, throwing the lamppost like a javelin. Her aim was true - it struck the eyeball right in its pupil, causing it to make some sort of shrieking noise, writhing in pain.

Ochako reached out with her amulet, forcing the eyeball to turn, then sending it flying right for the other eyeball. The other end lodged itself in the other eyeball, and the two fell down together, thrashing around on the ground for a bit before going still.

After checking to make sure there were no more eyeballs around, the two of them dashed towards the diner. Ochako tried the door, but it was predictably locked.

"Let us in!" Mina called out. "We took care of the eyeballs. We can get everyone to a safer place!"

There was a moment, before the door opened slightly. Lazy Susan stared back at them with her good eye, before quickly ushering them inside. She peered behind them after they entered, and gasped when she saw the downed eyeballs.

"I suppose they don't call you kids local heroes for nothing," she murmured, locking the door again behind them. "We've had weird creatures trying to break down the door three times since we managed to find shelter here. Any more, and we would've been done for."

It wasn't just Lazy Susan inside the diner. There was also Tad Strange, one of Wendy's little brothers, and a few other faces Mina had never seen before.

Wendy's brother noticed them immediately and ran over. "You two work with Wendy, right? The others and Dad got captured, but I haven't seen her anywhere!"

Mina and Ochako exchanged glances, before Mina shook her head. "Sorry, we haven't found her yet. She wasn't at the Mystery Shack when everything went down. But we've been going around looking for survivors, so we're keeping an eye out. She's strong, I know she's still out there." The kid sunk at the news, but nodded, slightly reassured.

Mina turned back to Lazy Susan. "What happened in town? How did things get like this?"

Lazy Susan frowned. "All I remember is the sky opening up and this huge triangle thing coming down to declare himself our new ruler. Then he started rearranging peoples faces, creating madness bubbles, calling everything "Weirdmageddon", and sending monsters after all of us!" She shuddered. "We managed to escape here, but we won't hold out for much longer."

Ochako nodded, then looked up to address the crowd of survivors. "We took down the flying eyeballs out there, but more might arrive soon. The Mystery Shack is magically protected from all of this. We should head there as soon as possible. If you can, grab whatever rations are still in the diner. We need to make sure we can feed everyone we rescue."

There were a lot of terrified looks towards the outside of the diner, but most of the crowd seemed to steel themselves, nodding along.

Lazy Susan stepped forwards. "Alright everybody! Grab as much food as you can! We're getting out of here while we still have the chance! Oh, and some of you grab the toilet paper in the bathrooms, we'll need that too."

With that, everyone finally seemed to realize that they had to move, and everyone started getting up, moving around and getting supplies.

"How can we help?" Mina asked. Lazy Susan smiled at them.

"You're such sweet girls. You can help by making sure we all get to the shack safely. Let us handle the rest."

As soon as Ochako entered the shack, it was clear they weren't the only group who'd found refuge here. The boyband of clones were all nursing their injuries, as was the man who'd married a woodpecker (the bird now stuck to his stone shoulder), several young kids, including the one who'd been eaten by the summerween trickster, and Sheriff Blubs, who was sobbing loudly in a corner.

Once everyone was inside, Stan slammed the door behind them. "McGucket just arrived an hour ago with this lot. Don't suppose you directed him here?"

Mina shook her head. "Guess they found this place on their own."

"Heya fellers!" They turned to see McGucket climbing down the stairs, grinning at them. "Good to see ya safe! Don't suppose the boys are with ya?"

"Not… not yet," Ochako admitted heavily. "We haven't found them yet. Or Wendy, or Soos, or…" She shook her head, trying to rid herself of those negative thoughts. "But we'll find them! They're definitely still out there."

"Sure as Sarsaparilla they are," McGucket agreed. "Those kiddos are strong. We'll find them soon!"

"McGucket's right," Stan agreed, his gruff voice softer than usual, and Ochako realized she was shaking. "All of you kids are strong. No way they'd let these dumb monsters beat them."

Ochako tried for a smile and a nod. Next to her, Mina gave a halfhearted grin, worry clearly shining through her eyes. "Yeah. We know."

Stan nodded, squeezing their shoulders gently, before turning to Lazy Susan. "Okay, let's get those with the rest of the rations."

"They are okay, right?" Mina whispered softly, as Ochako curled up next to her. Neither girl wanted to be apart from each other for too long at the moment, especially with the boys still missing, their empty beds sticking out like an open wound.

"They are," Ochako agreed. "They'll survive until we can find them. We just have to believe in them."

What neither one wanted to think about was why they hadn't come back to the shack yet, if they were still out there. But that was… there had to be a good reason. They had to be fine.

They had to be.

The two of them decided to venture even further into town the next day. With no sign of the boys, Soos, Wendy, or Ford, Ochako knew that both of them were feeling a little desperate.

They didn't run into any of those people. They did run into other familiar faces, however.

"Mina! Ochako!"

"Candy? Grenda? Pacifica?" There was a pause, before all five of them were hugging each other tightly. "You're all okay!"

"They were both staying at my house when everything went down," Grenda admitted. "Pacifica's parents were being terrible again, and I've got that trip to visit my boyfriend in Austria soon, and Candy was gonna be sent off to music camp, so we figured another sleepover was in order. Then the world went sideways." She paused a little. "My parents were out. I don't know where they are."

"Mine were captured," Pacifica whispered hollowly. She was wearing Grenda's sweater, which was a bit big on her, and as she spoke, she clenched her hands tightly inside her sleeves. "I saw it on one of the working TVs, Sandra Hemendez is still reporting and she filmed them getting turned to stone. They've done so much to me and to everyone, and I hate them most of the time, but I never wanted-"

"It's okay, we know." Mina squeezed her hand tightly. Candy gave her other arm a hug.

"The shack is safe from all of this," Ochako added. "We've been finding survivors and leading them there. You three good to come with us?"

That got them three nods. "Nowhere else to go," Candy pointed out. Ochako noticed that she hadn't mentioned her parents at all.

They hadn't gone far when something shook the ground, a rumbling that set Ochako's teeth on edge.

Her friends looked equally nervous. "That was the stomp of one of the big monsters," Candy hissed.

There was another stomp. Then another.

Then a scream.

It was so loud, Ochako's eardrums nearly burst. It was so inhuman she could barely comprehend it. Slowly, she turned around to see what was making the noise.

Massive green body. Bat-like wings out of the back. Tentacles on the face.

"Okay," Mina started shakily, "Why the fuck is Cthulhu here!?"

The-Monster-That-Looked-Like-Cthulhu Screamed again, sending out a wave of energy with a color Ochako couldn't describe out of its face. There were more screams, human this time, before the energy beam faded and the screams petered out.

"We need to move," Pacifica hissed. "Like, right now."

The five of them scrambled to get away, but the stomping seemed to follow. Ochako risked looking back, and found herself staring at a very angry Maybe-Cthulhu.

Candy froze. "We're too late!"

Mina looked around wildly. "There's gotta be a place we can hide, right?"

"Where!?" Grenda demanded, panic fully settled into her voice.

Ochako gripped her amulet, watching as the being prepared its next Scream. "It's some sort of energy beam, right? Maybe I could… I dunno, catch it?"

"Would that even work?" Pacifica wondered. "It's not like you're just levitating a bookshelf or something."

Mina grimaced. "We don't have any other options at the moment. Go for it."

Maybe-Cthulhu Screamed.

Ochako concentrated on the beam of energy with all her might, and immediately felt an overwhelming force pushing back. The strain was like nothing she'd ever experienced before. It felt like her head was going to explode.

I am not giving up! I won't die like this, without getting home, without seeing my parents again. I won't let my friends die here either! We're all going home, and this monster WON'T GET IN OUR WAY.

There was a pause, the two forces at an impasse, the beam of energy hovering in the air. Ochako gripped the amulet tightly, and with all her remaining strength, shoved the beam back at the monster.

The monster Howled, stepping back before toppling over. Underneath her hand, the amulet cracked, before shattering. There was a last pulse of energy, and then all of Ochako's strength seemed to leave her, and she collapsed.

Mina caught her before she could hit the ground. "You did it! Ochako-!" She paused, eyes wide. "Oh Ochako, your hair…"

"My… hair?" Hands shaking, Ochako felt for her hair, heart stuttering as she realized it was longer than it was a few seconds ago. Nervously, she held it up, gaping at snowy white stands.

White, long(big) hair. Like Gideon.

It had been… she'd… she'd read in the journal that the amulet could turn someone's hair white. That's what had happened to Gideon. But it hadn't happened to her, so she'd assumed it wasn't a problem once they removed the curse… and now…

"It's still pretty," Candy offered quietly. "Don't worry, you still look like you! But with white hair."

It was so stupid. That of all the things they'd been through, while they were in the middle of a literal apocalypse, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. But Ochako found she could barely hold back tears.

There was movement from the Not-Cthulhu, and they all turned back to see that it was heavily injured, but still very much alive. Ochako tried to get to her feet, only to find she had no energy left for that. Mina scooped her up in her arms, and they all held their breath.

Then there was a bright glow, blue fire washing over Not-Cthulhu, before it turned into a swarm of butterflies, which flew away.

"Shouto," Mina breathed. "That was him! He's okay!"

If she wasn't already out of energy, Ochako would've felt faint with relief. "We need to find him!"

Pacifica winced, looking at her. "We need to get you to the shack."

"But-!"

"Pacifica's right," Grenda agreed. "You aren't in any shape to help anyone right now, and the rest of us aren't gonna leave you alone. Shouto can hold out until we get you back to the shack."

Ochako knew they were both right, but Shouto was right there. Izuku might be with him as well. And here she was, preventing them from finding their friends because she was currently dead weight.

Mina's arms were shaking, and Ochako knew she wanted to run over and look for Shouto. Instead, she smiled down at Ochako. "Hey, you saved all of our lives. You just took down a giant Cthulhu-like monster. It's okay to not be okay right now. We'll get back to the Shack, and then when you're ready, we'll go find the others."

Ochako finally nodded. But as they started the trek home, she couldn't stop the tears from finally falling.

Thankfully, Ochako seemed to be feeling better by the next morning. Mina watched as she lifted a juicebox to her mouth, white hair tied up in a ponytail.

"So you can still use the amulet's powers, even though it's gone?" She summarized. Ochako nodded.

"Yeah. After the whole fairy thing, I could lift small objects without it, but now it's as easy as when I had the amulet." She looked down at the floating juicebox. "I'd rather still need to use it and have my normal hair back. I know that's stupid, but…"

"It's not stupid," Mina assured her. "I like my hair too. I'd be upset if it suddenly changed when I didn't want that."

"Yeah." There was a pause where the two of them sat in silence, looking out the window. A dark blood-cloud that had been there since Weirdmageddon started suddenly moved, as if pushed by a breeze, and behind it was a strange chained up sphere, green, and with a lightning bolt marked on it.

Mina frowned at the familiarity of it, but Ochako caught on first. "Hang on, didn't Cipher call Izuku "Sparks"? Like he called me Sunshine, you Shooting Star, and Shouto Pine Tree?"

"He did," Mina confirmed. On the one hand, this meant Izuku had been captured. On the other, they finally knew where he was.

She turned to Ochako. "If we can suddenly see this now, I bet Shouto can too. Want to bet he'll meet us there?"

Ochako grinned. "Sounds about right to me." She stood up, shaking her arms out. "I'm feeling all better now, so we should go as soon as possible."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Let's go rescue Izuku."

With Izuku bubbled, and Shouto with Ford, I felt it was important to show what the girls have been up to during the first few days of Weirdmageddon. The folks in Lazy Susan's diner were all captured in the show, but our heroes are making a difference, even if it is a small one. Also, yes, a Cthulhu look-alike was in the show. Had to include him.

In Journal 3, it mentions that the amulet turned Gideon's hair white. I had to include that with Ochako, even if it was in a more dramatic fashion. Kudos to the commentor who guessed that it would happen!

I hope you all enjoyed, and if you did, please don't forget to leave a review! They give me inspiration to write more Academia Falls.