I own nothing. May contain Out of Character moments.
Not much happened after their morning homeroom period, just learning your standard mundane subjects again. But as Hero Fundamentals grew closer, Class 1A's energy was starting to boil over. It seems that everyone felt the same way Midoriya and Mineta had early that morning. They want to show off all they learned.
And as luck would have it, that time was now. There Class 1A stood before the entrance of Ground Sigma, an area that resembles a massive construction zone with options for vertical or horizontal movement. And for obvious reasons, Sero was excited to get in there.
Uraraka also seemed pretty eager, though for a completely different reason.
"Here we go… First real battle since my injury…" Mineta said as he rotated his shoulders. He then double checked his baseball bandolier, which was modified for his left side, and the baton that hung at his hip. Everything was set. Taking a look around, he could see that his classmates were the same. Interestingly enough, Midoriya was intently stretching out his legs while Kaminari was fiddling with some device on his arm.
It's going to be interesting to see what that's about.
"Welcome back Young Heroes! It's been a while." All Might greeted as he casually walked up to Class 1A. Mineta blinked as he stared at the Number One Hero. That has to be one of his flattest entrances yet and everyone knows it. But before the comments could spiral out of control, the Hero quickly moved onto today's lesson.
"Any how… Since you all are fresh off your Internships, we'll be seeing just how much you've developed in that short amount of time. However, I also want to see what your relations habits are like. So, today's exercise is a Team Raid Time Attack!" All Might said.
"Team Raid… Time Attack? What does that entail Sensei?" Yaoyorozu asked, raising her hand. All Might proceeded to snap his fingers and a flying robot the size of a basketball began floating next to him.
"Within these grounds are eight of these little buggers, target bots. And your goal is to shut them down as fast as you can with a partner. However, these guys won't make it easy as they are all programmed to respond differently, some of them are even armed! But a single hit and they'll go down. Like this."
All Might raised his hand towards the robot and poked the thing with just one finger. The target bot immediately stopped moving and fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Right on top of All Might's left foot. The Symbol of Peace winced and slowly turned back to the class, clearly holding back the pain.
Just how heavy was that?
"A-And word of advice, try not to let it fall on you… Young Iida, I've already made the pairings at random. Care to read them out loud?" He said slowly as he held a piece of paper towards the Class President. Iida quickly accepted the list, unfolding it to announce the contents within. It was strange not to see him in his shining armor. But Mineta supposed they had to live by their cover story to not reveal their involvement with Stain.
"Let's see… We first have… Midoriya-kun and Mineta-kun?" He said, looking over to the pair in question. 1A also focused their attention to the two, silence taking over the space around them. However, that couldn't keep the shorter boy's spirits down. Mineta and his partner could finally show off the very thing they were meant to be.
"The wonder duo's first? Alright, I've always wanted to see what they're like on the same side!" Kirishima shouted excitedly.
"And none of us are going to be on the short end of the stick! I'm all for this!" Mina replied with a nod. Mineta turned to the pink girl, eyes narrowing over the implications of those words. Was she really not a fan of going against him and Midoriya? Then again, given her reaction towards their hypothetical Sports Festival tactics, it was a fair reaction.
Who wouldn't feel upset about going against impossible odds?
"I've specifically picked those two to go first to show you the kind of teamwork I'm looking for. I'm sure you're all aware of those stories where Heroes get in each other's way. Getting hit with an ally's attack or crashing into them during a high speed maneuver, the cost of such a blunder could be immense." All Might said.
"Which is why I don't get the point of this? If people just stayed out of the fucking way, then I'd have no problem. I don't have to worry about friendly fire or shit like that." Bakugou said, still trying to fix his hair. While Mineta didn't really appreciated the human grenade's attitude… He begrudgingly admitted Bakugou had a point. If one's cooperation isn't at least half decent, having problems wouldn't even begin to describe things. All Might then proceeded to point at Midoriya and Mineta, gesturing them to come forward.
"Which is why you'll be observing how it's done. Now, young men, are you ready to enter the gauntlet?" All Might asked as the two stepped up. Mineta looked up to Midoriya as his partner stared back. The two then nodded and then faced the Symbol of Peace, the fire in their eyes intensifying.
"Yes All Might!" The two shouted. And without another word, Midoriya and Mineta entered Ground Sigma's half finished lobby and immediately saw a target floating in the center of the room. The two carefully approached it, taking care to see if it would do anything. But after a few seconds, they relaxed knowing it didn't.
"Your time starts the moment you shut down that first target. You can't leave the room until that happens, so do think carefully on how to approach this raid." All Might said over the intercom.
"Hmm… If that's the case, let's think of a battle plan. There's no map or any sign of where the other seven are, do we split up and search first? Or should we just handle it room by room? But given how All Might talked about the targets, they may be armed with things that could only be dealt with as a team." Midoriya suggested as he rested a hand on his chin.
"That's probably for the best. If we split up, we both could get stuck on something nasty and jack our time up. Let me grab a good rock first. I don't want to waste baseballs and we could just plink it from the door to save time." Mineta said before looking through a pile of rubble. There were many misshapen chunks but there were a few good ones hidden away. So with three safely hanging on his hips, Mineta readied the fourth by stretching out his left arm.
He and Midoriya then went to the door that led further into the training ground. The green haired boy put one hand on the doorknob as Mineta turned around, eyes locked onto the target. His body went through the forms, left arm beginning to draw the arc. The bit of concrete felt heavy against his fingers as it reached the moment of release. It made the boy appreciate all the reinforcements the Heaven and Earth Temple's armorer had made to his glove.
The concrete chunk sailed forward as a standard four-seam fast ball and nailed the target dead in its center. The robot fell to the ground as Midoriya opened the door, picking up Mineta as he did. The next area was a hallway with unpainted dry wall. There were two doorways to the adjacent rooms and a fork at the end of the hall. The target robot stood at the center of the hall next to one of the doorways.
Without hesitation, Mineta felt Midoriya lift him up and threw him towards the target. It was a strange thing, to be thrown head long by your best friend. But the shorter boy knew they didn't exactly have the time to be formal. Mineta drew his baton and extended it, taking a swing as he passed by. However, the robot simply moved out of the way of the attack.
That was until a fist shrouded in green sparks struck it. Midoriya quickly ran past the falling husk of steel and grabbed Mineta before he collided with the wall.
"Sorry about that." Midoriya said, lowering his head sheepishly.
"It's fine dude, totally expected that." Mineta said, allowing his nerves to settle. He looked down both hallways, nothing out of the ordinary going on with either path. The shorter boy then looked up to Midoriya and pointed between the two directions, posing a silent question. Where to?
"I have a feeling we'll be doubling back anyway. Let's go left." Midoriya said as he began moving that way. Mineta took a moment to look back and realized they never been to the other rooms. Oh well, if they really do need to double back around, he'll bring it up then. The two boys went through the next pair of doors and found themselves in a wide atrium. The skylight wasn't complete and there were stacks of construction material everywhere… But it looked like a nice place to lounge around in.
Well, except for the giant robot at the center of the room. Midoriya stopped running as Mineta stared at their next opponent. The thing was about three times All Might's height and twice as wide. It held a great shield that matched its height in its left and a long 'baton' in its right. And finally, the robot was covered in thick steel plates like a medieval knight.
It was also bipedal, making it unlike any of the UA robots they've seen thus far.
"What the Hell?" Mineta said as a cold sweat formed on his brow.
"Where's the target on that?" Midoriya asked, analyzing the thing from head to toe. Almost as though it was responding, the giant moved its shield in a taunting way. And there was the target robot, nestled in its left pectoral plate protected by tightly woven metal cage.
It was here that Mineta made a sound conclusion, which Midoriya had also reached. Before the steel giant even began to approach them, the green haired boy ran away with Mineta in tow. The two ended up back in the previous hallway. Midoriya only stopped when they were at the other door they ignored earlier. Mineta wriggled out of his friend's grasp and approached the door.
"Let's take a peak first. We don't want to run into that nonsense again." Mineta said, gesturing to the last room.
"Definitely. Let's figure how to deal with him later." Midoriya replied, pointing his thumb to the previous door. The two then focused on the one before them. With a lone nod from Mineta, the green haired boy slowly opened the door and the two peered through. The door actually led outside where construction equipment and piles of building material lay. There was a clear dirt path towards the framework of a new complex.
What they didn't see, however, was a target bot.
"We should move out carefully… We don't know what the target's going to do." Midoriya said as he fully opened the door.
"I'll do some scurrying around then, see what I can find." Mineta said as he quickly stepped outside. The soft dirt muffled his footsteps as he advanced. The shorter boy briefly hid behind wood pile before peering around the corner. Still nothing. However, before he could move forward again, Mineta heard a soft whiring noise from behind and above him.
Shit.
Mineta turned around and looked up. And there it was, hovering over his head, the target robot. While this one wasn't surrounded by mounds of steel like the other one, there was a still frame around it. Attached to that frame were a few jets, two rather large cylinders, and two spinning miniguns. Both of which were aimed right at the shorter boy.
"Mineta-kun! Step back!"
He did just that and, like many times before, Midoriya appeared to shield him. But unlike all those other times, this time the green haired boy was prepared. In front of Midoriya was a shield, the door that first led them outside. Mineta had to shake off the shock before going to peer around the makeshift shield. The target was firing what looked like to be paint rounds and slowly coming back to ground level.
"Midoriya, it's going to ground. On my mark, you push this door at it. Then, if it dodges, I'll hit it with a pitch." Mineta said, taking a baseball from his bandolier.
"We'll retreat if that doesn't work. And then we figure out how it behaves." Midoriya replied with a nod.
"You got it. Now go!" Mineta said after he entered his pitching form. Midoriya's body glowed a little brighter, the green sparks intensifying as he rested his right hand on the center of the door. With a resolute push, the boy sent the thing forward at a surprising speed. However, despite that, the robot smoothly glided to the side and avoided the hunk of metal.
That was when Mineta's eyes snapped to the target, his body already through most of the pitch. With some minor adjustments, the baseball launched from his fingers. But like the last projectile, the robot dodged it before its guns began to spin again. The shorter boy froze, waiting for his partner to grab him and run.
What happened instead was one of his hairballs got plucked and lobbed. The robot stopped spinning its guns before moving out of the way. And only now did Midoriya pick Mineta up and legged it. The shorter boy looked up to the green haired boy, ready to ask him what's with the delay. Those questions, however, died when he saw the gears turning in his head.
"Did you notice something?" Mineta asked.
"When we attacked that target… It stopped trying to shoot." He answered. Mineta let those words hang in his mind for a moment. The target did stop attacking them to quickly dodge. And, in fact, the opposite was true as well. When it was firing, the target moved rather slowly. If that was how it behaved, how could they take advantage of it?
"We should keep testing it; see what other ticks we could find." Mineta said, breaking out of his thoughts.
"Then let's try to it at different angles. We'll find a weak spot sooner or later. So… Please don't hate me for this." Midoriya replied with a nervous grin. Before Mineta could ask, the green haired boy dug his feet into the earth and ran back the other way. The robot that was chasing them stopped and readied its guns, only for Midoriya to throw Mineta.
Mineta's heart froze as the guns kept spinning. But to his luck, he'd get within swinging distance before the first shot. So with a simple flick of his baton, he forced the thing to dodge. Mineta then flung a hairball on the spot he was going to land on, softening his landing. Turning back around, he saw Midoriya fighting with the target.
And though the robot was dodging all of his attacks… What surprised Mineta was how his partner was semi-seamlessly blending kicks with his punches. It honestly made him forget about the fact that Midoriya threw him head long into firearms. But this was no time for semantics. The shorter boy quickly dashed onto his hairball and launched himself into battle.
He timed his jump to match Midoriya's kick. Once the target had just moved out of the way, Mineta came in swinging with his baton. And when it dodged that, Midoriya followed up with a punch from the other side. Another dodge, but Mineta cut it off with a thrust. This had begun a cycle. One that the robot struggled with as the duo's coordination was polished to perfection.
Honestly, it looked as though Midoriya and Mineta was performing a ritualistic dance. And it was this that allowed a new idea to form.
Mineta's next baton swing missed again. But with the way the target moved, he did something risky. Using the momentum of his strike, he threw the baton at it. And though it dodged again, Midoriya caught the baton and swung into the target while it was still moving. A dull clang was heard.
The robot flew back and fell to the earth. It was no longer moving…
"We got it… Good work Mineta-kun…" Midoriya panted as he tossed the baton back to his partner.
"You too man. Now, let's get the rest of these suckers." Mineta replied with a nod. He really had to hold himself back as the adrenaline was coursing through him. What they just did felt incredible. It made him wonder just how far they could push that move. Or even, how many other techniques they could make.
And just how much further they could grow.
And that has been chapter 51.
First, before I forget, I'd like to apologize about the vagueness of the previous chapter. Because of how I worded my Author's Note, it made some believe I'd be jumping straight to the End of Term exam. However, that is not the case as there is still a few events to cover before then. So again, apologies and I hope you enjoy the coming chapters.
In other news, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I do hope everyone had a great time as we approach the New Year. This year, while certainly a strange and depressing mess, still has a few memorable events that'll keep close to my heart. Reflect on these happy memories and head into 2021 with a spring in your step.
Other than that, I've got nothing else to talk about. Our next chapter will be a week after New Years. There, a bomb goes off and it isn't who you expect it to be. So with that said...
Until Next Time. T1.
