"It's fucking RAW!"

The unfortunate line chef ducked as the undercooked chicken went rocketing past his head and into the garbage bin at the other end of the kitchen. Everyone else went out of their way to keep their heads down and not try to draw the attention of their new head chef.

And neither Eijirou nor Mezou could blame any of them.

After the former head chef had come down with the same illness that had left the kitchen short-staffed, Katsuki stepped in to take control of the situation. Even though the sous chef was supposed to take over, the poor man didn't have the courage to tell the new explosive cook to simply get back to work and let the grownups handle things.

It also didn't help that Katsuki was pretty competent at the job. Which more or less was making sure that no one else was slacking off.

"AND THE REST OF YOU!" Katsuki whirled around. "You wanna explain how you let this dipshit think it was okay to take that food out? You wanna fucking be the ones responsible for food poisoning all those rich snobs and heroes?!"

"NO CHEF!"

"Damn right you don't. Now hurry the fuck up. All Might's about to give his speech, then all those people are gonna want to have plates of food brought up to their lazy asses!" Katsuki paused, then his hand shot up, pointing at two people that had some idea what they were dealing with. "SHITTY HAIR! OCTOPUS! WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU STILL IN HERE?!"

Katsuki's eyes narrowed when he saw Eijirou had his phone out.

Again.

"Shitty hair, if you're taking more pictures, I'm throwing you off this fucking tower."

Katsuki had caught Eijirou taking pictures of him when he had taken control of the situation and had put on the old head chef's large toque blanche. Apparently, he found Katsuki wearing the large chef hat funny and wanted to share. Eijirou had to leave the kitchen for a little while to clean the explosion residue off his face.

"Not taking pictures! Ashido just sent this out to the whole class." Ejirou bit his lip to keep himself from laughing. "You'll want to see this."

Katsuki glared at Eijirou, then shifted his look up towards Mezou. While the mask covering his lower face made it tricky to tell what his taller classmate was thinking, the fact that his other arms all had snickering mouths made it pretty clear he found whatever Mina had sent out pretty hilarious.

"Fucking hell, what the fuck did Racoon Eyes send everyone?" Reaching into his pocket, Katsuki fished out his phone and begrudgingly opened up the 1-A chat room. The first few pictures were of her, Momo, and Kyouka all showing off their dresses. Then of some of the other classmates in their suits. Some blonde girl he didn't know. Normal boring bullshit. Then he stopped at the last picture and the description that was sent along with it. "What… the fuck?"

It was a picture of Ochako and Izuku, posing happily. In their dress and suit. Katsuki scowled, his eyes returning to read the message Mina had sent with it, explaining the reason behind the unique fashion choices. Katsuki promptly saved the photo, before pocketing his phone, wondering if there was any place nearby or back home he might be able to order a banner made of it.

"Okay dude, that look on your face is terrifying." Eijirou shuddered.

Katsuki ignored him. "Whatever. You two go grab some hors d'oeuvres trays and make yourselves useful. I gotta get these dipshits in shape before—"

Warning!

Warning!

Warning!

This is an announcement by the I-Island security system. We have received a report from the security system that an explosive device was placed in the I-Expo area. I-Island will now be in high alert mode. Residents and tourists should return to their homes or lodgings. Anyone still outside ten minutes from now may be arrested without warning. Please refrain from going outdoors. In addition, most of the main buildings will be sealed off by the security system.

Everyone in the kitchen stopped what they were doing and looked up at the sudden alarm. Their startled silence was quickly replaced with yelps and confused sputters as panic began to set in.

"There's a bomb?!"

"That can't be right!"

"How could there be a bomb?!"

"It must be a mistake! This is I-island!"

"EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Katsuki roared over the kitchen staff. "You guys got shit to take care of, and panicking while you're holding fucking knives or working over fucking fire and oil will get you killed before any fucking bomb. Calm the fuck down."

Ejirou blinked. That wasn't exactly how he'd try to calm everyone down, but instead of pointing out that Katsuki really needed to work on how he 'helped' people, he just rolled with it. "…Yeah… Remember, there are probably a hundred heroes on the island. Plus All Might! If there's any trouble I'm sure they'll be able to handle it!"

The staff took a second to let their words sink in before they all nodded. The sous chef cleared his throat. "Well… let's just focus on our cooking, people. Whatever this is, I'm sure people will still want to eat afterward. Best not to serve everyone burnt food after this episode."

Katsuki scoffed. "Finally, you're not talking out of your ass. Keep working while…" Katsuki paused when he noticed that Mezou was looking at the door that led to the reception room, where the party was. His arms were outstretched, and the ends were now tipped with multiple ears, each listened intently. With a free hand, he discreetly motioned for Eijirou and Katsuki to come over. "…While I figure out what the hell is happening."

While the staff kept working, the three grouped up near the door. "Octopus, what've you got?"

Mezou was tense, and Katsuki could see that his jaw was set, even behind his mask. "Trouble."

Ejirou frowned. "Trouble?" He made to open the door. "What kin—"

Mezou quickly pushed Eijirou away from the door, and put a finger in front of his mouth. "Shhh, keep your voice down and don't open the door."

"Dude? What's going on?" Ejirou asked in a hushed whisper.

Mezou glanced back at the staff, making sure they were doing what they could to focus on their cooking and not on them. "There are villains in the hall. A leader and… a lot of people with guns by the sound of it. They say that…" Mezou's ears twitched as he kept listening. "They've taken control of I-Isand's security system, and all the security robots, and are using the threat of that to hold the residents as hostages."

Ejirou's eyes went wide. "Wait? Really? No way, how could that happen? What about the heroes?"

"They're all been captured."

"Holy crap! But… No, All Might's in there. There's no way…"

Katsuki was eyeing the door. "If they got the freaking whole island under threat, no way any hero is making a move. All Might's definitely letting this play out."

"Then what should we do?"

Katsuki clicked his tongue in annoyance. He knew what he wanted to do, but the hostages made things tricky. "Fuck."

"We aren't just going to do nothing?"

"Shitty hair, fucking think. None of the heroes in there are probably actually captured. They're letting this play out. So…" Oh, Katsuki hated this. "We're doing the same. Until there's an opening, we wait."

Ejirou looked at Katsuki, impressed. "Wow, that's surprisingly level-headed."

"I'll fucking kill you," Katsuki growled out. Any other choice words stopped when he noticed that Mezou was still listening. "What?"

"The villain, the leader, has taken two people away. It sounds like they want something that's being stored here. They went after researchers," Mezou reported, then stopped. "…huh?"

"What?"

Mezou looked confused. "It's… All Might. He's… well, it sounds like he's talking to someone, but in a really hushed voice. He asked, 'Can you hear me,' and is now explaining the situation and… telling someone to get away as fast as possible."

"That… huh? Why would he be doing—"

"Ears," Katsuki said with certainty. "He's talking to fucking Ears."

"Ears… Jirou!" Eijirou's eyes lit up. "That must mean that their group wasn't in the main hall when the attack went down!"

Mezou's ears twitched as he kept listening. "I think… I might have heard her, and some of the others too, but I think they went further into the building. I can't hear them now."

Katsuki was thinking, trying to recall who could be with her. "Ears was with…Rich Girl, Racoon Eyes, Four Eyes, Half and Half, Round Face and Deku."

The three stood there, thinking about the fact that this was the group that All Might was telling to escape. Fat chance of that.

"Wasn't there someone else in those photos too…" Ejirou scratched his chin.

"Melissa, All Might's niece. We met her yesterday before we moved to this job. She's apparently a mechanical genius."

Katsuki crossed his arms. "Yeah, you did mention her… If she's one of those crazy tech freaks… then I know exactly what that nerd is about to do. And," Katsuki grit his teeth, "we're just going to have to sit tight and wait for an opening."

After receiving All Might's message, Izuku and company retreated back into the tower's hallway, where they now stood and began planning their next move. Though at the moment it was clear that not everyone agreed on the next steps.

Tenya crossed his arms, a serious look on his face. "I suggest that we follow the directions of our teacher All Might and escape from this place."

That brought a few frowns from members of the group. Shouto crossed his arms while Mina shifted from one foot to the other. Momo could see their unease. "It's distasteful, but I think Iida is correct in this matter. I understand your desire to help, but we are still students. Without hero licenses, we cannot fight against villains."

Kyouka nodded. "Then our goal should be to get outside and try to flag down a hero. Tell them the situation."

Shouto recalled the way the windows and doors had sealed shut after the alarm went off. "With the way the building locked down, escape may be harder than confronting the villains. I've heard the security here is on par with Tartarus."

Mina's heel tapped the ground at a quickening pace. "Then what? We just wait around?"

If escaping and flagging down a hero had been distasteful for the group, then the idea of just sitting around and doing nothing was stomach-turning.

"We are trying to become heroes," Shouto said while looking down at his hand.

Tenya shook his head. "Yes, but we… have a responsibility as students to follow the rules the heroes and teachers have laid out for us." Tenya could still recall what happened the last time he had chosen to disregard those rules. "Even if we feel it's right."

Shouto didn't look convinced at all. "Does that mean it's all right for us to not do anything?"

While the group spoke amongst themselves, Izuku, Ochako and Melissa were having their own private talk.

"Isn't there anything you can do?" Ochako asked in a hushed whisper as she and Izuku stayed close to Melissa while the rest of their friends were each trying to come up with something they might be able to do to help. Their overlapping voices helped to keep her voice unheard except by Izuku and Melissa. "I mean, you're America's number one hero."

Melissa shook her head. "Not here, no. If I can get to the main control room in the tower, I can get control of the security. That'll take care of the bots and the security system. So no more hostages. That way Uncle Might and all the other heroes will be able to act."

"Okay." Ochako was thinking fast. "Deku and I will say we're taking you somewhere safe and then coming right back to help come up with a plan," Ochako said with a nod as she came up with a plan. "That way, you transform and get up there without anyone being the wiser."

Melissa frowned, fidgeting and letting her eyes cast around. Izuku noticed this immediately. "Melissa?"

"Okay. We'll go with that. I'll—"

"Melissa, what is it?" Izuku cut in. He could see it on her face. Mixed up with her training helping her deal with the sudden attack, her eyes just looked so sad. "What's wrong?"

Melissa frowned, rubbed her arm and then sighed. "It's nothing. Just something I knew was going to happen sooner or later." Izuku and Ochako shared confused looks. "Central Tower… is probably one of the most monitored buildings on all of I-Island, considering all the work going on. Inside and out. There are cameras everywhere."

Izuku's eyes went wide. "Your identity."

Melissa nodded. "Yeah, there's not really any place I can change in here and not risk it getting caught on camera. Once that happens… That's kinda it for being an inventor. Part of my deal with the government. But it's okay. I knew sooner or later… I wasn't going to get to be Melissa anymore."

"Oh Melissa…" Ochako sympathized.

Izuku though started muttering to himself. "Wait… you need to get to the control room… which is probably guarded by the villains and those hijacked security bots." The wheels were spinning now. "Going as Star and Stripe could risk you getting exposed… but what if we escorted you?"

"Huh?"

Melissa blinked while Izuku turned to the rest of his friends. "Everyone, I have an idea."

The group turned to look at him, though Tenya had a deep frown. "Midoriya, I understand your desire to help, but we can not attack the villains."

"Yeah, we don't want a repeat of the USJ," Mina said with a shudder.

"Or Hosu," added Shouto.

Izuku shook his head. "No, it's not that. It's true I want to help everyone, but I don't think a direct attack is the way to do it." That got the group's attention. "I was just talking with Melissa, and she told me that I-Islands security systems are on the top of this tower. I think that should be our goal. Melissa, tell them."

Melissa was initially startled but recovered quickly, now starting to understand Izuku's idea. "If the villains have taken over the system, it means that the authentication locks and passwords must have been turned off. If that's the case, then we should be able to restart the system."

"If we can restart the system, it'll free the heroes. With the tables turned, then everyone will be saved."

Momo thought about it. "Going about things this way… we would be avoiding a direct confrontation with the villains."

"It's the best plan." Ochako stepped up. "None of us want to just sit around and wait. This way, we'll be taking action but also not breaking the rules."

"But none of us know how the system works," Mina said with some worry. "I don't think we can restart it just by pressing buttons randomly."

Melissa motioned to herself. "I'll be able to work it. I'm a student of I-Island Academy. This kind of thing is my speciality."

"It would be our responsibility to make sure Melissa gets up to the top of the tower," Izuku filled in.

Shouto looked at her carefully. "You're a civilian in this situation. We may be students but we have real-world experience with villains." He turned to Izuku. "Are we comfortable bringing her with us?" He quickly added, "I'm not questioning your abilities with the security system. I'm simply stating a fact that we shouldn't ignore."

Melissa smiled, not offended at all. In fact, the point was completely valid. One she'd probably make if she was acting as Star and Stripes. "I understand your concern. But, you should know that I plan on making my way to the top of the tower regardless of what you all decide." That got a few startled looks. "All Might's my uncle. I'm sure I got some of this recklessness from him."

"If she's going, I think it makes it clear what we have to do," Izuku said with a determined nod.

Quickly, everyone in the group agreed, committing to the plan. Finally, only Tenya was left. He thought about everything, before looking at Izuku and Melissa. "As the class representative, it's my responsibility as the elected leader to ensure the well-being of my classmates. If at any point I decide that we can not advance any further, I will turn us back. All of us." He made sure to look Melissa in the eye. "If you're okay with that, then we can begin this mission."

With everyone in agreement, there was only one last thing to do. As stealthily as they could, Izuku and Melissa made their way back to the balcony that oversaw the main reception hall. There, they were able to get All Might's attention, as he was still bound up on the center stage.

At first, he was startled to see them, having expected them to have made their escape. Then he saw the looks in Izuku and Melissa's eyes. The deep frown on his face made it clear he could tell they were about to do something, and he didn't like it.

But as he looked at their faces, he could see their determination. See that nothing was going to dissuade them. He didn't like it, but he had to respect it. So he offered them a smile, showing his blessing and trust. As they turned and ran out of view, All Might was left with his own thoughts.

Melissa must be trying to act in a way to preserve her identity. Poor child, this is the worst possible situation for her… and yet she's still trying to act.

Then there's Young Mirodiya. As his teacher, I should probably scold his reckless actions… All of them in fact. I doubt just Young Midoriya and Melissa are acting alone. But, if you do nothing in a situation like this, you don't deserve to be called a Hero. Do you? Very well, I will hold the line and trust in you youths to get us out of this situation.

I just hope my body will hold out in time.

All Might didn't want to think about it, but he could already start to feel the strain of holding his bulked up form.

"We'll want to stick to the stairwell. Opening doors now will trigger the security system and the villains will know exactly where we are."

With that warning, the group began hurrying up the stairs. Mina glanced over her shoulder as they passed the next floor. "Hey, you said the security room was at the top of the tower. What floor is that?"

"Two hundred."

Everyone groaned audibly at that. Tenya looked back at the group. "I encouraged everyone to join me during my jogs during free training at school. If more of you had—"

When Kyoka glowered at him, Tenya wisely shut his mouth. Clearly now was not the time to point out his classmates' failures. Seeing Tenya get the business brought a soft chuckle to Ochako and Izuku, both nudging each other as they laughed.

"Can you imagine if he tried to say that if Toga was here?"

"She'd have stabbed him immediately."

Kyouka looked ready to gag. "Are you two actually flirting?" Neither answered her, too engrossed in their little laugh. Kyouka rubbed her brow. "Oh god, this is the new normal isn't it?"

More and more flights of stairs were covered, and everyone, even with their training, were starting to feel it. Trying to take his mind off the burning in his legs, Izuku hung back to run beside Melissa. "Do you have any idea what the villains could want?"

"No. Central Tower is where hundreds of different projects are worked on. All of which could be worth a fortune on the black market. Or to other companies."

Izuku blinked. "Wait, do companies hire villains to do this kind of stuff?"

The sly, knowing look on Melissa's face was a little concerning. "Corporations aren't this loud when their muscle does a little corporate sabotage."

Momo huffed. "I would hope not. That sort of thing should be done with class…" When everyone gave her some weird looks, she coughed into her hand. "At least that's what father says… when he's telling jokes to his friends from work."

"Smooth," Mina chuckled.

"People with money are scary," Kyouka whispered. Momo gasped at that.

"What about weapons?" Ochako asked, deciding not to think about what sketchy stuff Momo's family might be up to. "I'd imagine a place like this has to have some scary stuff."

"Weapons… not really. Ever since Tiamat was developed, I-Island has avoided working on things that can only be used to destroy…" Melissa realized she was getting some looks. "Oh… um… please forget I said that. That's… not something people should know about. Ha ha ha… haaa." More strange looks. "I hear things sometimes."

Melissa just about kicked herself. Oh great job. Yeah, let's just tell everyone about the army's brand-new hypersonic intercontinental thermonuclear cruise missiles.

The group climbed and climbed, and despite the strain of going up so many stairs, they knew that this was the best option for them. However, Tenya, when he turned the corner to begin the next flight, came to a sudden stop. Izuku, who had been right behind him, hissed, "Oh no."

When the last of the group turned the corner and came face to face with a wall of metal, sealing the stairwell shut and cutting off their progress, after they'd climbed eighty stories, someone couldn't hold in their frustration.

"Motherfucker!"

Several in the group jolted at the sudden curse. Tenya's arm was hurriedly chopping at the air. "A setback does not mean we should let ourselves devolve into using foul language! We are escorting All Might's niece! We should be doing our best to set an example even in these trying times."

One by one, heads all turned to look towards the back where the yell had come from. Mina was about to turn too, but behind her, Ochako had a hand over her mouth, looking at her aghast. "I know it's bad Ashido, but we gotta keep our cool!"

Mina blinked, pointed at herself numbly, then her slack-jawed face snapped into a scowl. "Oh no you—"

"Uraraka's right, Ashido," Izuku said as he tried to calm her nerves. "We gotta keep our heads. We'll think of something."

After he was sure Mina had calmed down, he turned back to see if there was anything to do about the giant steel wall blocking their path. Out of earshot, Melissa leaned over. "I cannot believe that worked."

Kyouka tried not to laugh, while Momo shook her head. Mina grumbled, "I'm getting you back for that."

"We're even after you blasted my picture on the freaking class chat room!" Ochako hissed through a forced smile.

Shouto examined the metal shutter. "So what should we do? Break it?"

Melissa shook her head. "No. If we do that, then the security system will react. Meaning the villains will notice us for sure."

Kyouka didn't like the sound of that. As she looked around she saw that there was a door that led out of the stairwell. "Hey, what about the door? We could see if we could find another stairwell that isn't blocked off."

"The doors are all monitored. If we open it, it'll trigger the system too."

Tenya crossed his arms. "So either option would get the villain's attention."

Ochako tsk'd in annoyance, recalling Tenya's warning of what would happen if they couldn't advance. "So we ran all this way up here for nothing?"

Tenya was aware that several eyes were now on him. Izuku looked from the door, to the metal shutter. "We should take the door, and look for another way up."

Tenya looked down at his friend. "Midoriya…"

Izuku pointed at the shutter. "If we break through that, the villains will know we're at the very least hostile. But if we go through the door, they might just think we're a bunch of kids running around scared." Izuku looked at everyone. "They might just ignore us."

Momo frowned. "Even if they do decide to intercept us… they've shown that they would rather use the security robots instead of their own forces."

Ochako nodded. "There weren't that many in the main hall, and if they have people up in the security room… It makes sense they'd rather not split up their forces any more than they'd need to."

Melissa could see where the other's thoughts were starting to lead to. "The security robots may not be lethal, but they aren't pushovers. They're designed to neutralize threats. So if they do send the bots after us, it's going to be a fight."

"Sounds like, if we're gonna keep going, then our best option is the door," Mina concluded.

"If we're still going to keep going?" Kyouka asked.

Click

The soft metallic click of the door latch being pulled startled the group as they all turned to see Tenya opening the door. "We haven't reached the point where we have to turn back."

"What did you say?" Wolfram frowned as he was given an update.

"We just had a security breach on the eightieth floor. There's a bunch of kids running around up here."

"How were they missed during the initial lockdown?" Wolfram wasn't overly concerned, but with the mission going to plan, this sudden deviation had him on edge. That and apparently there was no sign of Star and Stripe. The team in the control room said they had no sighting of her anywhere on the island.

"They were apparently in the stairwell. That part of the building isn't monitored as it's an emergency escape route. Looks like they hit the shutters at the floor and ran out into the hall."

"Hmm, kids at that age are always getting up to no good."

"They're probably panicking with the building locked down."

It made sense. And it wasn't like they were at risk of getting in his way all the way in the middle of the building. But it was that part that kept Wolfram from completely disregarding this bit of news. "What the hell are those kids doing all the way up there?"

"No idea."

"If they were trying to flee, they'd be running down. If they hit the shutter… that means they were going up."

"… I suppose so. Maybe they hit the ground floor and after seeing it was locked, panicked and decided to run up? They're not near either of our groups, so I don't think there's much of a problem."

Wolfram sat, idly tapping his fingers on a table. "Send security bots to detain them."

"We got plenty to spare, but do you think that's necessary?"

"Just do it."

"If we follow this hallway, it'll lead us to the stairwell on the other side of the building," Melissa called out as the group sprinted down the hall. They knew they were now on borrowed time.

"We need to hurry. We must cover as much distance as we can in case the villains decide to—" Momo was cut off as up ahead a wall of security bots assembled to block their path.

"Oh… crap." Skidding to a stop, Kyouka hissed. "That's… a lot."

"Umm, guys!" Mina yelled as she backed up into her friends. "They're behind us too!"

Izuku pulled at his tie, loosening it from his neck. "So much for them ignoring us."

"It was a gamble either way, Deku," Ochako reassured him. "We'll just have to get through them."

"Miss Shield!" Tenya called back to Melissa. "It looks like we're going to have to fight. Unless you have a way to deactivate these security robots?"

Melissa shook her head. "No, I don't have a way to do that here. The only way is to get to the control room and reset everything at once."

Tenya nodded that he understood. "Then, while I regret having to ask this, are you able to defend yourself with your Quirk?"

Melissa flinched, the real meaning behind that move known only to Izuku and Ochako. "I… don't have one." Both teens could hear the strain in her voice having to say that, especially given the situation. However, to everyone else, it just seemed like she was stressed.

And if she was Quirkless, that made total sense.

The group looked back at her in shock.

Kyouka looked floored. "You're Quirkless? Holy crap, so you won't be able to…" She trailed off, not wanting to outright say she was defenseless. But that general feeling was shared by everyone else. It was also made abundantly clear to Melissa when everyone shifted their positions in the huddle and she suddenly found herself smack dab in the center of a protective wall.

"Everyone, form up around Miss Shield immediately," Tenya instructed, even though everyone had already done so. Izuku and Ochako had followed suit, but much slower than the rest, since they knew Melissa could defend herself if she wanted to. "We need to push through the security robots and reach the stairwell. Without Miss Shield our plan to restore control to the island will not work."

Acid was dripping from Mina's fingers, hissing as it dribbled onto the floor. "So we're playing 'protect the VIP,' then." Everyone called out they understood.

Izuku could see this was eating away at Melissa, and could see that she was weighing her options given everything. Maybe it was his imagination, but he swore he saw some steam start to waft around her body.

"It's okay. We got this," Izuku said with confidence.

"He's right, we'll get you up to the control room, no problem. We've fought real villains after all," Ochako made a confident flex, "so we can handle a few robots."

Melissa frowned. She appreciated what Izuku and Ochako were doing for her. She did, more than words could say. She selfishly wanted more than anything to hold onto the last bit of her time as her Quirkless self. To take her dream of being like her father as far as she could go.

But at the same time, she wasn't a hero student like everyone else, she was a full-fledged professional hero. She was Star and Stripe, and that came with a whole host of responsibilities that, as much as it hurt, were more important than her own individual dreams.

"Please," Izuku asked. "All Might trusts us to get the job done. Let us show you that kind of faith isn't misplaced."

Well damn, if you're just going to name-drop Uncle Might. Melissa relaxed. Or at least as much as one could when a bunch of robots were bearing down on your position. "Okay."

Ochako smacked her fist into her palm. "Then let's clear a path!"

The hallway suddenly became something close to a war zone. A wall of ice and acid slammed into one group of robots, halting their advancement from behind while Tenya and Ochako charged head first into the group at the front. Momo covered their initial charge by tossing a chaff grenade into the group, the explosion confusing the robot's sensors momentarily. Tenya's engines roared, shredding and burning away his pants around the calves as he started kicking and crushing the robots in front. Ochako was quick to follow up, tapping many of the bots with her hands, removing their weight and tossing them into the air. Leaving them as easy targets for Izuku. The bots glowed green as he grabbed them and sent them hurtling into the other bots.

Immediately though, the kids noticed that unlike the times when they'd dealt with the training bots at U.A., these ones were not bursting apart into scrap. Melissa hadn't been kidding, these things were not pushovers.

"Uraraka, look out!" Ochako gasped as Izuku leapt over towards her, sparks flying as he grabbed a wire that one of the bots had shot at her, intent on tying her up. Yanking the wire tight, Izuku pulled the bot over towards him, and once it was close enough, the green lighting dancing over Izuku's body vanished, replaced with a blinding green light as he opened his mouth and hissed out a jet of fire into the robot's 'face.'

"You know Deku." Ochako grunted as she picked up one of the security robots, and swung it around into another. "Now that we're dating, you can use my first name."

Izuku, who had just finished burning a hole through the one bot while telepathically lifting two more into the air for Tenya to kick, started stuttering, his eyes wide as he turned his full attention towards Ochako. "Y-y-your first name?!"

Ochako drop-kicked the floating robot into the group advancing towards them, making a sound almost like a bowling ball getting a strike as it smashed through the pins. "Yeah. Come on, call me Ochako from now on."

"Are—are you sure it's alright, Urakako?" Izuku's excitement and embarrassment twisted Ochako's name on his tongue, getting her first and last names mixed up.

Ochako blinked before laughing. "Try again, Deku."

"ARE YOU TWO REALLY FLIRTING RIGHT NOW?!" Kyouka screamed as she jammed her jacks into a bot to try to vibrate it apart.

Wolfram almost crushed his phone in his hand. "What did you just say?"

"Those kids are fighting the security bots!"

"This place has top-of-the-line security, how are some kids able to fight them off?"

"I don't know, they're using their Quirks like they're… trained…" Wolfram could hear the hacker on the other end typing away furiously. "I just scanned those kids and got matches on their IDs… Shit."

"What?"

"They're students from U.A. High School. It's a top-ranked—"

"I know what it is… So a bunch of hero students are trying to cause trouble." Wolfram frowned. That explained why the group was acting strangely. But it didn't answer all his questions. These kids should be heading towards the main hall then. It's where he and the hostages were.

"There's um, something else, sir. One of them isn't from U.A. She's a student from the I-Island Academy here… She's… Melissa Shield."

"Shield?!" Oh, now things suddenly made sense. That girl was just like her father. "Damn it, they're headed for the control room. Those kids are escorting her to regain control of security."

"She… OH!"

"Seal off that hallway now. Lock it down." Wolfram then motioned to two of his men. "You two, get up there now and capture them. Move!"

As the two men immediately ran for the nearest elevator, All Might watched them go, still bound on the floor. Be careful everyone.

Suddenly, Kyouka's head snapped up, her eyes wide as she whipped around. "What was that?!"

Momo, in the middle of trying to jam her bo staff into one of the security bot's tri lens 'eye', turned to look back at her. "Jirou? What's wrong?"

Kyouka was scanning over the battle. The group had been able to make some progress, but Melissa had been truthful when she had warned the group of the trouble these bots would cause them. Not only were they tough, able to take multiple hits from Izuku, Tenya, and Ochako, they were also shrugging off all but some of the most concentrated acids from Mina, and working themselves out of the ice Shouto was freezing them in faster than he could make more. It was getting to the point that Izuku was doing more work keeping the bot's capture cables away from the group with his Quirk than actually fighting the bots themselves.

"Something loud just happened," Kyouka answered, her eyes narrowing as she tried to look as far down the hallway as she could. Then her head snapped around, looking in the other direction. "That way too!"

Mina huffed, shaking her hands and hissing at the slight burning sensation at the ends of her fingers, a sure sign that her natural resistance to her own Quirk was starting to fail her after producing some really strong acids to melt through the bots. "Everything is loud."

"This isn't the robots. This sounded like… back when the alarms first went off…" Kyouka felt her stomach drop. "Oh… Shield!"

Melissa turned. "Huh?"

"Do these hallways have shutters too?" Kyouks asked, really hoping she was wrong.

Everyone froze at that question and glanced at Melissa as she also realized what Kyouka was hearing. "They're sealing the hallway!"

By that point, the sounds of giant metal shutters could be heard by the rest. Izuku looked around, eyes scanning the long hallway for any escape route. "Look! There's a door over there!"

"But don't we need to keep to the hallway to reach the other stairs?" Mina questioned.

"It's better than nothing!" Ochako countered. By now the closing shutters were almost on them. In fact, the one between them and the door was already starting to close. "Oh no! Todoroki!"

Shouto acted immediately, creating an ice pillar that jammed the shutter open. Tenya hopped through the opening and with his engines roaring, kicked open the door, shattering the whole frame out of the wall. "This way, hurry!"

Momo grabbed Kyouka and Melissa's hands and ran for it, pulling them past bots as she ejected small chaff grenades from her upper body to confuse their sensors and give them an opening. Ochako ran with Izuku blowing out a wall of fire to cover their retreat. Behind him, Shouto and Mina brought up the rear.

Mina took time to try and melt a few more bots that she ran past while Shouto tried to make more ice to slow the bots down. He was about to use his fire to melt the ice pillar and close the shutter, but paused when he saw the shutters behind it open and more security bots start to push through into the hall.

Mina saw this too. "Oh…" She then glanced at the hole Tenya had made for them to escape the hallway. "Crap."

"You should go," Shouto said simply.

"Oh, just freeze the hole shut already," Mina grumbled with a good natured smile. "Looks like this is where we get to make a big heroic stand." Shouto looked at her questioningly but Mina shrugged. "Hey, my acid is the only thing actually doing anything to these things. They've been melting your ice. We need someone here that can actually destroy the things."

Izuku stood in the hole in the wall and looked at the two. "Guys?"

Ochako reached back and grabbed his shoulder. "Deku, we gotta go." Ochako had taken one look and guessed what her friends were up to. Everyone had. There wasn't any other reason for them to be staying in the hall after all.

Izuku frowned, but nodded all the same. "…Okay, Ochaka."

Ochako ignored that last bit and flashed the pair a thumbs up. "You two look out for each other. We'll be right back to get you!"

Mina waved, a huge grin on her face, while Shouto kept his back to the group, but raised a fist in solidarity. Then, a wall of ice sealed the hole shut, cutting them off from the rest of the group.

No one in the group was happy with the sudden turn of events, but they knew they didn't have time to sit around. They still had a job to do, after all.

Running into the giant room, even in a hurry the group was taken aback by the place they were in. The room was huge, the area seemingly taking up a whole floor of the tower. Plants of all different kinds covered the ground, walls and ceilings. From grass and flowers to bushes and even giant palm and pine trees. The area looked more like a greenhouse or park than something you'd find inside a highrise tower.

"Okay… the building has a forest. Now I've seen everything…" Ochako muttered under her breath, stopping only to do a quick double-take when she saw waterfalls coming down from the ceiling. "What even is all this for?"

"They study how Quirks affect plants here," Melissa answered simply.

Ochako looked at her blankly. That response both answered her question but also did not answer it at all. Still, there were way more important things to take care of at the moment. "So what's the plan now? Both stairwells are blocked now, aren't they?"

Melissa nodded as she rubbed her chin, thinking about the problem they were in. "That's true."

"Why don't we just have Iida and Midoriya bust through them?" Kyouka asked. "He just kicked through that door back there, and Midoriya's Psychokinesis is crazy strong. He can either just crush it with his mind or pump up his body and break through."

Melissa shook her head. "Remember, the security here is on par with Tartarus. The unsecured doors, I'm sure both of them could smash through with ease, but the rest… they would be smashing bomb shelter types of defenses. Even if they could get through a shutter… they'd have to get through hundreds… no, thousands of them as we try to get to the top floor."

Izuku looked down at his hand, a deep frown forming on his face. "I've… done some pretty destructive things before. If I was the one to…"

Ochako's head snapped around, at the same time as Tenya looked at Izuku in alarm, both having flashbacks to that dark, chaotic, night in Hosu City and the destroyed alleyway caused when Izuku's had unleashed hell on Stain. They both also remembered the state Izuku was left in.

"Deku." Ochako growled out a warning, "Think before you say anything else."

Izuku blinked. "But…"

"Midoriya, considering the unknown obstacles we may face besides the locked down hallways, putting ourselves into situations where we may not be able to react to these situations is ill-advised. Let's try to figure out something that won't put us at a disadvantage."

Kyouka then chimed in, "Or piss off your new girlfriend." She could see Ochako did not like where Izuku's mind had been going. "And I speak for everyone after seeing you all messed up after the USJ, I don't wanna see you all messed up."

"I agree. We must make sure we tackle the problems ahead of us rationally," Momo added.

Izuku nodded, but still seemed to be hanging onto his previous bad idea. Ochako felt her brow twitch. "Deku, come up with another idea now, or I'm not kissing you for like a week after we get out of—"

"Elevator!" Izuku screamed. "We could try the elevator! Don't they have emergency ladders or something!" Izuku looked at Ochako, almost pleadingly. "That's better. Right, Urarachako?"

Ochako took the opportunity to pat Izuku on the head. "Much better."

"…Really? How are you two flirting right now?" Kyouka groaned in disgust.

"Well, when you're as backed up as both of us, after holding it in for so long, it's gonna come out no matter what," Izuku explained while leaning into Ochako's head pats. He blinked at the strange awkward silence that followed. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"Nope!" Ochako quickly said, blushing like mad.

"Not at all." Tenya followed suit, trying not to look at the pair now.

"Makes total sense," Kyouka said as she decided not to fall on that grenade.

"Toga is going to be disappointed she missed that," Momo said while trying to look dignified.

"Huh?"

Almost hating to break up the little hole Izuku was digging for himself and Ochako, Melissa had to be the bearer of bad news. "We can't use the elevators." She motioned towards the large shaft that ran from the floor to the ceiling. "Once everything was locked down, that included the elevators too. And even if they were running, we'd need to have authorized clearance to get up to the control room floor. That's not even bringing up the issue that the control room could just cut the power when we all got on. We'd be trapped."

"Dang it." Ochako snapped her fingers in annoyance.

"Wait, don't elevator shafts have things like emergency ladders?" Izuku asked. "If we can't ride the elevator itself, maybe we could still use the system to keep going up."

Everyone turned back to Melissa, but their shoulders slumped when she shook her head. "The shafts are just as protected as the hallways."

Kyouka blinked, her ears picking up something again. "So… the elevators can't be used at all, right?"

"Right."

"Then why does it look like that one is running?" Kyouka pointed at the elevator, and everyone looked at the floor display screen showing where the elevator was. The floor number was going up. Getting closer and closer to their floor.

Ochako hissed. "We can't use them, but with the villains in the control room…"

"They can," Izuku finished. "Quick, everyone hide!"

The group made a mad dash for some nearby bushes and dived behind them, just in time. The elevator dinged and the doors opened. A short chubby man grumbled as he exited and walked out into the giant plantarium, pulling his mask off. "Can't breathe through this thing."

Another man, a lanky, strange-looking man with pale yellow skin and a face almost like a goat's and topped with sickly green hair, also removed his own mask. "Hard to see, too… and I thought the damn robes and masks that blue nutjob made us wear all the time were bad."

"Hmph, speak for yourself Nobu. I'd rather wear all that shit than get 'honored' to go into that damned testing chamber." The short man shuddered. "You see what happened to the last batch once that gas got pumped in?"

"Daigo, I really try not to. You know some of those fucks actually did volunteer? Fucking nutjobs the lot of them… Still, better to be on the side that won't have that damned thing pointed at them." Nobu clicked his tongue. "If I'm lucky, those creepy twins will be with the next group of honored volunteers. They freak me the fuck out."

"Anyway." Daigo turned his attention back to the giant room. "Those kids are supposed to be out here, right?"

"They came into an annoying place. Too many places for them to hide." Nobu clicked his tongue, annoyed. "OI! You damn kids! We know you're in here. You've caused enough trouble for us already. We know who you are, and we know you got some tech brat with you!"

In the bushes, the group flinched.

"Trying to play hero, at best you're just going to get yourselves hurt, and at worst, you're dragging that poor girl down with you. Don't they teach you brats anything at that damned school of yours?!" Nobu's narrow eyes scanned the greenery as he spoke. "We know you're aiming for the control room. Your little stunt is done. Give up now, and you'll be secured and left alone like everyone else.

"Resist," the villain's right hand expanded into a large webbed finger claw. Taking a wild swing, there was a rush of air that shot out and slammed into a line of trees. The trunks of the trees splintered, and where the air hit it seemed to rip a hole clean through. The trees slammed into the ground with a crash, and once the noise had settled down, the villain finished, "and you're dead."

Izuku felt his mouth go dry. His stomach twisted into knots. These guys were clearly not messing around. They might not have the same aura like Stain, the menace that the Nomu had, or the strange insanity that Izuku recalled seeing in Shigaraki's eyes all the way back at the USJ. But that didn't make them any less of a threat.

Kyouka shook, trying not to show that she was afraid. Momo reached out and took her hand and held it between hers, trying to help calm her down. "Well, what are our options?"

"They're aren't any options, he's lying. They'll kill us the moment we step out," Melissa stated immediately. Her eyes had hardened and her voice carried a strange certainty and experience to it that no one aside from Izuku and Ochako could understand. That wasn't Melissa telling them this, it was Star and Stripe. But even if the others didn't know why, that didn't mean that they didn't agree. They could all feel the killing intent coming from the pair.

Izuku glanced around in a hurry, trying to find a way they could use to get out of the situation. His eyes went up. Cross-crossing overhead were many different walkways. The room was multiple stories high, with each pathway leading to a giant door like the one they had busted down to get in. They most definitely would all lead to different hallways too.

But more than likely, any hallway directly linked to this room had been locked down like the one they had escaped through. They needed a way out that wasn't a main entrance or exit. But where would…

Izuku then noticed something. Along the ceiling, just above the uppermost walkway that hugged the inner wall of the room, was a small square hatch.

"Melissa… what's that?" Izuku was careful as he pointed up, directing Melissa's eyes to where he was looking. Everyone turned, following Izuku's finger. It took a few seconds, but soon everyone was looking at the same thing.

"That's…" Melissa squinted as she looked up. "That's a maintenance hatch for the room's sunlight system."

"If we can get up there, would we be able to use that room to get out of here?"

Melissa nodded. "Yes." She could see what Izuku was thinking. "Assuming that they haven't closed off the hallways beyond the floors connected directly to this room. That would be our best bet to escape."

Momo looked from the hatch, following the path from it down each layer of overlapping walkways. "That may be our best escape path, but how are we going to make our way up? I could make a grapple system… but the distance is…"

"I could lift everyone up with my Quirk from one walkway to the next," Izuku said with certainty.

Ochako looked at the gaps between the three layers they would have to go. Each one had a gap that was at least over a hundred feet. Ochako had no doubt Izuku could lift everyone up each of those gaps, but it wouldn't exactly be fast. He'd have to concentrate while doing it, and the people getting picked up would need to be pretty still since any movement from them could risk breaking Izuku's psychic hold, so they would be vulnerable too. If this plan was going to work, and right now it was the best and pretty much only option they had, then they would need to somehow make sure the villains didn't interfere.

As Ochako turned away from the hatch, her eyes met Tenya's. She saw the way his jaw was set. The determination in his eyes. It wasn't like how he looked all those months ago, but there was still an intensity behind it.

"So much for not breaking the law, huh?" Ochako joked under her breath.

"The villains have come for us. By the very virtue of the law, we are allowed to defend ourselves."

Ochako rolled her head, cracking her neck lazily. "Welp, wanna go defend ourselves, then?" She smirked at Tenya's surprised look. "Oh, come on. Two on one? That's not very fair."

Tenya nodded. "Then it seems like it's decided then."

"Yup," Ochako agreed. "Deku. Sounds like you know what you gotta do. Iida and I will make sure you've got the time to do it." She leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, then she stood up along with Tenya.

"Ocharaka?" Izuku looked alarmed, along with the rest of everyone as Ochako and Tenya walked out into the clearing, facing the two villains.

Ochako, despite having the villain's full attention on them, sighed and waved Izuku on. "We need to get Melissa up the tower. Ashido and Todoroki are holding off all those robots. Now, it's just our turn to hold the line."

Tenya nodded. "We can not afford to waste time. Uraraka and I will deal with these villains. You four go on ahead. Yaoyorozu, as 1-A's Vice Representative, I leave the rest of the mission in your capable hands."

Momo nodded, and—while still looking uncertain given the situation, given the fact their group to escort Melissa had shrunk so much—being reminded of her leadership role helped get her ready to keep moving forward. Daunting, but it's what she had to accept when she took the role. So she was not looking forward to what she was going to have to do next.

Reaching out, she moved to put a hand on Izuku's shoulder. She had the responsibility to now urge him to turn his back on Ochako and leave her behind. Given their current and newly budded relationship, she imagined this was going to be a very stressful and hard thing to—

"Once we're done, we'll come right back so we can all celebrate, alright?" Izuku called out to Ochako while he turned around, ready to get back to running. He looked up at Momo, seeing her look a little startled. "Let's go."

"Um?! Yes, we should hurry."

The four took their chance and sprinted away from the bushes.

Melissa was impressed. Izuku hadn't needed to be convinced or forced to leave Ochako behind and, glancing back towards Ochako as she and Tenya began advancing towards the approaching villains, she seemed dead focused on the threat coming her way. They were both handling the situation surprisingly well. Even professionals might struggle with this kind of situation. She supposed, it just went to show the trust the two had in each other.

"Hey! Where do you kids think you're goi—!" Nobu's yell was cut off as Tenya's engines roared.

"You're dealing with us first, villain!" Tenya then reached back, taking Ochako's hand. "Which one, Uraraka?"

Ochako looked between the two before settling. "Humpty Dumpty." Ochako tapped her fingers against herself, floating just as Tenya kicked off the ground. As he roared forward, he pivoted and, taking advantage of the villain's initial shock that they were getting attacked, twisted and launched Ochako right towards the shorter, pudgy man.

The two tumbled off into the distance, Ochako wailing on him as they took their fight in another direction. Nobu, who had had his head turned at the sudden turn of events, watching the two go, didn't see Tenya running at him. Or see him kick off and twist, so he could dropkick him in the side.

"GAH!" Nobu tumbled across the ground while Tenya chased after him, his engines rumbling as he was propelled forward. As he closed the distance, he got ready to swing out a kick. At the same time, Nobu's giant claws dug into the concrete floor, leaving deep gashes as he stopped himself and then launched himself forward.

Tenya's eyes went wide as the villain dashed under his kick. Tenya was just able to sail over Nobu's claws as he took a swipe at him. Recalling what they had done to the trees earlier, he knew he didn't want to get touched by them.

"Damned brat!"

He's fast!

Tenya was not prepared to take on another speedster, however that didn't mean he was just going to give up. Shifting his engines up, Tenya took off with Nobu right beside him. The two rocketed around towards the perimeter of the large room. As they ran, Nobu continued to take swipes at Tenya while the boy tried to kick him in turn.

Nobu growled in annoyance as his claws missed again before he changed tactics. Instead of swiping at Tenya, he started swiping ahead of them. Soon, chunks of concrete, dirt and trees started falling into Tenya's path.

I see, it's some kind of displacement Quirk! Tenya was forced to dodge and leap out of the way, avoiding either getting crushed or tripped up, either case mostly likely ending in his gruesome death.

After leaping over one large chunk of concrete, Nobu twisted around to swipe at him, but this turned out to be a costly mistake. While he and Tenya were both speedsters, how they moved was entirely different. Tenya was propelled by the engines in his legs, so even in the air, they could move him forward. So when Nobu turned to attack, he slowed down. Tenya on the other hand, had his engines screaming as he spun around and drove his foot into the chunk of concrete he was jumping over, kicking it like an oversized and overweight soccer ball, right into Nobu's stomach.

Nobu collapsed to his knees, clutching his stomach as he coughed and hacked in pain. He only realized he was a sitting duck the moment before Tenya came back around and drove a spin kick into the side of his head, sending him tumbling into the bushes.

Tenya sighed, catching his breath before he started walking over towards the bushes where the villain had landed. "I'd advise you to surrender. Your crimes are serious enough as it stands. Any further actions will only add more time to your prison sentence."

When the villain made no sound, or no move to come out of the bushes, Tenya frowned. …Perhaps my kick knocked him out?

Tenya took a step forward, then something in the back of his mind screamed to get away. A primal fear making him retreat backwards. That feeling you get when, walking out late at night to throw away trash into the dumpster, you start walking just a bit faster. A feeling he must have learned from his folly of trying to find Stain and feeling the horror that man gave off. The instant Tenya stepped away, the ground from the bushes, all the way out to the wall was suddenly gone. Like someone had punched out a straight line, creating a hollow in the ground and a hole in the wall.

Shocked, Tenya turned just in time to see… something emerge from the bushes, with a syringe sticking out of its shoulder, where its arms had once been.

But Tenya wasn't looking at that, his eyes were drawn to the black void that looked ready to swallow anything in front of it.

Melissa thought Izuku was being incredibly brave. Even as the sounds of the fight escalated, Izuku did not allow himself to look back. His focus was solely on making sure she, Momo and Kyouka were lifted up from one walkway to another quickly and safely before he followed suit.

Melissa recalled her early intuitions when she'd watched Izuku lift himself during the game yesterday. Now she had confirmation of a sort, that Izuku used his Quirk differently when used on a person. He concentrated on applying more force through their clothes to keep them each stable as he lifted them up with his Quirk, but also not so much that he damaged their clothing too, only using the barest amount directly on their bodies when it was needed.

However, Melissa didn't exactly feel like the force acting directly on her body was weaker or off. And towards the end, getting lifted up to the last walkway felt incredibly safe and stable, like she was hovering inside a bubble, hardly feeling any difference between the way the Quirk held her or her clothes. Melissa only had to look at Momo and Kyouka to see that they also felt the same way.

Perhaps, Melissa thought, Izuku was just getting used to things. Or, maybe now with One for All, his natural weaknesses were slowly fading away. She had to wonder, how often had Izuku picked up a person since getting All Might's Quirk? She wondered if Izuku himself realized the change, since he clearly felt he had to do things a certain way.

Questions to concern herself with later, she supposed.

Izuku, when he landed on the last walkway, immediately reached out and grabbed the hatch, yanking it open and pulled down the emergency ladder. He flinched a little at the way the gears strained from getting pulled down physically instead of it being done electronically as they were supposed to, but Melissa reassured him that any damage was easily fixed and wouldn't compromise the ladder's integrity.

A loud crash threw up dust and debris into the air, and now, Izuku looked back. His eyes scanned the ground far below. Worry was beginning to etch itself on his face. Instinctually, he took a step away from the ladder and back towards the fight. But only a step. He took a breath, and refocused on the task at hand. "We… we need to get moving. Let's go." He motioned for them to get moving up the ladder.

Yes, Melissa thought. Izuku was acting incredibly brave but at the same time, a little dense. He didn't catch the looks Momo or Melissa gave him, slightly scandalized from one of them and amused by the other. Kyouka rubbed her brow, shaking her head and looking a little exasperated that she was going to have to point this out to the young man. "Midoriya, try to think for a second why you should be the first one up the ladder. Please."

There was a brief pause as Izuku did just that before his face went pink and he immediately started climbing. Kyouka spent a few seconds wondering how in the hell Ochako was going to deal with the damn near bipolar antics of that boy. One moment he was so freaking naive and then the next he was calling her Muscle Mommy. Ochako might actually get driven mad. Then Kyouka shook the thought off and started to climb the ladder. Only to realize that Momo had started going up right after Izuku. So when she looked up…

The squeaking noises that the group heard made them pause, each checking the ladder they were climbing in case something had just come loose.

"ARRRRHHHH!" Daigo roared in rage. As his body expanded, his arms and hands enlarged and his skin turned a pale purple. Transforming himself into an ogre, he attacked widely, fists smashing anything and everything as he tried to crush Ochako, who was doing all she could to avoid the meat tenderizer.

"Holy fuck how are you this fast?!"

Keeping herself floating, Ochako kicked off the trees as she nimbly dodged around, but at the rate things were going, the villain was going to obliterate every tree on this whole floor.

"RAWWWW! Get back here so I can kill you!" Using his large arms, Daigo threw himself at Ochako, crashing through several trees, and sending debris and herself tumbling through the air.

"GAH! Dont you mean 'or'?!" Ochako hissed as shattered tree stumps started hitting her, and she was pretty sure she heard something tear. Even in the middle of a fight, she hoped it was the dress. Landing and pressing her fingers together, she gave herself a quick pat-down and confirmed that the side of the horrid yellow thing was torn open. "Ha ha!"

"I know what I said, you little bitch!"

"Oi!" Ochako picked up one of the larger broken tree stumps and swung it at the villain as he came crashing down, knocking him back, but not doing nearly as much damage as she would like. "Watch it!"

Twisting in the air, Daigo just came right back down. Ochako gasped, and dove out of the way, but she was still caught up in the crater the villain made and sent spiraling out of the little patch of trees and into the open walkways. She skid across the concrete path, until she hit a pillar holding up one of the overhead walkways. Hissing, Ochako shook her head, and winced at some of the road rash she had picked up. "Ow ow… fuck."

Shaking her head, Ochako could hear the villain chasing after her, crashing through the trees and tearing up anything between himself and her.

"Guy took a tree to the face… Need something with a bit more…" Ochako glanced up at the pillar, "oomph." She grinned wickedly.

Daigo burst through the last of the trees, and landed with a crash. Huffing and snarling, he looked around, trying to find the little bitch he was going to rip in half.

"Hey! Fat ass!" He turned to see Ochako waving him over. "If you can transform yourself, don't you think you could have done something about that beer gut you have? You look like an out of work single dad who spends all night watching his stolen cable pretending his life isn't as pathetic as it seems. And," Ochako motioned to all of him, "you're purple. And not even a nice shade of purple."

"ARHHHHHHH!" Daigo screamed as he slammed his fists into the ground and launched himself at Ochako.

Floating herself, Ochako kicked off the ground and soared upward, just as Daigo obliterated the spot where she had once been, destroying the base of the pillar and ripping it free of the walkway. As it tumbled, Ochako released the effect of her Quirk on herself, then reached out to grab the pillar, floating it. As she came down, she held the pillar over her head, and with a shit eating smirk, swung it down on the unsuspecting villain, smashing him and the whole floor in.

Above, the walkway quaked and with its support pillar destroyed, it quickly collapsed. Ochako was able to tumble out of the way, but obviously the villain was not so lucky. Soon, the spot where Ocahko had smashed him was covered in a small pile of metal and concrete, with a dust cloud settling around it.

Ochako put the mostly destroyed pillar down and huffed. "Holy crap. For a little fat guy he sure packed a—"

Metal groaned and concrete cracked, but that wasn't the sound that sent a shiver up Ochako's back. It was an inhuman, growling squeal. Rage and hate twisted the sound into something demonic, and Ochako started taking steps backwards.

With a crash, the debris was suddenly flung away, and while Ochako couldn't see exactly what had sprung free, she did see two giant fists, each easily the size of her whole body, raise up into the air, then slam back down, shattering the ground underneath them, until it caved in and Ochako tumbled down into the dark.

Swordkil ran his fingers through his desaturated pink hair while he tried not to let his agitation show. Which he was failing at. With a growl, he slammed his fist against a wall. "What the hell is taking those two so long to update us? Wolfram is going to want a report sooner or later."

The hacker waved him off. "The kids are trapped inside that huge room. I sealed off everything around it. More than likely those kids went into hiding the moment Nobu and Daigo got there."

Swordkil frowned. "We thought they'd roll over when we sent those security bots after them and look how that went. And what do you mean more than likely? Aren't you watching everything?"

"I have to keep track of more than just one room. I have a whole tower I have to make sure is still locked down, on top of the whole island. We sent two of ours to handle those kids. Calm down. U.A. trains those little shits by making them fight robots, so of course they wouldn't be scared of the security here. But against actual people, they'd panic and do what any kids do when they get scared. Run and hide. Unfortunately for those two, that fucking room is huge."

Swordkil hoped that was what the delay was. He did not want to have to tell Wolfram that things hadn't been handled.

"What's the situation?"

Swordkil just about swore before he tapped the comm link in his ear. "We locked down the area when Nobu and Daigo reached the floor."

"…And? Are those children secured?"

"They haven't reported back yet, but I'm sure—"

"I want an update, now."

The tone in Wolfram's voice as it came over the comms made both men shudder. Quickly, the hacker began bringing up the room onto his screen so Swordkil could give their boss the update he wanted. "Yes sir. They kids are… what the fuck?!" Swordkil's eyes went wide as he watched the screen, and the two fights that were playing out.

"What? What's going on?"

"The kids…" Swordkil gulped. "The kids are fighting back? Both Nobu and Daigo have been engaged and—"

"Wait, I only see two kids," the hacker cut in, fingers typing away quickly as he changed to different cameras and brought up different views of the fights. Sure enough, every screen only showed Ochako and Tenya fighting. The rest were nowhere to be seen. "Oh crap."

If the hacker had been quick before, he was now furiously pounding away at the security computer's keyboard, pulling up multiple cameras as he began looking through the floors, trying desperately to find the kids. "Where…where…"

Swordkil felt his stomach drop as the hacker started at floor eighty, then started searching the higher floors. Once he was past the hundredth Swordkil thought he was going to be sick. "They can't be that high, right? Just lock down the stairwell like you did the hallways."

"Grrr, that won't do us any good if they're already past the last stair shutter. Those don't have the same security as the hallways." The hacker made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. "Shit, found them."

"Are there any security measures you can use?"

"No, they blew past the last shutter location for that stairwell."

The comms were quiet for several long seconds. Finally Wolfram gave them new orders. "Lock the building down, keep them funneled in that stairwell and send in more security robots. Swordkil, take the men you have up there and cut them off. Do not let them get past you."

"Sir!" Swordkil motioned to the other armed men in the room and they all rushed for the door.

"What's the situation with Shield's weapon?"

"He's working right now. It shouldn't be much longer."

Down in the reception hall, Wolfram motioned for his men to stay put as he walked away. "Fine. I'm heading up now. I'm going to personally make sure we get the weapon and complete our mission."

All Might, grunted, trying not to focus on the way his body was starting to strain while holding his form. Weapon? Just what is going on here David?

After making it to the stairwell, the four remaining of the group had booked it up the flights, Melissa warning them that they needed to try and make it past the last shutter in the stairwell before the villains realized they had split up.

They had just made it past that point, and had almost celebrated, when they ran straight into another group of security robots. Fortunately, the narrow stairwell meant that the bots couldn't overwhelm them like they had in the hall, and with them all grouped up, it made it easier for Momo to discombobulate them with her chaff grenades, leaving them open to some vibration attacks from Kyouka, and some punches from Izuku.

Discarding his suit's jacket, Izuku had the Full Gauntlet activated and ready to use. With a grunt, Izuku slammed his fist into the side of a security bot, rocketing it down the hall and into the remaining bots coming around the corner. The collision sent the whole set flying through the air like an exaggerated bowling strike. Izuku took a moment to admire his work while clenching and unclenching his hand. If he had to guess, that had been around twent—

Suddenly, a gruff, autotuned voice, cracked out from Izuku's pocket, startling everyone. "Living dead girl…"

"Toga?" Izuku blinked and, despite the current situation, reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Kyouka looked like she wanted to jam a jack into his ear.

Maybe answering his phone wasn't the most practical thing to do during a villain assault, but past experience had taught him that it was never a good idea to let her go to voicemail. Melissa, had to stifle a giggle as he answered as casually as he could, "Hello, Midori—"

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!"

Izuku yanked the phone away from his ear. Hissing, Izuku held the phone away and put it on speaker. "So I guess the news has reached Japan, then."

"YEAH! WHAT THE FUCK IS—Oi! Hold on!" There was a struggle as it sounded like the phone was getting taken away.

"Midoriya?"

"Oh, Tsu. Hey."

"Are you okay? We saw that villains had attacked the island. Are you all somewhere safe? We tried calling Uraraka too, but she didn't answer. No one's answering."

Without missing a beat Izuku nonchalantly replied, "Well, that's probably because everyone's fighting villains while all the heroes are held captive, and Jirou, Yaoyorozu and myself are trying to get Melissa up to the top of the tower so she can get control of the island back."

"…"

"…"

Izuku jerked. "Oh right, you might not know who that is. Melissa is a friend me and Ochaka made while visiting. And she's All Might's niece. Say hello Melissa."

"Hello Melissa." Melissa even waved.

"…kero the fuck?"

While this was going on, Momo looked down the hall, and gasped. Her eyes went wide as men in tactical gear stormed around the corner, stepped over the downed bots, and leveled their assault rifles at them. "Midoriya! GUNS!"

Fortunately her scream carried over Tsuyu's swear, sparing Izuku the shock of hearing such a thing. Izuku gasped. "Sorry! Got to go! Call you guys back!"

He reached out with his free hand, creating a wall of green energy just as the hallway was filled with the sound of automatic gunfire. The bullets bounced off the green barrier and clattered to the floor. After several long, loud, seconds, the guns clicked as their ammo was used up. There was a brief pause as both sides registered that the gunmen were out. Izuku dropped his barrier at the same time he heard Kyouka yell something towards Momo.

Kicking off the ground, Izuku closed the distance between himself and the men. Green sparks crackling, Izuku drilled one of the men with a punch that put him into the stairs. With a flick of his wrist, Izuku swapped from One for All to Psykokinesis and lifted up a second man, launching him up into the ceiling before driving him down into the floor.

The third man was quickly trying to pull his sidearm out of its holster, intent on putting a bullet into Izuku's head. Unfortunately he had taken his eyes off the rest of the group and Kyouka made him pay for it. Hands gripping a freshly created baseball bat, Kyouka put her non-existent hips into her swing and smashed the bat into the man's head. His headgear and mask were the only thing preventing his head from getting caved in. But the hollow echo of the aluminum bat coupled with the nasty crunch was still the perfect soundtrack for Kyouka knocking the man the fuck out.

Izuku looked down at the unfortunate man and winced, taking a small step away from Kyouka. "Scary."

Kyouka pointed behind him. "You put a guy into concrete stairs Midoriya!"

"But you hit him really hard with that bat."

"And a bat is worse than a Quirk?"

"In your hands it is." Izuku took another careful step back.

"Stop walking away from me! I'm not scary!"

"At least you only used a bat this time, and not that machete from the USJ."

"Both are totally alright ways to stop people from trying to shoot us, you know."

Izuku took another step back. "Scary."

"Seriously! What about Toga?! I swear, if you say I'm scarier tha—"

"Look out!" Kyouka and Izuku's little back and forth was cut short, as Momo dived forward, a bo staff in her hands as she put it and herself between a sudden attack that would have ended up cutting the pair themselves short. A large sword came down where Kyouka's head had been, hitting Momo's bo staff and sending sparks falling to the ground.

Momo pivoted her staff while Swordkil pushed in, working to overpower her. Her dress kept her legs pulled close together and by a small miracle she didn't fall as she let Swordkil's own momentum carry him past her. The result ended with the two trading places, circling around. Momo used her momentum to hook Izuku and Kyouka and pull them back. So now they, along with Melissa were closer to the stair leading up than Swordkil was.

"Damned brats!" As Swordkil extended his other arm, a cone of metal surrounded it, enveloping his forearm and hand into a second blade. "We don't need you little shits getting in our business!"

Momo frowned, hands gripping her staff tightly. "I'll keep this one busy, he seems more competent than the others. Please go on ahead."

Izuku shifted, looking at the robots and men on the ground. While they had gotten the ones so far, Izuku wasn't sure they wouldn't send more. They didn't know exactly how many villains there were. Kyouka waved him on all the same. "I'll stay and make sure no one gets the jump on us."

Swordkil snarled when Izuku and Melissa turned to keep running up the stairs. "Oh no you don't!"

He took a step to go after him but Momo quickly moved to block him. Kicking her feet out of her heels, a small knife formed out of the palm of her hand, which she stuck into her dress and cut down, opening up a large slit and freeing up her legs to easily move around. Tossing the small thing away, she twirled her staff while Kyouka held up her dented bat, ready to bash the villain's unprotected head in.

She definitely wasn't sneaking peeks at Momo's now exposed leg. Nope, it didn't matter to her that Momo had cut that slit right at the start of her hip.

Swordkil growled. "I'm not about to let some bitch and her butch tag along get in my way."

Momo's eyes narrowed. "Just for that, I'm going to make sure my foot and your posterior become well acquainted."

…

…

"What?"

"Translation," Kyouka explained as she pointed the bat at Swordkil, overdramatically. "She's going to kick your ass."

Melissa bounded up the stairs while behind her, Izuku introduced another gun toting, randomly spray and pray shooting henchman to his support item enhanced fist, his body making such a nice sound as it ricocheted off the walls. As she turned around the corner to keep going up, her eyes noticed the floor they were now on. She paused to blink at that. Unfortunately one of the villains used the opportunity to wrap an arm around Melissa's neck, pushing the end of his assault rifle into her back. "Got you!"

Melissa had to physically bite back a groan, and was about to pull out her best 'damsel in distress' routine when her eyes caught sight of something. The camera in this corner of the stairwell had been shot when the small group had opened fire on them.

"Ha! You got separated from your little friend, huh? Now you're going to tell him to stand down or else."

No cameras in this little corner. Yeah, Melissa could work with this. And after everything else that had happened so far, she needed to let off a little steam.

"Oh no! I've been captured by a horrible villain. Whatever will I do?" The whimpering mewl was so over the top, Melissa was pretty sure most soap directors would tell her to tone it down.

"I just told you, you're going to URK—!"

There was a loud, disturbing crack as Melissa very quickly drove her elbow into the man's chest, the sound either coming from his body armor shattering, or his ribs. Then, Melissa snapped her hand back, twisting at the elbow so she backhanded the man in the face with the back of her hand, sending him flying back and cratering the concrete wall behind them.

Melissa coldly looked down at the crumpled man. Just because she was holding her smaller form, didn't mean her rule giving her super strength wasn't in effect. When she turned away, she saw Izuku had rushed around the corner to come to her aid, and was looking at the man. "Ummm."

"I've been holding myself back for the whole evening. I deserved that."

"…Isn't he going to remember this though?"

Melissa snorted. "With the crunch I just heard? No chance he's remembering anything from this week, let alone just now."

"Wait, was that sound the concrete cracking or his skull?"

"Yes."

"…Why are all the girls I know scary?"

Melissa looked at Izuku evenly. "You want me to tell Uraraka you said that?"

Izuku was not fazed at all. "Please, she already knows I think she's scary."

Melissa hummed approvingly. "Atta girl." Her good mood soured when she heard the distinct sound of more security bots dropping down the stairs ahead of them. "Midoriya, we need to get off the stairwell. If we keep going like this, we're going to get overrun by security bots."

"But the hallways are going to be locked down, right?"

"We aren't going to be using the halls either,." Melissa replied cryptically.

"Eh?"

Melissa went up the rest of the flight they were on, and motioned at the exit door. She frowned when she tried to open it, finding it locked. "Looks like they went ahead and locked down everything. Do you mind punching through here?"

With a swift punch, Izuku punched a large hole through the locked door, and the pair quickly left through it. Immediately, Izuku was hit by a rush of wind as to his great confusion, he and Melissa were now outside. He briefly made the mistake of looking out towards the horizon and when he saw that they were now higher than all the buildings around them, it made him just a little dizzy. So, he refocused back on Melissa and the 'room' they were in now.

"What is this place?" Izuku asked as he looked up.

"This part of the tower is where wind energy is captured and stored for the building," Melissa explained. "From here… it's a straight shot to the two hundredth floor. There's an emergency hatch we can use to get into the control room." Melissa pointed up to the uppermost walkways.

Izuku looked up and hundreds of feet above him, past the large circular wind turbines, built up and around a strong central pillar at the center of the building, were some walkways that connected to the top floor of the building. It was even higher than the ones he had helped everyone scale back in the plant room. Not only that, there was a wicked breeze blowing around them, which he was sure would get worse once they got in front of those turbines, since there wouldn't be anything blocking it there.

"Okay…" Izuku took a breath. It was really really high, but Izuku wasn't going to let that deter him. He'd been up in the air before. His first time flying, he was sure he and Ochako had gone as high as a skyscraper. Sure, she was floating him and he had been having too much fun to really notice just how high he was, but. "Okay, I can get us…"

Izuku trailed off when Melissa knelt down so she could wrap her arms around his chest and pull him in close. "Me-melissa? Um…" Izuku had a girlfriend now, so he most definitely wasn't thinking about how nice it felt to have Melissa suddenly hold him. "I'll probably have better control if I lift us one at a time…"

Melissa smirked at the little blush on his face. "Can you make us glow? Like you're using your Quirk on us?"

"'Like' I'm using my Quirk?" Izuku repeated back.

"Can you?" Melissa asked again, her face and coy smirk leaning in and making Izuku gulp, then nod. Quickly, both he and Melissa were glowing green. "Good. Now wrap your arms around me too." Izuku was just a bit too flustered to argue and did as she said. "Hold on tight, I'm going to get us up there."

Once Izuku had locked his arms around Melissa's back, he had a brief second to think out a quick, Eh?

That was all he could get out before Melissa kicked off the ground and she and Izuku rocketed upward into the air. It brought back memories of when Izuku had latched onto All Might's leg when he had jumped off into the sky. Izuku barely had time to register what had just happened before Melissa landed on the walkway and gently put Izuku down, and ruffled his hair with a smirk. "There, that wasn't so bad."

Izuku, after regaining his composure, weakly slapped away at Melissa's hands. "Hey! Just because you're a little taller than me," about one foot in her shrunken form, "doesn't mean you get to treat me like I'm a little kid! I'm fifteen you know!" Izuku didn't like the coy look Melissa got then.

"Sixteen."

"Eh? But we're in the same grade!?"

"July fourth is my birthday, so only a few days ago."

"…" Izuku sulked. "July fifteenth."

"You're baby."

"It's only a few days!"

"Baby boy!"

Swordkil's attacks were wild, and frenzied. Momo quickly realized that while the man might be able to turn his arms into swords, he clearly hadn't spent any time actually training himself to use them competently. He was relying on brute strength and intimidation to try and win.

Momo spun the staff, knocking one of his blades out of the way and jamming the end of her staff into his gut. Swordkil hacked out a cough before he swung wildly at Momo's head, though she stepped back to dodge. Twisting the staff up, Momo held it up like a spear, jabbing it at Swordkil's face while she backed away.

He brought a bladed arm up and deflected the staff, and tried to charge forward, but Kyouka was there, swinging her bat like she was trying to hit a home run. Swordkil barley had a chance to dodge that. "Fucking bitch!"

WACK!

Momo brought the end of the staff down on his shoulder. "Language!"

"Fucking!" Swordkil reached up and grabbed the staff with both hands, trying to yank it out of Momo's hands. "Die!"

Momo wasn't letting go, but gave out a yelp as her feet skid across the floor and the distance between the two closed. Yanked within reach, Swordkil changed tactics and let go with one hand, his sword Quirk activating on the freed hand. Sword raised, he stabbed at Momo, who was now forced to let go of her staff to try and dodge. The blade sliced against her shoulder. A grazing hit, but enough to draw blood.

Hitting the ground, Momo found Swordkil standing over her. He tossed her staff away, and now had both his arms armed and raised to impale Momo to the floor. He didn't get the chance, as Kyouka stepped in and swung her bat right into his side. The crunch heard in the hall was most definitely some ribs getting crushed. While he screamed out some blood, a glowing sparkle danced over Momo's stomach before a new staff ripped through the front of her dress and drilled Swordkil right underneath the chin, flipping him backwards, ankles over elbows

While Swordkil gurgled on some blood, Kyouka was busy fretting over the cut on Momo's shoulder. Creating some gauze and pads, Momo handed them to Kyouka to help bandage her up.

"G-gonna kill you."

Kyouka frowned. "Dude, stay down or I'm bashing your head in."

Swordkil hacked up another mouthful of blood before he reached into his vest. When he pulled his hand free, Momo was alarmed to see him holding some kind of auto-injector hypodermic needle. "Wait? What are you doing?!"

Kyouka hurried to stop him, her bat scraping along the floor as she hurried to swing it.

Swordkil didn't hesitate to jam the needle into his neck, just as Kyouka got to him. But by then it was too late.

Reaching the top floor, Izuku and Melissa carefully made their way through the halls. Unlike the rest of the building, there were no shutters to block their way. Melissa explained that the whole floor was cut off from the rest of the building, so there wasn't a point.

"They aren't sending any more robots after us?" Izuku asked as he peered around a corner. "Or anymore of their men?"

"They might not know we made it this far up because of the skip we took. Some of the cameras were damaged in the stairwell because of all the gunfire."

"That'd be lucky."

"Also…" Melissa hummed to herself as she gave it some thought. "They only sent a couple of people at us at a time. They were being extremely careful not to divide their forces too much. It's possible that the villains only consist of a handful of men. The ones in the reception hall, the two in the plant study room, the few in the stairwell…They'd have to have someone in the control room to make sure things are operating, but… they just might not have anyone left to come look for us."

Izuku nodded as the pair continued on. "Okay, then lets—!" Izuku quickly put an arm out, halting Melissa and himself before they rounded another corner. "There's someone in that room."

Melissa frowned. "That's the tower's storage room. It's where I-Island keeps its classified and potentially dangerous inventions."

"Potentially dangerous?"

"It's sort of the boogeyman for anyone working here. Sometimes a scientist's project might take a turn and become too dangerous to continue under certain circumstances. So the project is 'frozen' and everything is stored here." Melissa gave the room a cold look, not hostile but as someone whose dream was to become an inventor and scientist like her father, the idea that such a place existed went against her very being. "If there are villains inside there, they're out of luck. Nothing can get stolen from that room. Even if you have control of the security, you still can't just—"

"Melissa…" Izuku looked closer and almost gasped, "isn't that your father?!"

"Papa?" Melissa's eyes went wide, as her attention was brought directly to the two individuals inside the room. "It is! It's Papa and Sam! What are they doing all the way up here?"

"Maybe the villains brought them up? We still don't know what they want. Maybe it's something in there?" Izuku glanced over and saw the conflict in Melissa's eyes. She was up here to restore control of security back to I-Island. They had all assumed that he was being held with everyone else down in the reception hall. So now seeing her father was being held separately, for some reason, and he was right in front of her…

Izuku knew, if someone had taken his mother, what would be the first thing he'd do. "Let's save him. We can grab them both on our way to the control room. They might not even know what's going on with all the villains missing from the floor."

Relief washed over Melissa's face. "Thank you, Midoriya."

As the two rushed for the room, they started to hear the two adults' voices carry down the hall. The more they heard, the more a twisted coldness clutched at them.

"…to unlock it. …block 1147."

"Okay. I'm... opening it… Everything… here…"

"…have finally gotten it back. …device and research data are the… never give to anyone. I'll never give it up."

Each step Izuku and Melissa took, slowed. The words they heard slowing them.

"…Going… to plan, isn't it? … the villains are doing well…"

"Thank you… All because you arranged everything… Sam." David breathed a sigh of relief as he looked up at Sam, holding the case open for him to see inside. Walking up the steps, so he could hold it himself, he felt that at least finally, things were going to be alright.

"Pa…Papa?"

At least until he heard her voice. When David turned around, his heart sank. In the doorway to the storage room, Melissa and Izuku stood in complete shock. Melissa's hands clenched together over her mouth, fighting back tears as everything she had just heard rocked her to her core.

"Me-Melissa? You… what are you doing here?"

"Papa, what did you mean by 'arranged?' Please, tell me you're not behind this. Tell me you didn't… do all this just to get whatever that thing is." Melissa's voice was strained, so many emotions threatening to tear out of her. The hope that she had just misunderstood what she had heard, was acting as a last line of defense against a full on breakdown. "My Papa would never do this!"

David turned away. "I did."

Melissa almost collapsed then and there. Her voice failing her, it was Izuku who asked the next question. "But why? Why do all this? You're one of I-Island's greatest inventors. You're All Might's friend. Why would you—"

"I'm doing this for All Might." David's fists clenched. His shame was still on his face, but so was his determination. "Neither of you two understand, you couldn't… the reason why I would go to these lengths to get back what was stolen from me. This device is something I've been working on for so long. I had to get it back."

"But… What does this have to do with All Might?" Izuku was confused. Nothing about what was happening made any sense.

"This device, was something I made to mechanically amplify Quirks." David caught the pair's looks. Shock but also the beginnings of them coming to the wrong conclusions. "It's not like the drugs. Trigger robs the person using it of their reason, and it can become addictive. My device won't affect the body at all. That's why it's perfect for All Might. With this… the world won't lose its symbol of peace. With this I can reverse…" David trailed off, catching himself before he went too far.

Izuku's eyes went wide, as things started to make sense. All Might had told him that David knew about his condition, his injured body and that he wasn't going to be able to be a hero for much longer. But David didn't know the why of things, didn't know about One for All. He must assume that the injuries are affecting All Might's Quirk too.

Melissa recalled the lab results she had seen the day before and closed her eyes. The desperation made sense, but not the rest.

"The governing board confiscated my invention, all my data… everything. Even the research itself was frozen and locked away. They were pressured by multiple governments to lock it all away. They were afraid that if my work became known to the world… the structure of our world would change drastically." Anger dripped from David's words. "Even before I came to the governing board's hearing to plead my case, they had already decided the outcome. What's more, they warned me that any attempts to leave and begin my project somewhere else… would mean I wouldn't be protected by I-Island's sovereignty and the governments that pressured them to shut me down would be free to lock me away too." The man looked lost as he stood before everyone. Deflated and alone. "The system had decided, and nothing I could do would change their minds… So if we couldn't work with the system, we'd just go around it."

We? Izuku frowned.

David motioned towards Sam. "Sam was able to get in contact with a group of individuals who would be able to cause a distraction, pretending to be villains. With our clearance code, they would be able to temporarily take over the island and hold it so Sam and I could take back my research and invention. With us pulling the strings, no one will get hurt. And I'll be able to save All Might." Melissa took another step back, and David hurried after her. "Melissa, listen to me, I have to get this device to All Might. The number one hero… The Symbol of Peace… can get his light back again, and save many people once more. After he gets it, I don't care what kind of punishment I receive. The only thing that matters is making sure the world doesn't lose him."

Izuku recalled the look in All Might's eye when he spoke to him back before the sports festival, about how soon he was going to have to step down. All Might had spoken about how some villains might react to it, but not how friends and allies might. This desperation to have him stay, to keep him as he was in his glory. David had been one of All Might's closest friends, and he couldn't let him go. In the back of his mind, Izuku wondered, if All Might had told David the whole truth, would that have helped prevent this?

Still, there would be time to wonder 'what-ifs' later. He had to try and talk some sense into this man. "Mr. Shield… All Might knows that he'll have to retire one day. He's told me this himself. It's why he chose to become a teacher. So that he could help the next generation be ready for that day."

The sneer that crossed David's face was not what Izuku had expected his words to invoke. The absolute rejection of the idea was clear, but it's what he said next that devastated one of them. "Tell me, could you name a single person, a single hero that could ever replace All Might? That could achieve even a fraction of his accomplishments?" His eyes went from Izuku, then Melissa, "None. They're all pale imitations. There isn't one that could ever hope to inspire the world like he has!"

David stood before the two now, hands spread out, as he tried to get them to see why he had to do this. Because without All Might, the world was doomed. Not realizing just how much his words had hurt one of them. Cutting her to her core.

Melissa was still in shock, her eyes never leaving her father's as her whole world seemed to be coming down around her. Everything, every word she heard, just made her mind go numb. But while Melissa's mind stalled, Izuku's was racing. Something was screaming at the back of his mind, trying to yell over everything that was threatening to shut him down like Melissa.

The explanation, the story, something about it rang false. Izuku had to pry his thoughts away from everything else, just to even attempt to think this through, and given the whole mess that this was, it was an almost herculean task.

What is it? Izuku's knuckles popped as he focused. He replayed everything he had heard over the last few minutes, from what they heard in the hall, to everything just now. And then…

"They're hurting people. My friends…are fighting against these villains." David looked over at Izuku. "Fighting against villains that were trying to kill us."

He said… he thought the villains were fake… But he's behind this whole thing. So he'd… Wait, it was Mr. Abraham that was supposed to…!

Izuku, for the first time for anyone in the room, glanced over at Sam. Just in time for him to see the man reach into his jacket, pull out a gun and start to take aim. Green sparks exploded around Izuku's body as he acted. He was only barely aware of the sudden sounds of alarm that came from Melissa and David. He lunged for David, wincing at the sudden cry behind him as Melissa begged him not to hurt her father. Izuku tackled David to the ground, the two skidding across the floor from the force of the impact, just as Sam pulled the trigger and unloaded the gun into the spot David had once been.

"Papa!"

"Damn you!" Sam bellowed, swinging the gun to try again, only for it to get ripped from his hand as Izuku telekinetically chucked it to the other side of the room.

David rolled off the ground and looked up at Sam in shock. Melissa was also dumbstruck. Izuku looked over at the gun, then at Sam. "You said the villains were supposed to be fake. But they're not. Then you said it was Mr. Abraham that got in contact with the group."

"Sam? What… what's the meaning of this? What did you do?"

Sam looked down at David, and it was like a mask had fallen off his face. His eyes burned with contempt and hate. "Don't you dare think you have the right to question me." The bile and rage in his voice made everyone flinch. "A man who would betray his own kind, to create a weapon that would endanger the last few true humans in this world. That you would choose those freaks, even when you were blessed with a pure-blooded wife and daughter!"

"The heck?" Suddenly Izuku had no idea what was going on. "His own kind? True humans? What does that even mean?"

"Samuel, that's enough." The doors to the room opened as Wolfram and the hacker, what remained of the control room team, followed after him. "Words are wasted here. Though I don't blame you for wishing to speak, there aren't many that could stand to be around a race traitor like him for as long as you did. But, the less said the better."

Sam, still seething, turned away, clutching the case with the Quirk enhancing device under his arm. "I have the weapon, Wolfram."

"Good, then all that's left is to clean up the trash."

Izuku frowned. This was clearly the leader of the villains. Things were about to get bad, so he needed to act fast. "Melissa! The security controls!"

Izuku's yell acted like a starting pistol. Everything happened all at once. Melissa snapped out of her shock, and realizing she still had a job to do, took off for the control room down the hall. The hacker took off after her, but he was suddenly body checked by Izuku, bouncing off a wall and knocked the fuck out.

"Mr. Shield, stay behind me!" Maybe David had been responsible for what was going on, but it was also clear to Izuku that there was something else, much more sinister, at play, and that David had been dragged into it. But besides any of that, this was Melissa's father, and All Might's friend. So of course he was going to make sure he was safe.

Izuku turned just in time to see Wolfram put his hand against the metal door frame and multiple tendrils of metal shoot out at him like pissed off snakes. Izuku reached out to grab them with his Quirk, pausing them in midair for a second, but was startled when they wrenched free. Izuku quickly put up a barrier before he was hit, but the metal suddenly changed directions to go around and slammed into him, wrapping him up in metal bindings. Izuku was then yanked back and slammed into the far side of the wall and anchored in place.

Izuku hissed, his mind racing as he took stock of who he was fighting. The man had some kind of Metal Manipulation Quirk, though Izuku wasn't sure if it was by touch or if he could use his Quirk mentally. Seeing it only once was not enough to have a clear idea of its ability, which meant Izuku was going to be limited in what he could use his own Quirk on since pretty much everything in the room was metal. So that just left fire and…

The sound of the metal holding him snapping and shearing got the room's attention as Izuku ripped and tore at his bindings. Wolfram frowned before glancing back towards Sam. "Take the device and head for the roof. We have to assume that the girl is about to give the island control of the security. We'll have a brief window before it fully reboots."

Sam nodded. "Of course!" Clutching the case to his chest, Sam turned and ran for the exit. Which by itself was bad, but Izuku had to deal with the present threat, which was Wolfram.

"SAM! GET BACK HERE!"

Or not. Izuku's head snapped around as David rushed after the other man, making a beeline for him and not at all paying attention to where that put him. "Mr. Shield! Wait your—!"

David crossed right into Wolfram's path, and the villain capitalized. Hand on the floor, the metal handrails around the room writhed before ensnaring the scientist. Wolfram smirked past his mask as he kicked David in the back of the head, knocking him out before he picked David up. "You've committed too many crimes against humanity. It's only right you come with us to work off your sins."

"Let him go!" Ripping himself free, Izuku kicked off the wall, and shot across the room, his gauntlet-covered arm pulled back as he got ready to drive his fist into the villain's face.

Wolfram's hand slammed into the floor, and between himself and Izuku, the floor crumpled, then was pushed up, creating a wall of metal separating the two. Izuku didn't have time to be surprised by the sudden change in strength Wolfram was putting on. Clearly he had more power if he could manipulate so much metal. But Izuku wasn't worried about that, instead, he pumped up the amount of One for All he was using and threw his punch into the wall, cratering the metal and sending massive cracks throughout the barrier.

I used all that power and didn't break through?! Melissa was right, this place is built like a bomb shelter!

Landing on his feet, Izuku got ready to throw another punch, when he heard more metal getting twisted and rearranged. Suddenly pillars rocketed from the walls and ceiling, slamming into Izuku as he put up his arms to defend himself. Clearly Wolfram had intended to crush Izuku with that attack, but Izuku was able to hold the metal back, if only just. If Wolfram was startled that his attack hadn't killed Izuku, the man didn't show it. Instead, he simply redoubled his attack, driving pillar after pillar into the spot Izuku was standing, until he couldn't see him anymore.

A soft hum then echoed throughout the room, making Wolfram turn away from the fight and look up at the walls. He could hear the security systems in the building shutting down, the soft echo of multiple shutters opening back up and he was sure all the security bots would be standing down as well. That also meant all the restrained heroes down below would soon be freed, if they weren't already in the middle of a counter-attack.

"Damned brat moves fast…" Wolfram glanced over at the downed hacker before he made sure David was secured over his shoulder, and ran out of the room, making his way to the roof of the building.

For a few minutes, nothing stirred in the room. Then, the silence was broken as the metal pillars began to glow green, before shattering, with Izuku falling to the floor. Bruised, frayed and a little bloodied, but uncrushed. Hissing as he picked himself off the floor, Izuku casually rubbed his brow, feeling a dull throb from having to push back against Wolframs onslaught and keep those pillars from smashing him like a bug and turning him into red paste.

"Need to get to… the roof," Izuku huffed and hurried out into the hall. He couldn't let those villains get away. Not with Melissa's father.

With a soft hum, the glaring red light emanating from the tops of the endless stream of security bots rushing into the hall began to fade away, followed quickly with the robots then retracting into themselves, returning to their normal, non-combative state.

Standing in a hissing puddle as her acid chewed through the concrete floor, Mina huffed and puffed as she shook her arms, soaked and dripping, around to try and dry them off while also not putting even more holes into her dress. Eyeing all the scrap metal, she asked, "Did… did we… win?"

Shouto stepped away from the burning wreckage he had made to check their surroundings. "They must have gotten to the control room."

Mina groaned at the remains of her dress, picking at one of the acid burn holes. "So, what do we do now? With the security back online… the day's saved, right?"

Shouto frowned and walked over to the motionless security bots, waving a hand in front of their cameras, then tapping one. "It seems like they're not functioning."

"Maybe… they're rebooting? Takes my computer a little bit when I have to turn it off and on again."

"Then that means that the security system might not be able to react to the threat right away," Shouto said, now glancing towards the opened halls. "Plus all the heroes are on the ground floor. They'll take care of the villains down there, but the rest that were in the control room…"

"Let's head up then. Make sure everyones alright," Mina said, already reading Shouto's intentions.

"Yes."

When all the screens around the reception all stopped displaying the red lockdown warnings was the first warning the remaining villains in the reception had that something had gone horribly wrong. The next was when all the bindings holding the heroes suddenly came apart, freeing them.

"Wh-what the hell?!"

The villains, panicking as they realized what was going on, brought their guns up, ready to unload them into the room at anyone they perceived as a threat. Which in their state of mind, was everyone. "N-No one move! Or els—"

The heroes acted faster than the villains could react. In the blink of an eye, two had their bells rung as the heroes clobbered them hard. The remaining two stumbled back, realizing that running was their best bet to get away.

Boom!

From the kitchen doors, fire and smoke exploded as the doors were flung open and an angry Katsuki rode the explosion and launched himself into the room, right at the villains. "FUCKING FINALLY! DIE!"

A villain only had enough time to wonder why he was about to get killed by a yappy dog wearing a large toque blanche, before Katsuki threw an explosion into his face, sending him sailing across the room and into the far wall.

The last villain grabbed a woman, trying to pull her towards himself as a human shield. "Nobody else moves! Or else the woman d—"

Suddenly, a glob of yellowish green fire splashed into his face. Instantly, his head was engulfed in fire and all threats died in his throat. Instead the only sounds he made were pained horrific screams as he rushed for the neatest punch bowl to put his head out, letting the woman go free and unharmed.

Katsuki blinked and turned, as a young woman, maybe a year or so older than him, stomped over, her eyes crazed as she pulled another handful of fire out from her flaming hair. "You fucking jack-asses!" The unfortunate villain had only just put his head out when the woman fast ball'd the fire right into his chest, hitting him and exploding. The man somersaulted over the table and landed on the floor. "You shitheads pull this crap, and now I gotta find Endeavor's kid."

"Half and Half?" Katsuki grunted and pointed up. "He's up there somewhere with the rest of these shitstain villains for sure."

Moe's eyes twitched. "I swear to god if I lose my internship because that little brat ran into trouble I'm going to kill him… Fuck me if Eiko and Hitomi hear about this shit."

Katsuki sneered. "If you're so fucking worried about him, I'll send him down after I rip them apart for taking too fucking long."

"Kid, you should just stay here while the adults go and rescue the rest of your friends," Moe said, eyeing Katsuki with annoyance.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU CALLING A KID?!"

Free of the bindings, and with the other villains quickly, and in some cases brutally, dealt with, All Might was up and rushing out of the room. Silently he praised the work his students had accomplished. He was already out into the main hallway when he heard his phone go off. Quickly grabbing it, he saw Melissa's name flashing on the screen. "Melissa? We just took out the villains down here. Great job." He was tempted to ask a few more questions, but he had a pretty good idea what some of the answers would be. After all, earlier today, Star and Stripe had to completely leave the tower to get changed for the event. The central tower was one of the most secure places after all.

"Uncle Might, listen!" Melissa on the other end of the call was furiously typing away at the control system, trying to find everyone after her initial check showed the storage room completely wrecked and empty. "The villains attacked to steal some sort of quirk enhancing device Papa made. Sam is working with them." She heard All Might take in a sharp breath. "And…so was Papa."

"What?!"

"Papa was… tricked. I don't… I don't have the whole story. Something bad happened but this wasn't what he wanted. Sam tricked him." Melissa ground her teeth. Maybe saying this was all Sam's fault wasn't true, but it was all that she could process right now. The rest would have to come later. "I'm looking for the villains now on the cameras. Security is rebooting so if they escape now we won't be able to stop them in time. Ah!" On one of the screens she found Izuku. "I found Midoriya!"

"Is he alright?!"

"He's a little beat up, he must have fought the leader of the villains in the storage room and is now chasing after them…"

"No no no! Get in contact with him now! The heroes are all freed, I don't want him taking any more risks."

Melissa frowned as she got a good look at his face. She was sure he was chasing after the leader, but the look he had wasn't heroic determination. He looked desperate, and scared. "Why does he look like that?" And where's Papa?

"Look like what? Melissa?"

Melissa pulled up a few more screens. "There's… a helicopter landing on the roof. That must be how Wolfram and Sam plan on escaping. Then they have to be in this hallwa—" Her voice died in her throat, eyes going wide as she saw why Izuku must have been chasing after them so desperately. "THEY HAVE PAPA!"

Not thinking, Melissa bolted from the control room, not waiting long enough to hear All Might promising he would be right there to save them.

Whatever Nobu had been when their fight had started, he wasn't anymore. The top of his head now had large curved horns that paired with his goat face. But it was what was below his face that was the most drastic. His jaw was split down the middle, the opening running down his throat and only ending at his waist. His chest and stomach were spread open, becoming one giant black void of a mouth. Along the edges, clawed webbed fingers jutted out from the void, replacing the clawed hands the now armless villain once had.

Tenya wasn't sure just what was going on, but what he did know was that standing still was going to get him killed. He immediately took off, just as the most horrific crunch reverberated from Nobu's 'mouth' and a straight line was gouged out of reality.

This is bad! Tenya didn't have time to wonder how the villain had undergone such a drastic transformation. He just had to keep moving and avoid the new devastating attack the man possessed.

At least— Tenya skid to a stop, just avoiding another attack from in front of himself, the ground suddenly having another carved-out line. —I was about to say at least he's stationary but if all he has to do is turn to attack me, that's not the biggest help.

Tenya started running in a zigzag pattern, trying to make sure he didn't offer up an easy target by just going in a straight line, but even doing this, he was having to keep an eye on Nobu to gauge where the next attack was coming. And trying to run but not watch where you're going is not a great combination. Tenya hadn't fallen, but there were a few close tripping calls.

He knew he had to come up with something soon, otherwise—

Tenya shook his head. That wasn't something to dwell on. So instead, as he sped around, he tried to think of everything he knew about this new form the villain had. It had changed his Quirk so that instead of scooping out, it was punching holes as it displaced. The attacks, while bigger, did seem slower, since unlike the previous times, he wasn't able to use his Quirk instantaneously like he had with his claws. And, he was stationary.

So what can I do with all this? I need to do something drastic to end this now… Drastic… Maybe I should try thinking like Midoriya. How would he handle this?

Thinking about that seriously, he was sure Izuku would do something completely reckless and just run straight at the villain.

…Oh.

Tenya came to a sudden stop, his shoes skidding across the ground to the point that the soles started to smoke.

One shot, I'll just have to hope I can dodge in time!

Tenya's engines roared, just as Nobu fully turned to face him.

"Recipro Burst!"

CRUNCH!

Tenya boosted forward, twisting and rocketing as he closed the gap between himself and the villain. Another line was gouged out, with Tenya shifting his body so it only just grazed him, shredding his coat and shirt. Swinging his leg out, Tenya drove his heel into the back of Nobu's head, and smashed him face first into the ground.

Landing on his feet, Tenya turned and stood proud as he looked down at the twitching, but knocked out villain.

"Now… Where is Uraraka?"

Blood splattered the walls when in a flash of silver, Swordkil attacked. Kyouka was thrown to the floor, looking up in horror as Momo had pulled her back and put herself between Kyoka and the villain. She had started to create a shield for herself, but it was only half formed and hadn't offered perfect protection. The metal hit the ground in cut-up chunks as Swordkil's attack had gone right though.

Momo stumbled back, gasping in pain while new cuts along her arms and legs bled profusely. Swordkil laughed, a manic unhinged laugh, chanting like a mad man. "Slice and cut, slice and cut."

"Yaoyorozu! Get away from him!" Kyouka scrambled to get her bearings while trying to understand what the hell just happened.

Swordkil wasn't just acting differently now. His body was different. Sprouting out from his shoulders, ripping through his clothing, were four new arms, each one armed with the same swords as his original set. Swordkil scraped the six swords together, grinning insanely as they sparked, the scraping making Kyouka wince.

"He used Trigger," Momo hissed as she took a step back. "That must be it."

"Slice and cut, slice and cut," Swordkil kept chanting as he charged forward, all his arms swinging widely at Momo and Kyouka.

Kyouka was still on the ground, so Momo couldn't move out of the way, or else she would be cut into bloody chunks. Her back sparkled as a large pole pushed out from her back, and slammed into Kyouka, driving her backwards. At the same time, Momo quickly started making shields to protect herself but like the others, Swordkil was slicing through them before they could be fully completed. They were only just keeping her from getting diced apart, but Momo knew she couldn't just keep making the same thing over and over again. Sooner rather than later, she was going to hit her creation limit.

So she thought back to everything she learned from Fat Gum, and instead of trying anything overcomplicated, she went with her gut and ran with it. She skipped backwards, giving herself just enough room to work, and quickly created two objects. The one from her back was expelled backwards, while the other came out from her hand.

"Stupid staff! Stupid staff!" Swordkil screamed at the object, getting ready to cut it up. Even crazed, he still felt the damage to his pride after getting whacked with that damned thing. His swords swung and—

Clang!

Momo caught them with the blade of her naginata. The curved, slim katana blade was able to catch the attack, while Momo used the long staff portion to then deflect it away. The blade sliced through Swordkil's vest as he stumbled back.

Momo twirled her new weapon before she leveled it at the opponent, the blade pointed directly at his chest. "En garde, fustilarian."

Swordkil, even if he wasn't roided out of his mind, wouldn't have known what that meant. And even in his roided out state of mind, he knew that. So roided out Swordkil did what any roided out person would do when confused and angry. They screamed and attacked. was lucky that with the Trigger drug affecting his mind, Swordkil was swinging his arms without any real thought behind it. It was mostly left and right and he wasn't taking full advantage of the fact he had multiple potential combos with six different points of damage. That, and the fact that Momo had a weapon that could cut him up too also had the villain not doing all that he could. Self-preservation wasn't something that could get buried too easily.

Just need to hold out a little longer!

Keeping the blade always pointed towards Swordkil, Momo pivoted and spun the end as she fought off the oncoming attacks. She was holding him off, but she was losing ground fast. That, and her wounds were beginning to affect her more than she wanted to admit. Her arms felt rubbery and her legs quaked with every step.

"READY!"

The sudden call was instant relief to Momo. With Swordkil's next attack, Momo brought her naginata in, so that Swordkil's blades got right up close, but at the last moment she twisted it, so his arms crossed over. In that moment, the two were locked together. Motionless. "Take the shot!"

Thump

Thump

Thump

Three soft impacts were the only clue at first that anything had happened. Swordkil blinked, and turned to look over at Kyouka, the tranq pistol Momo had created and thrown to her raised and held in her hands. He looked at her, then stumbled backwards on wobbly legs. The blades around his arms retracted and each hand searched his body, finding a dart in his leg, gut and then the last in his neck.

Thump

Thump

Thump

Momo quickly created a tranq gun of her own and fired three darts into the villains chest. His eyes rolled up and he fell onto his back, knocked out cold. Momo glanced down at the gun in her hand and puffed out an annoyed sigh. "So uncivilized."

Then she remembered that she wasn't in the best of shape, and let herself slide down on the nearest wall and sat on the ground. Kyouka was quickly by her side, ready to help her in any way she could.

Ochako tumbled down, trying not to get flattened by the huge chunks of concrete. Peering through the dust cloud, Ochako realized that like the floor she had been on, this one underneath it was big, and very tall, two or three floors high, which meant she needed to slow herself down before she became a roadkill pancake.

At the last possible second, Ochako floated herself. Around her, rubble and other scrap slammed into the floor. It was still crashing down as her feet touched the ground and she released her Quirk's hold. To her side, the remains of the pillar, which had been floating down still under the effect of her Quirk, crashed down beside her, making Ochako wince.

Though she winced harder as something else slammed into the ground out in front of her. Whatever it had been, sounded big.

"Okay… Okay let's just see where we are." Ochako scanned the room. It seemed like some kind of convention floor, similar to the pavilion Melissa had taken her and Izuku to the other day. Inventions and gadgets were arranged inside the large room, some propped up for people to have a go. There was also a raised stage with something Ochako had seen before. The—

SQUEEEEE!

The horrific squeal brought Ochako's attention back to the center of the dust and rubble. Everything that had fallen was getting moved as something began to rise out of it. Ochako wasn't sure what she expected, but it sure wasn't what emerged.

Daigo, somehow, had taken the form of a giant demonic boar. Large ivory tusks jutted out from his snout, and his neck was draped in a dark black mane while his body was covered in purple fur. His front arms now resembled something closer to legs, but with clawed hands, while his back legs ended with twin cleft hooves.

The monster's eyes, red and burning with hate, zeroed in on Ochako, who gulped. "Oh fuck… You aren't still mad about the beer gut dig, are you?"

Daigo's roar was his answer as he charged, tusks and face smashing through metal and concrete as he moved to rip Ochako apart. Ochako, acting quickly, found the remains of the pillar and hefted it up, quickly swinging it around to smash the raging giant boar in the face. Instead, Daigo smashed through it, and Ochako was sent flying backwards, flying through stalls and displays until she hit the ground with a sickening thud.

"Oh ow… ow ow…" Ochako struggled to get back up, her bell significantly rung. But even with the ringing in her head, she could hear that monster charging after her. And not wanting to get run the fuck down was a very good motivator to get the fuck up and get the fuck out of the way.

Ochako took off running just as Daigo crashed through the spot where she had landed. "Look! I get it. You're a fat ugly piece of shit villain. But I'm sure there's someone out there with standards low enough to give you five minutes of her time. One to hump away and then four to sob in her pillow!"

SQUEEEEE!

…Why am I still goading him?!

Daigo raised his arm out and swatted, kicking up displays and gear and sending it out in a crashing wave. Ochako leapt up, trying to float out of the strike zone, but got swept away all the same.

"Shit! Fuck! Damn it!" Ochako cursed and screamed as she tumbled uncontrollably through the air, until—

BANG!

She slammed into something solid and she almost wrapped around it. Hitting the ground, Ochako rubbed her side, decently sure something was cracked. Reaching up, Ochako tried to grab something to help get her back up on her feet. Without really looking, her hand found something to grab a hold of, and she pulled herself up. "Okay… Okay, I need to figure something out or I'm… fuck?"

Ochako blinked as she looked at where she was and what she was holding onto. She was up on the raised platform in the center of the room, and what she was holding… "Is this that test of strength thing they were going to have All Might and Star and Stripe use?"

It was indeed that. Ochako was holding onto the giant hammer for the game, a mallet so big and heavy that only the strongest of the strong, real number ones, could lift it.

Diago roared as he charged at her, ready to leave her a red smear on his hooves and tusks.

Ochako, not really having a lot of options, pressed her pinky into the handle so all five pads made contact and floated the hammer. Immediately, the kickback made her want to puke. The damned thing was so heavy, it was brushing against her weight limit. No wonder people couldn't lift the damned thing. But Ochako didn't have time to think about any of that. Gripping the hammer's long handle in both hands, Ochako turned and raised it up, just as Daigo's head started ripping through the platform.

"FUCK OFF!"

She brought the hammer down, and the whole platform exploded into splinters.

As the dust cleared, Ochako stumbled out of the rubble, taking the briefest of moments to make sure the twitching villain with his head smashed through the floor wasn't going to suddenly get back up.

A soft ringing made her look back at the platform, and she saw the bell from the test of strength game had been rung from her swing. She smirked and hefted the weapon onto her shoulder. "Yeah, I'm keeping this."

Ochako glanced down at herself and saw that her dress, the horror and bane of her existence, was also thoroughly trashed. "Thank you merciful god." Glancing around, Ochako started looking for a way out of the room, so she could start making her way up the tower to follow after Izuku.

"Sir, what about everyone else?" Sam asked as he hurried behind Wolfram onto the landing pad, where their helicopter was waiting.

"The mission was for the weapon. If we don't leave now before the security system is reactivated, we won't be able to escape at all." With his free hand, Wolfram motioned for the pilot to start up the engines. The blades of the copter whirled to life as Sam rushed to get onboard, clutching the case with the device. Wolfram grunted as he felt David start to stir, and struggle. Frowning, Wolfram held onto him tighter, trying to make sure he didn't get loose.

While he was able to keep hold of his hostage, his pace had slowed. He was only halfway to the copter when Izuku burst out of the door to the roof. "Hold it!"

Izuku walked out onto the landing pad, eyes narrowed as he zeroed in on Wolfram. "Give Melissa's father back!"

Wolfram laughed. "I see. So you came all this way, just to make sure you could bring this traitor to justice." Wolfram let David fall to his feet. He was still bound up, so Wolfram didn't have to worry about him escaping. Plus, he wasn't going to be able to fight with him on his shoulder.

"I don't care about anything that's happened. Right now, the only thing I care about is saving the Professor!"

"Hmph, since when do people like you care for people like him?" Wolfram motioned towards David with disdain. Though there was something in his voice, that if Izuku had time to think about it, he'd guess there was a different meaning to that question besides the obvious.

"I'm going to become a hero! And a hero's job is to save anyone who's in trouble!" Green sparks crackled as Izuku took off running.

Wolfram immediately reached down, and from the roof, drove another pillar of twisted metal right towards Izuku. Izuku leapt up, sneakers skidding as he kicked his feet to run over the twisted metal. Wolfram immediately sent out more, the ends of which were twisted and jagged so as to skewer Izuku if they hit.

Izuku leapt off the pillar he was on, dodging the first one, but up in the air, he wouldn't be able to dodge the next. Switching from One for All to his Psychokinesis, Izuku quickly reached out and stopped the pillar from hitting him. Unfortunately the pillar he had jumped from twisted and slammed into him from underneath, knocking Izuku back so that he tumbled across the roof.

The pillar that he had been holding back was now free and rocketing towards him. Izuku righted himself just in time to pull his fist back and punch it with his right hand, the full gauntlet protecting his hand while he shattered the metal, showering the landing pad with scrap.

"Papa! Midoriya!" Melissa rushed out from the door behind Izuku and knelt beside him, helping him up.

"Don't worry, they haven't left yet, Melissa. We'll get…" Izuku noticed the white steam. It reminded him of when All Might was forced to go past his time limit. At this point Izuku didn't know if Melissa was at her limit because of time, or because of the whole situation. What he did know is that if he wanted to help make sure she didn't have to give up part of her life here and now, he had to get her father back. All the dust from Wolfram's attack was doing a decent job hiding the white steam, but if she transformed in front of these villains, there would be no explaining it away.

Don't waste time telling her it's going to be okay. Make it okay now!

Izuku racked his brain, trying to think of something that would give him the opportunity to save David. The issue was making sure Wolfram couldn't use his Quirk to pull David back, or worse, make those metal bindings lethal.

Gotta throw him off balance.

Izuku recalled the move All Might had used during his term finals. How, with a single punch, All Might had thrown Izuku and Katsuki off their feet. He'd also destroyed a good chunk of the test field, but Izuku was pretty sure he could do that. As long as he didn't use too much power.

Out of the corner of his eye, he swore he saw Melissa's body start to bulk up. So he snapped to it. Rearing back, he pumped One for All up, past the limits he'd ever used safely. He saw the red streaks of energy crossing over himself, his body letting him know he was going way past the limits he'd be able to handle safely. But he had to trust that Melissa's gift would keep him from hurting himself.

Izuku threw his punch, and the air cracked and shook as a sonic boom ripped forward. The roof underneath the shockwave cracked as it followed after the blow.

Wolfram didn't have time to react as the shockwave slammed into him, hurting him backwards. But Izuku didn't take the time to celebrate. He immediately switched to Psychokinesis, grabbed David, and yanked him back towards himself.

David slammed into Izuku as he grabbed him and the two fell to the ground. Not the most graceful rescue. But he had done it.

There, that should at least help keep Melissa from transforming right now. Sure enough, it seemed like Melissa was more concerned at the moment about checking on her father. There was still a little steam, but it looked like she wasn't about to blow now.

Okay, now to figure out what to do about the villa—!

The roof writhed under their feet as Wolfram, after quickly recovering and losing a potential asset for his cause, decided that if he couldn't be used, then he had to die. The roof twisted and then shattered, flinging Izuku, Melissa and David up into the air and over the ledge. As they tumbled, Wolfram bolted and jumped into the helicopter, yelling for the pilot to take off.

Izuku, suddenly seeing the city underneath him and the huge fall to the ground, did his best not to panic. He immediately reached out with his Quirk and enveloped each of them in green light. With no time to finesse things, he yanked the trio and large chunks of debris back, trying to pull them back to the roof and safety. Their fall stalled, just as they started to dip below the roofs ledge. Teeth grinding together, Izuku willed them backwards. He just needed to move them a short ways and—

Melissa moved, immediately breaking free of Izuku's hold. Putting her hands on Izuku's chest and her father, she smiled, and gave the two a *little* push. Easily flinging them up and over the ledge, while she started to fall.

As Izuku watched her plummet, he saw the steam billowing around her. Then, just before she vanished from sight, casually kicking off some debris to launch herself down, he saw her face. First, a reassuring wink. Then…

Landing on his butt with a huff, and making sure David was safe, Izuku turned to watch the helicopter rise higher and higher up into the sky, though he made no move to try and get them. Because even if he wanted to try and pull a helicopter down with his Quirk, he knew full well it was time to sit down, and enjoy the show. Because after waiting so freaking long, Melissa's gonna really mess those guys up.

And Izuku did not want to get between her and them.

A second passed, and Izuku swore he felt the building shake as a blue streak shot up into the air.

"Worry not, Young Midoriya! You've rescued the hostage, so smile! These villains won't escape! Everything will be alright!" All Might somersaulted upright after blowing past the ascending helicopter, making sure to put on a good flex, to really drive home just how screwed they were. "Why? Because I am her—"

CRASH!

All Might's victory speech was suddenly cut short as another streak shot up from the other side of the building, except this one didn't fly past the helicopter. Instead, Star and Stripe blasted right through it, shattering the helicopter's tail and sending it spiraling back down to the landing pad in flames.

All Might blinked, as he quickly caught up and dealt with his thunder getting stolen. He was about to caution Star and Stripe that suddenly cutting in like that could have been dangerous, but then he got a good look at her face. And wisely decided to not say a word.

That's the same look her mother gets when she's about to kick my ass… Leave it alone All Might. Leave. It. Alone.

As the two fell back to the roof, All Might chose not to listen to his own advice. "…You know, it's usually a good idea to make sure that you'll be able to capture the villains after, um… wrecking their escape. I was going to rip them out of the helicopter when I smashed through it… So how are," the helicopter crashed onto the platform, making a loud explosive boom, "errr, how are you making sure they aren't dead?"

Star and Stripe crossed her arms. "Trusting that the people who made that military helicopter designed it to keep its passengers alive in a crash."

Both landed and All Might looked at the burning wreckage. "You're trusting because of your knowledge as an inventor, right?"

Star and Stripe turned away from the crash, cape billowing in the wind.

"You're trusting because of your knowledge as an inventor, right?" All Might asked again, a little more desperately.

By the time the two walked over to Izuku, he had been able to undo the metal bindings around David. Izuku knew that he probably shouldn't be doing this, given how David was connected to everything, but the man just looked so defeated Izuku was certain there was no risk of him trying to flee.

All Might nodded at Izuku with a proud smile on his face. "You did good tonight. Catch your breath, and then we'll start making our way down to find everyone else."

"They stayed behind to hold off some of the villains," Izuku said, some worry creeping into his voice. He was starting to get antsy now.

Star and Stripe quickly moved to calm his nerves. "When the system was switched back, there were no alarms for any registered guests being hurt or worse. And now that the system is rebooted, even if they were still fighting, the security will have captured the villains. They're fine, Midoriya."

Izuku relaxed, but still said, "I need to go find her."

Star and Stripe knelt down, and put a hand on his shoulder. "I know. I'll take you down there. Don't worry,"

Izuku sighed, letting out a long breath that felt like he had been holding it the whole night. Finally starting to come down and lose the high from his adrenaline, and seeing that All Might was turning his attention towards David, he gave Star and Stripe a lopsided smile. "Looks like you got to let off some steam, huh?"

Star and Stripe's reassuring smile soured. "…Really? I take back every nice thing I've said and thought about you."

Izuku just grinned super innocently.

"That cuteness is only going to protect you for so long. Remember that," Star and Stripe said. Ending with a finger flick to Izuku's forehead.

The levity of the scene ended all too soon as All Might knelt next to David and asked the burning question. "Why David? Melissa told me that… this was you? Surely she misunderstood or…"

David shook his head. "I had to do it. They took my invention away… so I had… It wasn't supposed to be like this. Sam was…" David covered his face with his hands. "It wasn't supposed to be real. Just actors playing the part so I could get my device back."

"But why? Everything you've built. Your life, your family, why would—"

"Your Quirk is fading, Toshinori!" David looked up at All Might, his desperation plain to see. "I had to try and stop it, had to figure out a way to save you!" All Might flinched hard, while Izuku looked away.

"David… I can't… I can't be worth everything you're at risk of losing."

"If the world loses you, then things will go back to how they were. No one wants to think about it, but the world… We haven't had peace for as long as everyone wants to think we have. It was peace you brought us. Your influence spread over the whole world. We can't lose you, the world can't lose you!"

David's fists slammed into the roof. "There's no future for us if you're not still the pillar of peace. You're the only one who can keep us all safe! My invention, it would have given your Quirk its strength back, enhanced it without risking your body. You would have been your old self again. But… I won't have time to make another one before your Quirk fades completely… and when that happens… there won't be any hope left."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!"

Everyone's heads snapped around as Izuku jumped to his feet, his emerald eyes blazing as his face twisted. Every word he heard seemed to just strike the worst possible cords within his heart. Because he knew those words David kept saying, were cutting deeping into someone's heart. Growling, Izuku stormed up to David, and grabbed him by his collar, wrenching him up so that they were eye to eye.

"Y-young Midoriya!" All Might reached out to try and get the situation under control.

"How can you sit there and say those horrible things?! How can you not see that everything you want is right in front of you!?" Izuku shook from his anger, though he held back from shaking David himself, even though he really wanted to. "You're terrified because you don't know what will happen when All Might retires?! Are you really that stupid!? The answer is right in front of you! Every freaking thing you said drove you to do this stupid freaking thing was answered already! You want to know who'd be going to keep the peace All Might helped bring to the world, well, open your eyes!"

All Might wasn't sure he had ever seen Izuku like this. Sure, he'd seen the boy do some crazy things when pushed, but this felt different. This wasn't like when he was mad for himself. This was closer to when he saw him stand up for someone else.

"What are you talking about," David asked, his own anger starting to rise up. "What answer?!"

"HER!" Izuku swung a hand out, and pointed. Right at Star and Stripe. "Do you. Have any idea. What everything you've said could be making her feel?!"

David turned, and blinked. It took a second, but then his eyes met Star and Stripe's, and the man's body language, his face, changed. Recognition, understanding, and shame overcame him as he saw the hurt in her eyes.

"Oh, god…" Tears started to well up as Izuku put the man back down and stepped away. "Melissa, I—"

CRASH!

Suddenly a giant pillar of metal ripped itself free off the roof from where the helicopter crashed. Larger than any other before, it shot out and slammed into Star and Stripe, launching her off the roof and into the distance, her body disappearing from view instantly. No one had time to react as tendrils of metal cables ensnared David, yanking him backwards away from All Might and Izuku.

The two whirled around, and were shocked at the sight before them. The top of the building was now ablaze as the roof was torn apart. Metal beams, pipes and cables writhed and shrieked as they converged around the crashed helicopter. David was pulled into the mass of metal and disappeared from view.

From the top, Wolfram emerged, being lifted high into the air by the metal he controlled, his metal mask discarded, but now atop his head, was the Quirk enhancing device. "What an incredible weapon. With this, humanity would truly be doomed." His voice began to change, darkening as more and more power was pumped through his body. "My mission may have failed, but I can use this horror to rip down the great pillar holding up this damned world."

"He's using the professor's device? That's… an insane power boost!" Izuku didn't even want to think about the horrific strain he'd be feeling trying to move around that much metal, and yet Wolfram didn't seem to be having any trouble at all. In fact, he was dragging up more and more around him by the second. "All Might, this is…"

Izuku's eyes widened when he looked at All Might, and the white steam starting to come off of his body. Thinking back, given how long it had taken them to get up to the control room since the attack began… "Oh no. Your time!"

All Might chuckled darkly. "Not to worry, Young Midoriya. The game's not over, it's just the bottom of the ninth. This is when the good stuff happens."

Bravado. All Might could feel the strain on his body just from standing. It was almost like being back at the USJ after fighting that damned monster. But only almost. Back then, he wasn't able to move. Right now? He still could.

"Step back, Young Midoriya! These kinds of villains that don't know when to give up, are the most annoying to fight!" Launching himself right at Wolfram, All Might knew he had to end the fight right away. "TEXAS SMASH!"

All Might's fist didn't connect with Wolfram though, instead a wall of metal intercepted the attack, and before All Might could regroup, the metal arms punched out of it, slamming into All Might and knocking him back down. Wolfram scoffed. "Pathetic."

By now, almost the whole top of the building was under Wolfram's control, encircling him and giving him the visage of a demon clawing up from the underworld. Wolfram laughed, his voice like the cries of the damned. The power flowing through him was overwhelming, and alluring. His Quirk was empowered beyond anything he could have ever feared possible. He was a damned man, but if he was going to hell, then he'd drag everyone with him.

Ochako growled at the closed door, and with a swing of her new hammer, busted it down, exiting the stairwell and running out onto the suddenly open floor. She frowned as a blast of chilly night air hit her as she ran out. "Wait, is this the roof? I thought it was two hundred floors." Ochako looked around.

Following behind her, Momo and Kyouka pulled up to the rear, looking around with her. "Pretty sure we took a wrong turn," Kyouka grumbled. A little after they had defeated Swordkil, Ochako had stumbled upon them. Now they were all heading up, hoping to find the rest of their group.

This floor had no walls and was exposed to the elements. Above were multiple fans, which she guessed were for wind power. "Damn. Alright, guess I'm still going—"

"The fuck happened to you Round Face?"

From the other side of the floor, a group had rushed out into the open. Katsuki, Eijirou and Mezou rushed out, all three looking a little startled at the sight of Ochako. Behind them was someone Ochako didn't recognize. She had green fiery hair and a look on her face that was disturbingly similar to Katsuki's. "You fucking kids! I told you not to go any further!"

Katsuki snarled back, "AND I TOLD YOU TO STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!"

Eijirou rushed over to Momo and Kyouka. "Oh man, you got some nasty cuts on you."

Kyouka smirked. "You should see the other guy."

Katsuki turned his attention back to the others. "You all get your asses kicked?"

Ochako glared and rested the hammer on her shoulder. "I wouldn't be here if I hadn't won, you idiot. What are you doing here?"

"This is where the villain's supposed to be, right? Where the hell are the rest of the extras?" Katsuki narrowed his eyes. "Where the fuck is Deku?"

"And where's Todoroki?! You guys said he'd be with his friends!" Burnin growled in annoyance.

"We were forced to separate multiple times," Momo explained. "The villains were trying to stop us from getting to the control room."

"Iida, Todoroki and Ashido are all probably on their way to the control room. I'm sure if we get there too, we'll all be fine," Kyouka finished.

"I'm sure once we all reach the control room, we'll all be reunited and—"

Suddenly the building shook. The group watched as metal started to get torn away from the walls and floor. The giant fans were ripped apart and sucked upward. They might not be able to see it, but they could hear the groan and strain of metal getting twisted and reformed all the way up on the roof.

Katsuki sneered. "Who wants to bet that's the fucking boss of these shit villains, and that's where—"

"OH URARAKA WAIT!" Ejirou shouted as Ochako took off for the fastest way up to the roof.

"Young Midoriya, move!"

Izuku and All Might jumped out of the way just as multiple metal pillars ripped into the ground where they had been standing. Izuku scrambled as the ground under his feet seemed to come alive as Wolfram pulled more and more metal into himself, turning the whole top of the building into a weapon to use against All Might.

Behind him, Izuku heard multiple crashes and booms, as All Might went on the offensive, punching the metal pillars and shattering them as he worked his way closer towards Wolfram.

"Coward! Your fight is with me! Leave the boy out of this!"

"Ha ha ha ha! The Quirk weed must be ripped out, root and stem!" Wolfram's grip on his sanity seemed to be slipping. Lost as he was, there was little else he could do, but laugh. "Die! Die you sub-human monsters! The fires of hell await all of us, and I'll drag you down with me!"

"What the heck is he going on about?!" Izuku screamed as he leapt out of the way of another attack, pivoted and smashed the metal for good measure. "Mr. Abrahams was the same. Talking about Quirks like they were evil."

More pillars descended towards Izuku, who reached out and grabbed them with his Quirk, stopping them long enough for him to get his footing and jump out of the way before they ripped themselves free and crashed into the spot where he had been standing. But the shockwave from the crash ripped out, and cracked the ground under Izuku's feet, sending him spiraling to the ground.

Wolfram capitalized and sent multiple pillars to crush him, only for All Might to intercept them, putting his body between them and Izuku, catching them all and holding them back.

"All Might!"

"Now isn't the time to wonder about these villains' motives. Focus on winning, and then we can figure this out— hack!"

All Might coughed and hacked up a mouthful of blood, wincing as he could feel his body starting to scream at him.

Izuku could see the steam coming off of him like a smokestack, and knew things were bad. And things were about to get worse. Looking past All Might, Izuku could see Wolfram preparing to unleash another attack, doubling the amount of pillars All Might was holding back. All Might must have noticed too.

"Young Midoriya, run!"

Yeah, no chance of that happening, Izuku grunted to himself. Instead, his body glowed like an emerald star, as he reached out and held the oncoming attack back. The metal pillars twisted and groaned as Izuku held them, the metal crunching and straining as Izuku pushed them back, fighting to overcome Wolframs control, and at the moment, doing just that. Now both he and All Might were holding back two sets of attacks aimed to crush them.

Wolfram snarled as he felt his attack getting repelled, but instead of trying to overcome it, he simply sent out a third. "Die!"

All Might and Izuku watched the third attack come.

"Oh—"

"—Shit."

Boom!

Multiple explosions smashed into the three sets of pillars, turning the ones that exploded into scrap. More of them were then suddenly encased in a solid glacier of ice, while the rest were hit with something that punched a hole clean through them, shattering them into shrapnel.

"The hell is going on All Might? Why is this pissant giving you a hard time?!"

Suddenly not having to worry about the attack, Izuku and All Might turned to see who it was that had come to their aid, though they both recognized one of them by their foul mouth.

"Kacchan?!" Izuku was shocked to see Katsuki glaring at them, looking very annoyed. So, par the course. Shouto was also there, taking his hand off the ground where all the ice had come from, and last was Momo, standing next to a pair of cannons that looked like they belonged on a battleship. In fact, everyone was with them, though each had their own bumps, cuts and bruises. Kyouka, Mina, someone Izuku was only kinda certain was Moe, also known as Burnin, who was an up and coming sidekick for Endeavor, and then last but most certainly not least was, "Ocharakako!"

…

"What the fuck?"

Ochako sighed. "I told him he could use my first name. He still hasn't got the hang of it."

"…Break the fuck up. I'm not dealing with this shit every day for the rest of high school," Katsuki said, looking absolutely disgusted and horrified that this might actually be his life now.

"Don't worry, Deku! You'll get it eventually!" Ochako said with a cheerful wave.

"ARE YOU FUCKING FLIRTING NOW?!"

Kyouka groaned. "They are and it's as bad as you think."

"Can we focus on the big fucking villain?! What is wrong with you U.A. guys?!" Moe asked. "And Todoroki! I told you not to get involved here! Do you have any idea what'll happen to me if your father finds out you got hurt by a villain?!"

The amount of not caring on Shouto's face spoke volumes.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" All Might's boisterous laughter echoed over the rooftop, over the constant noise of Wolfram's Quirk ripping the building apart. "Now that all my students are here, I can't afford to just play around anymore!"

All Might immediately kicked off the ground, launching himself into the air and straight at Wolfram. In reality, he knew he needed to end the fight fast, before he found himself in exactly the same predicament he had been in months ago after his battle with the Nomu.

More metal walls and pillars were thrown into his path, but All Might crossed his arms as he blew past them. "Carolina Smash!"

The metal shattered from All Night's attack and now he was closing in on Wolfram himself. All Might was sure, one solid hit would be enough to end this.

Wolfram pulled up another wall. "That won't work either fiend!"

All Might smashed through this one as well, moving through the debris, ready to deliver the final blow. All Might swung his fist, just as Wolfram's body seemed to contort and shift. His coat shredded as his muscles swelled, and a deep crimson glow seeped out from behind his skin, giving him a demonic appearance. He crossed his arms in front of his face, protecting himself as All Might's punch hit his block. Tanking the blow with a pained grunt, since All Might hadn't expected him to have a second Quirk enhancing his strength, he was just able to keep himself from getting overpowered.

All Might gasped, "Multiple Quirks?!"

Suddenly he felt his arms and legs get yanked back, as dozens of wires and cables wrapped around his limbs, pulling him away from Wolfram and leaving him looking like a bug caught in a spider's web. More metal then closed in around him, crushing his side and making All Might grit his teeth in pain.

Shit!

With All Might trapped, Wolfram gasped, wincing as he shook his arms. "It seems I was right to make that deal with that monster."

"All for One," All Might snarled out, as he tried to pull himself free. But the pain of his weakened side getting crushed sapped him of his strength.

Wolfram lifted a hand, and the cloud of metal around him began to form and compress into multiple giant cubes. "Time for you to finally die!"

The cubes were readied to be hurled towards All Might, as he braced and hoped he had enough in the tank to weather the attack.

"All Might!"

All Might only heard her voice a split second before Ochako flew by him and landed on the metal around him. She briefly pressed her fingers together, giving herself her gravity back and and touched down. Quickly, she reached out and snagged the giant hammer before it hit the ground, removing its gravity and letting her wield it. She once again ignored the horrible things floating the hammer did to her stomach.

"Young Uraraka?! What are you doing?!"

Ochako held her hammer at the ready. "Everyone's trying to get up here. I'm just the only one that made it."

All Might whipped his head around, and sure enough, he saw his students below fighting their way through Wolfram's attack, trying to reach him. Katsuki and Momo taking the explosive routes with their explosions and cannon fire, Kyouka plugging into anything she could to shake it apart, Shouto freezing anything in his path and Mina melting holes as she scrambled around.

"You need to get out of here before—!"

The cubes of metal were launched even as All Might ordered Ochako away, not that she was paying him much mind, too focused on the task at hand. As the first cube neared, Ochako swung the hammer, the head hitting the truck-sized projectile dead center, and shattering it.

Bits and pieces flew by harmlessly while Ochako twisted, bringing the hammer back up in a reverse swing, shattering the next attack.

The third, the muscles in Ochako's arms bulged while the hammer was a blur, as the head was swung upward, sending the metal up into the air.

The last attack, Ochako screamed while bile bubbled from her mouth, "Home Run Comet!" Her counter strong enough to rocket most of the metal debris right back towards Wolfram himself.

The villain quickly acted to regain control of the metal before it hit him, though he wasn't able to get it all, cuts along his arms and cheeks showing the force with which Ochako had sent the metal back at him. "Little whore!"

Ochako let the head of the hammer crash into the metal platform while she bent over, clutching the shaft that was one wrong move away from shattering, and vomited. "F-fucking god… blergh!" Another stomaching empty wretch came from Ochako as she tried to catch her breath. All Might looked at her with wide eyes and it suddenly hit him just what she was swinging around.

"Holy shit, Young Uraraka."

"Plus… fucking… ultra…" Ochako looked up. "…Oh fuck."

Both Ochako and All Might watched, stomachs dropped, as Wolfram was quickly recollecting all the metal and scraps from the cubes and reforming it into a block the size of a large house. Ochako let out a guttural scream as she forced herself back upright and got the hammer up to swing, the shaft coming apart in her hands. The attack was launched, and Ochako and All Might were quickly swallowed up in the metal's shadow.

Until…

"ONE HUNDRED PERCENT DETROIT SMASH!"

A bolt of green lighting streaked by and collided with the metal. A lightning storm of green electricity ate away at the metal and in a flash followed by a thunderous blast, the metal was shattered and rocketed up into the sky, burning as it went higher and higher from the friction of its speed, until it was gone.

Then, with a dull unheroic thud, Izuku dropped to the platform in front of Ochako and All Might. Both looked absolutely stunned. Izuku however wasn't done, and as he climbed to his feet, both got a good look at his face. The boy was pissed the fuck off. Glaring up at Wolfram with enough hate to make even Katsuki proud, Izuku pointed up at Wolfram, the Full Gauntlet around his hand and forearm showing huge cracks and chips. "I'll never forgive you for calling Ocuraka that! Apologize, or else I'll come up there and rip off your head and shove it up your butt!"

There was a long, embarrassed silence before someone down on the rooftop just groaned out, "For the love of god, just fucking curse already!"

"Deku!" Ochako gasped.

Izuku looked behind him, and while still very mad, flashed her a thumbs up. Then his eyes snapped to All Might and he seemed to realize something. "Also, hurting All Might is bad too!"

…When did my welfare become second billing?

Izuku's counterattack had thrown Wolfram for a loop, and All Might could feel the bonds holding him loosen a bit. With a pained grunt, he ripped himself free and was up on the platform, rubbing his side as he started coming up with a new plan. Which seemed to default to, 'punch villain extra hard,' at the moment.

"Deku, was that really a hundred percent?" Ochako asked, her jaw now off the floor, but still in awe.

Izuku, his attention pulled away from Wolfram, softened his expression and fidgeted around, absently picking at the tech around his arm. "I mean… Melissa did say she made this to be able to handle a few of All Might's punches, so I just kinda…" He was rambling and sorta making excuses since he knew even with the tech, him suddenly going all out could have been dangerous. But, he also didn't want to come off like he was avoiding the question so… "Yeah… it was."

He waited for the reprimand.

"That was really hot." The way Ochako's voice had an almost husky tinge to it made Izuku chirp and his knees wobble.

"Time and place, you two," All Might cut in, trying not to let the second hand embarrassment distract him. Which was really hard. "Need to end this soon. Or else things are going to get complicated."

Both looked at him, and could tell he was at his limit. They needed a solution and they needed it fast. They could also hear Wolfram ranting. Yelling at them as he pulled in all the metal he had collected from the building, surrounding himself in a makeshift fortress.

"Okay." Izuku was back to looking up at Wolfram. "So we have to get up to him while avoiding all his attacks. That's problem one. The other one is, can we beat him without risking the Professor's life?"

Ochako blinked. "Wait? What?!"

"Wolfram has taken David hostage. He's… in there somewhere."

Ochako hissed, realizing the issue. We have the power to beat him if we get up there, but we can't use it if it puts Melissa's dad in danger… wait. It then hit her. "Where is Melissa?"

That's when everything shook. Not just the tower, which was constantly vibrating as Wolfram stripped it down. No, it was the whole island that was quaking. All Might quickly reached down to grab the two and steady them, while below, everyone braced themselves so they didn't take a bad tumble.

Shouto took the added step of freezing a few people's shoes to the ground. Momo quickly reached out and yanked Kyouka into her chest, wrapping her up to make sure she was extra secure.

"What the fuck now?!" Katsuki growled in annoyance.

"An earthquake?!" Mezou asked.

Momo shook her head. "That's impossible. I-Island isn't even connected to the earth's crust. It's a mobile island."

Kyouka, most of her view blocked from the way Momo had her face pressed in, did notice something from the corner of her eye, past the island's great sea wall. "Umm, guys, what's that?"

The ocean surface was swelling. Waves crashed as the surface of the water was pulled up into the air, dragging more and more water upward.

"If that's Godzilla, I quit," Eijirou said definitively.

"I'll throw hands with that giant lizard, I don't give a fuck!" Katsuki said, completely missing the 'are you serious' looks his classmates all gave him.

More and more salt water was sucked up into the swelling tower of ocean. The act defied all laws of physics and common reason. The swell of water now towered over the island, jutting up into the night sky like an ominous obelisk.

Then, the water roared as waves crashed over the surface of the swell. Its surface bubbling like a roiling boil, the water looked like it was coming alive. Gradually, the swell started to change; some parts receded in on itself, disappearing, while other parts expanded outwards. The swell was starting to take shape.

As more and more water moved, the shape started to become more and more clear; that of a person. A giant that towered well over the top of I-Island's central tower. Soon, that human shape became more and more defined. Large and defined muscles lined the body. Feminine features became obvious and then, at the top of the water giant's head, eight tufts of hair cascaded outward.

The giant had taken the form of America's number one hero, Star and Stripe. And if someone looked, and had either Quirk enhanced eyesight or a pair of really good binoculars, they would see Star and Stripe herself, right in the middle of her water giant doppelgänger's chest.

Looking pissed.

「The ocean shall solidify to become 1000 times my size!」

Star and Stripe reached out, her hand held out over the ocean, with her doppelgänger mimicking the move.

「The salt of the sea will crystalize and become—

Izuku was the first of the three to remember how to talk after it became clear just what the sudden water giant actually was. "All Might… Did you know she could do that?"

All Might shook his head. "No. No I did not."

"Soooo, what's she doing now?" Ochako asked when the water giant reached out its hand.

Then, turning at the wrist, it rotated a closing fist, like it was grabbing onto something. Even from the center of the island, the three of them could see something white start to form from the hand. At first looking like giant white crystals, they continued to grow and reform from the giant's hand and then upward from the surface of the ocean. At first, the shape was something none of them could guess, but as the seconds went by and the crystals solidified into a form, no one could mistake what the giant now pulled out from the surface of the ocean and held up at the ready.

Katsuki looked up, staring up into the sky. He even took the time to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. "Is that fucking Andúril?!"

Eijirou looked at Katsuki blankly. "Is that… a word? You hit your head or something?"

Mezou was all eyes as he looked where Katsuki was looking. "Are we sure we're focusing on the right thing?"

"Maybe Bakugou finally gave himself a concussion from all his explosions."

Katsuki sneered. "Are you two serious? From the damned books." The blank stares he got just made him angrier. "What kind of bitch asses don't read the Lord of the Rings?"

"Ooooh, did they make a book from that old movie or—-"

"I'll fucking kill you if you finish that sentence."

Momo looked up at the creation in wonder. Her voice regal and elegant, she recited, "'Reforged, from the shards of Narsil in Rivendell. The light of the sun shone redly in it, and the light of the moon shone cold, and its edge was hard and keen. And Aragorn gave it a new name and called it Andúril, Flame of the West.'"

Kyouka blinked and looked at Momo. "Please quote Lord of the Rings to me more."

With a sword of solid salt, the ocean Star and Stripe hefted the weapon up, clutching the hilt with both giant aquatic hands, stepped over the ocean wall, and strode forward, giant feet crashing into the giant lakes that ran around the city. With only a few steps, the ocean copy was now more than close enough to reach the central tower.

Wolfram was desperately pulling as much metal as he could to protect himself.

As Izuku watched the giant raise the sword up into the sky, it hit him. "Wait, does she know about the Professor?"

Swoosh!

The giant sword was brought down and cut through Wolfram's defenses like they weren't even there. Slicing through all that metal like a hot knife through butter, Wolfram's metal fortress thoroughly bifurcated, though the villain himself hadn't been hit. He was however reeling in a panic as he tried to recollect and regain control of all the metal around him. While he did, Star and Stripe reached out, and shoved a giant hand into the mass of metal and cables. When she pulled back, Izuku could see her pulling her father out, clutching him protectively in her hand.

"She got him!" Ocahko cheered

"HA HA HA! Masterfully done!" All Might clapped. "Now, I suppose there's only one thing left to do. With the hostage freed—"

"—We can smash that jerk's face in!" Ochako finished, smiling like a feral insane child. Or a student of Miruko, take your pick.

"Er… Well, I mean yes, but not how I'd phrase it…"

Ochako just ignored All Might. "Deku, give me your shirt."

"Yes ma'am." Izuku quickly went to work pulling off his tattered shirt and handing it to Ochako.

A little too fast to take off your clothes Young Midoriya! Also 'ma'am?'

Ochako, after snapping off the ruined and disintegrating hammer shaft, quickly took Izuku's shirt and wrapped it around the floated hammerhead, before strapping it to her fist, creating a makeshift, completely overkill, brass knuckle. Ochako posed with her new weapon, flexing her arm and doing a perfect Rosie the Riveter. Izuku openly gawked at his armed and dangerous girlfriend. "That is the hottest thing I've ever seen."

"And I get to see you without a shirt. Win-win." Ochako smiled hungerly and unashamedly.

"Again. Time and place you two." All Might looked down at his two painfully in love protégés and sighed. "If you two are ready?" Izuku and Ochako turned away from each other and looked up at him, their determination burning in their eyes. "Lets go!"

Wolfram screamed in rage as the three suddenly started running towards him. Still only just holding himself together, the attacks he sent out were wild and unfocused. To make matters worse for him, any attacks that might have gotten close were countered and destroyed by the other students. Everyone was doing anything they could to hold him off and create an opening for the three to get to him.

All Might was able to smash through anything between him and Wolfram while Izuku, with Ochako catching a ride as she held on for dear life, scurried and dodged around, zipping across the roof like a little bolt of lightning.

Wolfram tried to collect enough metal to crush them, but with another swipe of her giant sword, Star and Stripe scraped that. "DAMN YOU!"

Leaping up into the air, All Might, Izuku and Ochako were ready to deliver the final blow. Izuku launched Ochako before he kicked off after her, All Might right besides them, their fists drawn back. Wolfram tried to wrap himself up in as much metal as he could. But it was too late.

"TRIPLE!"

"DETROIT!"

"SMASH!"

The impact shook the tower to its base as the fortress Wolfram had created for himself exploded in blinding white light.

With a groan, Izuku slowly opened his eyes, as he tried to figure out what was going on. He remembered the final attack, an explosion and then…

"You know, you guys are lucky I was there to catch you. Otherwise the backpage news for the day would have been, two stupid kids make graphic street art with their guts."

Sitting up, Izuku turned to find Star and Stripe sitting on a railing, smirking at him.

"Star and Stripe? Wha… Wait, the battle! Wolfram. Your fa… I mean the professor! All Might, my friends! URACHAKO!? Where's—"

"Deku, I love you, but if you keep screaming, I'm breaking up with you and fight Tsu for Toga." Ochako groaned as she sat up beside him and rubbed her aching head. "Where are w—urk!"

Ochako gasped as Izuku wrapped her up and squeezed her in relief. "YOU'RE OKAY!"

Star and Stripe snickered at the pair. And while they got themselves oriented, she explained the events right after their attack. "So you won, you three pretty much obliterated that villain… and the top of the tower. It's going to take… like a whole day to fix. Maybe two." Star and Stripe pointed off to the side, and the two looked to see the ruined top of the central tower already buzzing with small repair drones. "I grabbed you guys as you were falling along with All Might. I put you two down here and dropped him off back home for… obvious reasons. Along with my father." Star and Stripe sighed. "Uncle Might will … deal with things regarding Papa."

"Deal with things?" Ochako frowned, not liking how that sounded.

"I'll explain tomorrow. Let's just enjoy the win." Star and Stripe smirked. "And don't worry about your friends. I let them know you all were okay. So was Melissa. Told them that they should head downstairs and get their injuries treated. I'll take you both down to join them after you've collected yourselves."

Izuku got to his feet, and helped Ochako up too. It was then he noticed that the Full Gauntlet wasn't on his arm anymore. He recalled, just moments before everything went white, the shower of red as it exploded off his arm. "Oh no! Melissa I broke your… ah… I mean…"

Star and Stripe laughed. "No worries, I brought you two to a roof that wasn't monitored twenty four seven. You don't need to watch what you say here."

Izuku nodded before bowing deeply. "I'm sorry I broke your gift, Melissa."

"Oh, don't worry about it at all. I destroyed hundreds of those things when I was training. That was just one of the early ones I still had in stock. I kept improving and making new ones, but after I got these," she flexed, "I didn't have to make new ones. But since your arm isn't shattered, I'd say they did their job. How many full power punches were you able to get out of them anyway?"

"Two. I got to throw two one hundred percent Detroit Smashes! It was amazing!"

Star and Stripe blinked. Even though the Full Gauntlet she had given him was the type one model, those were still able to take three full power punches from her uncle. So Izuku breaking it in two, said a lot.

Star and Stripe then noticed Ochako looking down at her own hand. "By the way, you obliterated the hammer. Congratulations, you're just as nuts as your boyfriend. Using something like that for a boxing glove. Absolutely insane."

Ochako laughed, scratching the back of her head. "I mean, it worked didn't it?"

As the three let themselves take a moment after their win, Izuku looked over at Ochako, hands over her head as she came down from the adrenaline high. He was captivated by her. Bruised and dirty, her dress torn to the point that it wasn't even really clothing, just doing a good enough job to cover what needed to be covered. He just wanted to…

Star and Stripe sighed when she saw the media drones start to buzz around. "Welp, looks like they already found us. Now the fun part can begin. What do you two say about letting me do all the talking? Less risk of—"

"D-Dekuhmmmm!"

Star and Stripe blinked and turned, before quickly turning away. Izuku had rushed to Ochako's side, and was now holding her cheeks as he leaned in and was giving her a very heated kiss. Which, after her initial shock, Ochako was happily and enthusiastically returning.

Star and Stripe blushed and, again noticing the flying media drones, grabbed her cape and raised it up, acting like a privacy curtain for the kissing pair, since she was sure the two didn't want themselves plastered all over new cycle with their lips locked. After a little while, Star and Stripe was about to drop it back down, but when she peeked to make sure the two were done with their kiss, they weren't.

"Ah-em. Sooo you done?"

The smacking of lips seemed to get louder.

"Now?"

Neither Izuku or Ochako were pulling away. No, now they had their arms wrapped around each other.

"Now? ... Okay you two, this is… You know breathing is important right?"

Star and Stripe stood there, looking completely uncomfortable as she was now responsible for making sure the two didn't make fools of themselves. Gonna throw both of them into the ocean. That's what I'm going to—

Hmmmm!

Ochako's hungry moan was the end of it. "OKAY YOU'RE BOTH DONE! NONE OF THAT! GIRL PUT THAT TONGUE BACK IN YOUR MOUTH!"

Ochako pulled back with a disappointed sigh, while Izuku looked a little dazed. His fingers brushed along his lips, Izuku looking amazed. "W-was th-that yo-your—"

Ochako licked her lips as she smiled, before giving Star and Stripe an annoyed look. "Buzz kill."

"I-I almost got a-a-a-a-a fr-fr-fren—" Izuku was broken, his mind skipping as he came to terms with just how close he had gotten to Ochako french kissing him.

Star and Stripe was able to get the pair back down to the ground with little trouble, moving fast so that they could get checked out, and their injuries worked on by the doctors and EMTs on site. Fortunately for the both of them, nothing they had couldn't be fixed up amazingly fast with the island's advanced tech. By the time Star and Stripe escorted them away from the tower, they were sporting some bruises and were sore, but had no other injuries to worry about.

After making sure their friends were all alright, Star and Stripe dropped them off at their hotel before she departed, saying she had a feeling her night still had a few issues to deal with. Izuku and Ochako, who now had been filled in, both wished her good luck. And that if she needed to talk, their door was open.

Izuku groaned as he got off his phone. "Okay… that's Toga and Mom up to date."

"Good idea to call them before we crashed… otherwise… yeah, I don't think those would be fun phone calls."

"No kidding," Izuku said with a chuckle.

"Ugh… what time is it anyway?" Ochako asked groggily as she shuffled herself into their shared suite.

Izuku looked over at the clock by the bed. "…bed time." Despite feeling exhausted, Ochako chuckled. Izuku started pulling out towels so they'd be ready whenever they were done taking turns with the shower. "Sorry your pretty dress got all torn up."

Ochako looked down at herself., "Yes… it's a tragedy."

"I'm sure All Might could get you another one."

"…" Ochako glanced over at Izuku, and could see he looked legitimately sorry for her, and was trying to make her feel better with the idea that somehow, All Might had access to a second dress. "You're sweet, Deku."

That was the extent of her ability to lie.

"I'll get everything ready, so you can take your shower first," Izuku offered as he started laying out towels for Ochako to use.

Ochako hummed. She had to admit, a hot shower sounded absolutely divine. Just what her aching muscles and joints needed. Plus, she could feel the dust and rubble on her skin. It felt like she had just come out from an active construction site, just without all the fun.

Yeah, a nice long shower sounds like just what the doctor ordered… Or a bath would be even better, Ochako chuckled, just lie in a tub and soak this crazy night away. It was too bad that taking a bath was out of the question.

Ahem.

Ochako frowned at the stupid voice in her head. She could practically see Himiko in her mind smirking and pointing. Rolling her eyes, Ochako turned, and suddenly remembered the fucking jacuzzi tub sitting in the center of the room.

Happy birthday bitch.

…Okay so what? Just kick Deku out of the room so I can soak in the tub? I do that and bitch would be the nicest thing to call me.

The way that voice hummed was really concerning. Who said anything about kicking Deku out?

Ochako blinked. She absently pointed at the tub, then at Izuku, her mouth opening and closing. WHAT?! So you're saying I should just suggest that Deku and I hop into the tub together?!

Again, I'm you. You're just imagining me with Toga's voice, so you can avoid taking responsibility for the fact that you are fucking horny and want to do all sorts of things to the innocent hunk behind you.

…Fuck.

That's one of the things, yup. The voice cackled. Look at it this way. If this was a mixed onsen there'd be no issues.

An… onsen…

Yup! So just because—

"Deku, do you want to use the jacuzzi tub?" Ochako suddenly asked, completely cutting off the voice in her head.

Izuku froze in place, in the middle of hanging up some nice fluffy towels for the shower, and some more in case they were needed. "H-H-huh?"

Ooooh, so we're just going straight in, huh?

Are you complaining?

Nope!

Izuku looked down at the tub, then at Ochako. "N-no! No, it's alright. I'm fine with the shower. But if you want to use it, I don't mind waiting down in the lounge for a bit. Actually, yeah, um… if you don't mind, I'll take a quick shower while you get it ready and by the time I'm done and out you can use it."

Ochako had seen the way Izuku's eyes had dilated, the way he had looked at her, his eyes going from her face, traveling down. A lot of her was exposed, but Izuku had been making a concerted effort to not stare. But she could tell where his mind went before he refocused. It was honestly so adorable.

"Deku, that's not what I meant," Ochako said, smiling as a blush spread over her cheeks.

Izuku pointed at her, pointed at himself, then pointed at the tub, and Ochako nodded. And Izuku promptly puffed out a cloud of smoke as a blush spread out from his face, covering his ears, crawling down his neck and over his very shapely pecs. Ochako took a moment to admire the look before she cut off the stuttering she was sure was about to come.

"I'm not saying we… you know, jump in naked." Ochako had to stop from laughing at the weird mix of relief and disappointment that flashed across Izuku's face. "And I know we don't have bathing suits, but… we have towels." Izuku looked over at them. "What if we… treated it like we were in a mixed bath onsen? We'll shower off, get off this grit and dust off us… then… we can soak in the tub together." Ochako could see Izuku was having many thoughts about this. A lot of them looked like happy thoughts. "And maybe we could… make out too."

Izuku thought about it. Was this appropriate? No, not really. In fact, this was probably really inappropriate. Even with Ochako's reasoning, it was still the two of them getting into a not super large tub together. And under their towels, they would be naked. And kissing. Izuku blinked. "Wait, I'm being asked by my incredibly hot and beautiful girlfriend if I'd like to get in a jacuzzi with her and make out… and I'm asking questions? What is wrong with me?"

You also said that last bit out loud kid.

Ochako snorted as she laughed. "Seems like you're not against the idea."

"N-no. Not at all…" Izuku gulped. "Just, um…"

Ochako could see some hesitation, and had a pretty good guess what they were over. "We'll keep the towels on, and we won't do anything either of us aren't ready for."

Maybe some clear boundaries were a good thing. Something for both of them to cling to, while they tested out some new waters together.

"I'll take my shower first, then you Deku. While you're in, I can get things all set up."

After turning off the shower, Izuku gulped nervously. His hands tightened the towel around his waist, because of all the unknowns he was about to step out into, his towel falling off in front of Ochako was not going to be one of them. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his heels making little splashes in the puddles on the shower's floor. Izuku hesitated to open the glass door and leave the shower, questioning his state of undress, and wondering if maybe he should throw on a shirt.

But you don't wear shirts in hot spring baths… Izuku shivered, despite standing in the steaming mist of the recently turned off shower. Maybe this is a bit much… Maybe I should—

"Deku?" Ochako's voice had a slight tremble to it, betraying her own nervousness. "The jacuzzi's ready. Are… you going to join me?"

Caution and second thoughts thrown to the wind, Izuku quickly exited the shower, almost slipping as his feet slid on the tile floor. Stepping out, Izuku tried, he tried his best, not to look like he was rushing. That he was completely in control of himself. He also didn't want Ochako to catch him staring.

He of course failed spectacularly as Ochako giggled when she saw how fast he flew out of the shower.

Izuku also failed not to stare. Ochako was sitting on the edge of the jacuzzi tub, running a hand through the bubbling water. She had one of the room's large fluffy white towels wrapped around her chest, with the bottom hanging at around mid thigh. She had also tied her hair up, so that her shoulders and upper chest were left bare. So Izuku stared, hard.

Ochako blushed, but didn't exactly do anything to stop Izuku from looking, nor did she take any steps to hide herself. She just smiled and reached behind her, pulling out the small complimentary bottle of champagne and the two flutes the hotel had sent them. "I figured… if there was ever a reason to have a little secret drink…" She snickered when she saw Izuku bob his head up and down. With the look on his face, Ochako was pretty sure he would agree with anything she said.

She had to admit she liked this power she held over him.

Though, taking her turn to stare at Izuku's waistline, and how he had tied his towel low enough so that she could see all of his toned abs, she got the feeling she could end up under his power too at the drop of a hat. Which gave her an excited little shudder. But those thoughts were for later.

Setting the glasses and bottle down on the tub's edge, Ochako got up, and keeping a hand on her towel, started to get into the soothingly warm and churning water. Izuku was quickly by her side, offering his hand to her, giving her something firm to hold onto as she stepped into the tub so she didn't accidentally slip. As Ochako slipped into the water, she let out a long, content sigh, stopping only after she was sitting down, the roiling water coming up to just under the top of the towel around her chest. Ochako's head leaned back, so that it rested on the tubs rim, and she moaned, "Oh, this feels soooo good."

Izuku almost flatlined hearing Ochako make that kind of sound.

"Hmmm, Deku?" Ochako smiled up at him, her eyes twinkling with mirth, love and a tad bit of lust. "Aren't you getting cold standing there? Come on, the water's great."

Izuku's head bobbed up and down as he nodded. He almost on instinct leapt into the tub to get in quicker, but fortunately, his brain wasn't completely turned to mush at the moment, so he didn't. He did take time to consider where he was going to sit. The tub could fit two people, though it would be an intimate squeeze no matter how they were arranged. Which, given everything else about the room, was most definitely the point. There were two places Izuku could sit, at the other end of the tub, so that he'd be facing Ochako, or…

Ochako moved a little to the side, freeing up some space.

…or he could sit right next to her. And given the smile she had on her lips, that was clearly what she wanted. So Izuku carefully slid in beside her. There was a lot of contact, even though he was trying to be careful not to jostle her, but as he finally got situated, Ochako just rubbed up against him anyway.

"Feels good, huh?" Ochako teased while she reached over and grabbed the glasses, handing one to Izuku and keeping one next to herself while she started fiddling with the small champagne bottle cork until it popped. "Ah! Here we go. Come on, come on, give me your glass."

Pouring Izuku a glass, then herself, Ochako held up her drink. "Here's to you. You fought a villain and didn't end up in the hospital."

"Hey!" Izuku complained while Ochako cackled and clinked their glasses together. Izuku sipped at the drink, the bubbles tickling his nose. The strange dry taste reminded him of the wine he had got to sip at the expensive dinner with his father's boss, though this was much… dryer might be the best way to describe it. It wasn't bad, though Izuku thought he probably hadn't developed the taste for alcohol yet. Maybe it would come to him when he was older.

Gulp.

Throwing the glass back, Ochako downed the bubbling treat like it was nothing. She giggled at the bubbles and decided that this was much better than regular old wine. "Oooh, I like this."

Izuku's jaw dropped. "Did you just… I think you're supposed to sip this."

Ochako rolled her eyes. "I'll sip on the next one." Checking the bottle she hummed, "Yeah, there's enough for one more each."

Not to be outdone, Izuku copied Ochako and quickly downed the rest of his glass, which after his sipping was only a little over half. Still, it was like someone gave him a little clubbing around the ears as he gulped it down. "Oh wow… okay, not doing that again."

Ochako snorted. "Lightweight."

"I'm fine being a lightweight. That's totally normal. How are you not one too?" Izuku asked, eyeing Ochako as her cheeks started getting a little pink, either from the heat of the water or the glassful of alcohol.

Ochako refilled her glass, but kept it on the rim. She did the same for Izuku's and guided his back to rest on the rim as well. "You're asking the wrong questions for a time like this, Iz. U. Ku."

Hearing her say his name in such a teasing way, made him shudder as an excited jolt shot through him. Ochako, snuggled up against him, felt that and she hummed happily, her fingers running little circles around his collar and chest. "Yeah, what you should be asking is, do you wanna finish that kiss Melissa interrupted?"

Izuku actually gasped, like a little boy being told he was getting a surprise treat. "The french kiss?!"

Oh, Ochako loved how excited Izuku was for this. Cupping his cheeks with her hands, Ochako leaned in and pressed her lips against Izuku's. First starting off with soft, gentle, kisses. Then, as she snaked her arms around his neck, Ochako's lips lingered on Izuku's longer.

Soon, Ochako didn't bother to pull her lips away from Izuku's at all. And when his arms snaked around her waist, she hummed at his touch, and slowly parted her lips, letting her tongue slip out and the tip lick across his lips, repeating what she had started to do earlier. She ran it across where his bottom and top lips were pressed together, delicately guiding Izuku to open up.

When his lips finally parted, Ochako's tongue slipped between them and found his. Hungry and delicate, the touches were wet and hot. As Ochako brought her tongue back, she moaned happily when Izuku's tongue followed after hers, pressing against each other and making gentle pokes and prods.

All too soon for either, they pulled back, giving each other a chance to catch their breaths. Ochako felt like her lips were tingling. Izuku's warm lips and mouth got her whole mouth feeling it. Eyes sparkling, Ochako giggled, "Dang Izuku. You've got some hidden talents, hmm?"

This close together, being held like she was, she was pretty sure the heat she was feeling wasn't coming from the steaming water. "Makes a girl wonder what else you can do with those lips of yours."

Izuku's mind was complete mush. No thoughts, only Ochako. That kiss, that intimate touch of her tongue against his, had taken Izuku for a ride and he was pretty sure he had seen god. Who was a goddess named Ochako. And mushy brain Izuku wanted more. Wanted to do more. Wanted to not just kiss Ochako's lips, but do something she had done to him earlier, but take it to another step.

"Ochako," Izuku's voice carried so much want and heat that Ochako felt it. She also shuddered hearing him say her name.

Through half lidded eyes, she looked at Izuku coyly. "Hmmm, finally got it right, Izuku?"

"Ochako, I want to kiss you like you kissed me in the Ferris Wheel. But… more. Can I…" Izuku's eyes drifted from hers and fell on her neck. "Can I kiss you here? I wanna give…"

Izuku licked his lips while his fingers lightly ran up and down Ochako's neck. Ochako smiled, and tilted her head to the side. "A hickey, huh? Do whatever you want… As long as," Ochako caught Izuku's eyes with her own, "I get to kiss on your neck too."

Ochako groaned deep in her throat as Izuku kissed and sucked at her neck. It almost felt like he was marking her as his. And she didn't have any problem with that at all.

By the end of the night, after spending more time kissing, drinking the last of the champagne and snuggling up, the two were tired, spent and ready for a good night's sleep. Though after getting changed into their night clothes, and falling into the bed, they didn't even bother to put up any pillows as a boundary. Instead, facing each other and holding each other's hands, they each had two thoughts.

Just how lucky they were to have each other, and that they really hoped the bruises on their necks blended in with the other bruises they had from the fights, so they didn't look too suspicious tomorrow.

Authors Notes:

Made it to my two-month cut-off by the skin of my teeth. Sorry for the long wait folks, but um, this was a doozy of a chapter. Breaking my previous longest chapter by about 3,000 words. But with such a long chapter, means I'm officially at one million words. Which is kinda crazy. Welp, onward to two million!
I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Lots a little things in this one which were a lot of fun to write. Been teasing that hammer for several chapters now, and it finally gets used. And it's by Ochako bashing some villains upside the head. If you're curious about the inspirations for the villains after they took the Trigger, Daigo turned into Dark Beast Ganon from Twilight Princess, Nobu was basically Gluttony when his mouth got all big voidy. Swordkil was Nnoitra's Resurrección.
So, there are still a lot of unanswered plot questions of course, but I plan to address those next chapter. Plan is that there will be either one or two chapters left of this arc. One acting as the finale, and the other covering events behind the scenes. Think Chain of Memories Another Side Another Story ;) Bonus points if you can guess who that chapter will focus on.
Thank you everyone for hanging around and reading my little fic. I hope you all will stick with it as I work to double and triple the story length!
As always comments reviews and critiques are more than welcome!
A huge shout out to my beta reader WereTech