Chapter 11

The Pall of Darkness

"The only real Heroes I see are Thirteen and Eraser Head." The shadowy vortex announced, as two all to familiar yellow eyes gazed at the class. "According to the schedule we retrieved, All Might should be here as well."

"So you scumbags used the press as a cover to sneak onto campus."

"Where is he? We went to the trouble of bringing so many friends here who are eager to meet him." The hand-covered man said in a surprisingly nasally voice. "They want All Might, the great Symbol of Peace. I can't believe he's not here. Well, maybe if I kill a few kids he'll come out to play?"

"This can't be real, can it? Real Villains? How could so many of them get into a U.A. facility?" Eijiro said.

"That shadowy guy looks like some sort of teleporter. That's probably how." Relm said.

"Regardless, why aren't the alarms going off?"

"Good question. I'm not sure." Thirteen asked.

"Is the entire campus under attack? Or just here? Either way, if the alarm sensors aren't being triggered then one of these villains must have a Quirk that's masking their presence here." Shoto observed. "Their fools for trespassing here. But they've thought this out. Whatever their plan, they must have a concrete objective in mind."

"Thirteen, get them out of here and alert the main campus." Aizawa ordered while unfurling his capture cloth. "Actually, if they have the ability to block our sensors, then they might be jamming our regular communications too. Kaminari, try using your Quirk to contact the school."

"What are you going to do? You can't fight them on your own. Even if you can nullify their Quirks, your fighting style is not suited for this. You're best in stealth and one on one fights. It's not going to help against a group." Izuku said.

"Well, he's not alone." Strelitzia said, raising Starlight.

"No. I can't allow that. You kids are nowhere near ready to face off against villains and monsters."

"But what can you do when..."

"You can't be a Pro if you only have one trick." Aizawa said. "Thirteen I'll leave it to you."

He then leaped all the way down the staircase into the fray. Strelitzia watched as he surprisingly held his own, his capture cloth grabbing Villains and swinging them around, crashing into other Villains and Heartless.

Meanwhile, behind her, the other students were making a break for the exit.

"I think I underestimated him." Izuku said.

"There's still too many of them." Strelitzia said.

"This is no time to be analyzing!" Tenya said. "We have to go!"

"There is no escape."

Unfortunately, their escape was cut off. The shadowy figure appeared before them, blocking their path.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. We are the League of Villains. I know it's impolite but we decided to invite ourselves into this haven of justice to say hello. And besides, isn't this a fitting place for the Symbol of Peace to breathe his last? I believe he was supposed-

He never got to finish his statement as Strelitzia interrupted him with a Fire spell. However, it had no effect, the fireball simply passing through his vaporous form.

"Interrupting me? So rude! It seems you they haven't taught you children basic manners. Still, it is no worry, we have plenty here willing to educate you!"

Fire didn't work. If he was made of gas maybe wind would. Failing that, she could try a Holy spell. She made ready to cast Aero only for Katsuki and Eijiro to leap into the fray, just as it seemed Thirteen was readying an attack as well.

An explosion rocked the walkway, however when the smoke cleared the shadowy Villain was unharmed.

"You two! Get out of the way right now!" Thirteen ordered, but it was too late.

"You live up to your schools reputation. But you should be careful children. Someone could get hurt..." The Villain taunted. "I'll scatter you across this facility to meet my comrades, and your deaths!"

Darkness flooded out of the Villain engulfing the class. She tried to counter but it was too late, she felt her feet lose contact with the floor, and then, without warning, she felt herself falling.

She reacted quickly, righting herself, just in time see that she was now in the middle of a stormy city. The howling winds blew her to the side as she headed towards the ground, though thankfully, she managed to grab onto a pole and spinning around it lowered herself to the ground with the aid of Flowmotion.

It was clear that shadowy Villain had some kind of portal Quirk. It was how the Villains got in, and how he had teleported her to what she quickly realized was the Storm Zone. The howling winds and battering rain made it hard to see, and water was rapidly flowing through the slick streets. She was quickly soaked though the enchantments in her clothes meant they would quickly dry once she was out of the rain.

"Relm?! Izuku?! Thirteen?! Mr. Aizawa?! Anyone?!" She called out, though there was no answer. It may have been because of the simulated storm, it was making it hard to hear even her own voice.

That villain had said he would scatter them. Meaning that they were likely elsewhere in this zone, or even other areas of the U.S.J. entirely. Either way, them being scattered was the point, so that the Villains could pick them off in smaller groups.

Strelitzia was about to begin her search when she noticed movement out of the corner of her vision. She quickly flipped out of the way as a blast of high pressure water slammed into where she had been exploding into a geyser.

Looking up, she saw Marine Rumba floating in the air, the Heartless surrounded by floating spheres of water, another of which it fired at her.

As she dodged again, a pair of Wyverns swooped down on her, swiping their claws. She ducked beneath the swing and fired upwards with a Fire spell, striking one of them with a fireball, blasting it away. Injured, it still righted itself, and moved back to the attack.

Strelitzia was again forced to dodge as the second Wyvern came charging towards her. She quickly moved away from it, and let lose an Aero spell, the sudden burst of wind sending it spiraling off course to wind up near the first Wyvern. Strelitzia gripped Starlight in both hands, pointing it at them.

"Thunder – Bolts of Thunder!" Small bullets of energy shot out of her Keyblade, slamming into the Wyverns as they tried to take back into the air. They instead spiralled to the ground, darkness trailing from their bodies until they hit the pavement and completely dispersed. As she observed, captive Hearts emerged from the creatures, freed to return to wherever they had been stolen from. Oh right. That was a new thing about Heartless this era.

She then was forced to dodge again as the Symphony Heartless unleashed another Water spell at her. However, when she went to shoot back at it, instead, she saw a flicker of movement again, and dodged a claw swipe.

As she turned to face her opponent she paused. This wasn't a Heartless, this was a person. His fingers were replaced with hooked blades, like claws, which he brandished eagerly.

The villain was quickly joined by others, slinking out of alleyways and buildings. One looked like a strange sort of humanoid dinosaur, another brandished sickles in his hands. Yet another had chains extending from his wrists and another a nail studded bat. The final was a woman that seemed to have electric cables for hair.

"Hey you lost little girl?" One of the villains taunted.

"Scared?"

"Why don't you come with us? We'll show you a good time, babe."

"Such nice curves… Such pretty eyes… Give them to me!"

"Our first catch of the day!"

"You're breathing too much. Stop breathing!"

"No! I wanna hear how she screams!"

Strelitzia felt a shiver run down her spine as she prepared to fight. This wasn't a training exercise anymore. These were actual villains intending to do her harm. Some criminals acted out of desperation or survival. These weren't those kinds of criminals. These were people who wanted to torture, violate, and kill her and her classmates for nothing more than the thrill of doing so.

Even worse, the Marine Rumba was making no motions to attack the villains. The Heartless were on their side. She had heard of this, how someone strong in the darkness could command the Heartless. This had just gone from bad to worse.

"Protect!" Magic wove an armor around her, and just in time, as the villains moved to the attack, just as lightning flashed and thunder sounded.

Two of them approached, the one with the bat, and the dinosaur like one. She sidestepped dinosaur-man's claw swing and struck him in the back with starlight, knocking him away, before turning to see the swing of the Villain with the nail bat bounce off her barrier. She pushed back, and she saw the Villains eyes widen as he was caught off guard by her strength and sent staggering back, barely managing to hold on to his weapon.

Not that it did him much good as Strelitzia then promptly swung hard at him. Starlight smashed straight through his bat and struck him clear in the side, sending the villain sprawling to the ground, out cold.

"What the fuck?!" One of them shouted. "She's not supposed to do that!"

"Who cares! Gut the bitch!" The dinosaur-man charged towards her again, jaws open revealing razor sharp teeth. Strelitzia leaped above him, swinging down as she did, sending him sprawling into the ground. She was about to follow up her attack when movement at the corner of her eye and was forced to dodge as the Marine Rumba hurled another Water spell at her. As she regained her bearings, she narrowly ducked beneath a swing from the Villain wielding sickles.

As he swung again, she blocked, only to her own surprise to find herself forced off balance. It seemed he might have some sort of strength-boosting Quirk.

Strelitzia staggered back, and barely moved out of the way of another swing, and then she was forced to dodge again as the cable haired woman lashed out at her, the crackling tendrils reaching towards her.

She didn't dodge completely as one of them brushed against her and she felt pain as lightning shot through her body. Her muscles seized up, and she staggered to the ground, her body tingling.

The Villains laughed as they closed in on her.

"Don't worry babe, I can make all the pain go away." The clawed one said, licking his lips.

Strelitzia ignored him, pushing herself to her feet as she backed away.

"Aero!" She unleashed a sphere of compressed air, though the target she was aiming at dodged. Instead, the one with the sickles brought them down on her. Even with her strength, blocking, she was forced to her knees. She saw the one with the chain Quirk extend his arms, and the chains lengthened snaking towards her.

Strelitzia prepared to desperately cast a Thunder spell in reprisal, aware that it might hurt her as well. Instead, she saw a trashcan smash into the Villains head, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"What?" The cable-haired woman shouted.

With the sickle Villain sufficiently distracted, she dismissed Starlight as she rolled to the side, sending the Villain stumbling forward once the resistance was lost. Now free, Strelitzia called back Starlight and swung at the Villain's repeatedly. Unlike the other two she had struck, he merely staggered from the blows, though she wasn't done yet. She finished off the combo by striking the ground and chanting "Quake!"

A slab of the concrete beneath them erupted out of the ground to slam into his face as he leaned over, flopping him on his back where he lay still, blood tricking out of his smashed nose, teeth littering the ground around him before they were carried away by the rain.

Strelitzia turned and was relieved to see two of her classmates approaching. Reiko Yanagi and Momo Yaoyorozu.

"Are you okay?" Reiko asked, though with both the storm and her soft voice it was difficult to hear.

"I'm alright." Though it wasn't like Strelitzia's voice wasn't soft either.

"More of them? More toys to play with!" The dinosaur man had recovered, along with the chain wielder, though the girls were ready this time.

Momo had already formed a bo staff in her hands and swung up, catching the dino in the jaw, knocking loose several teeth.

Meanwhile, Reiko let several ball bearings float out of her sleeves before holding out her hand towards the Marine Rumba. The metal balls shot forth like bullets piercing through the Heartless before it could get off another spell.

Meanwhile, the chain Villain shot his chains at Strelitzia, but this time she was ready.

"Magnet!" She created a strong magnetic force just behind the cable haired woman. The chains diverted course, touching the cable Villain. Her electricity traveled down the chains and the chain Villain screamed as he was electrocuted.

"What the hell you team killing fu-" The knife clawed one was cut off when Reiko hurled a car door into his face.

"W-what? You bitch! I-" She was cut off as Strelitzia let go of Magnet and unleashed a Blizzard spell on her, a chunk of ice and wave of freezing cold entrapping her and sending her careening to the ground where she lay groaning.

With the Villains defeated, Strelitzia turned towards her fellow students. "Did you-"

"Hold on, we have to keep them down." Momo said. She held out her arm and from it emerged several sets of handcuffs.

"Right."

It was quick work, and as they captured the Villains, Strelitzia asked if they had encountered anyone else on their way here. The answer was unfortunately no, which left them with a quandary.

"So what do we do now?" Reiko asked.

"Mr. Aizawa ordered us to get out of here. So that's what we'll do. We-" Momo was cut off by the sound of breaking glass.

The three girls looked around in confusion before they flinched as a desk smashed into the ground close by.

"What was that?!" Momo asked.

"Heart-racing!" Reiko said.

Strelitzia looked up to see one of the upper windows of a building was broken. "Up there!"

"Someone must be fighting!" Momo observed.

"If you make something for all of us to stand on I can levitate us up." Reiko suggested.

"On it!" Momo said, opening up her costume prompting Strelitzia to awkwardly look away.

"You do that. I'll go ahead." Strelitzia said, activating Flowmotion. She ran up the side of the building, entering through the broken window. She hit the floor and immediately swung as a Shadow leaped towards her, destroying it.

Looking around, she saw she was in an office, though one significantly wrecked. A fight had clearly taken place here, judging from the wrecked desks and computers along with the unconscious bodies of villains littered about.

Strelitzia then heard the sound of smashing in the distance, along with shouts and curses. The fighting was still ongoing. She took off, running though a hallway poorly lit by flickering lights, slashing through Heartless along the way until coming into an open room where the battle was still raging.

Standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by Villains and Heartless, was her bird-headed classmate, Fumikage and his Quirk: Dark Shadow. Standing next to him was Ochako, wielding a large signpost in one hand. She wasn't doing to well though, blood was running down her left arm from a large gash on her bicep and there was also a cut in her side.

Strelitzia still wasn't entirely sure what was up with Fumikage's Quirk. With its yellow eyes and black body, Dark Shadow looked like a Heartless. It had initially worried her, when she had first seen it, thinking he was utilizing the powers of darkness. However Fumikage Tokoyami was here to become a Hero. She'd have to learn more before making her judgment. Regardless, there was no time for that now, considering the situation they were in.

"Aero!" A fierce burst of wind surged through the room at Strelitzia's direction, blasting several Villains off their feet to slam painfully against the wall. As the others turned in surprise, Ochako took the opportunity to swing her signpost in a wide arc, destroying a Heartless and sending a pair of thugs flying and Fumikage directed dark shadow to punch several Villains, sending them sprawling.

"Strelitzia!" Ochako exclaimed in relief, before wincing, clearly in pain.

"Full glad are we to accept your aid against these evildoers and corrupted shadows." Fumikage said.

"What the-? There's more of them?!" One of the Villains exclaimed.

A trio of Soldiers rushed towards Strelitzia, only for Strelitzia to do the same.

"Fire Surge!" As she rushed, flames enveloped her, searing through the Heartless as she passed. She landed in front of a Villain who's arm transformed into some kind of metal ball to swing at her. She ducked beneath his wild swing and swung Starlight at his legs, sending him sprawling to the ground, where Dark Shadow slammed him back down as he tried to rise.

Meanwhile, Ochako swung her signpost again, smashing through a group of Shadows, as Strelitzia hurled Starlight, smacking into another Villain, sending him careening back to smash through a desk. She recalled the Key just in time to block a bite attempt from a Darkball and counter with a series of swings, destroying the Heartless.

With that, the Heartless were gone and the Villains were defeated. Just in time, Momo and Reiko had arrived.

"Ah, so it seems more have survived this onslaught." Fumikage said.

"Thank goodness!" Ochako exclaimed before wincing again.

"Uraraka! You're hurt!" Momo said.

"I can take care of it, get these Villains handcuffed." Strelitzia said.

"Right!" Again, Momo created handcuffs, and she, Reiko, Dark Shadow, and Fumikage got to work subduing the downed Villains.

Meanwhile, Strelitzia quickly moved over to Ochako and holding out Starlight, intoned a Cure spell, the healing light washing over her to close up her wounds.

"Did you see anyone else?"

"Y-you mean besides the Villains? No." Ochako answered, testing out her arm. "When we got teleported we landed on the roof of this building and went inside. Then these bad guys jumped us. Thanks by the way."

"No problem."

"So… we need a course of action." Fumikage said.

"About what those Villains said…" Ochako shifted awkwardly. "About killing All Might. Do you think they meant that?"

"U.A. is one of the top Hero institutes in the world. You've seen the security and the staff they have here. And yet these Villians are here. Not to mention how many of them there are. This attack wasn't a random whim." Strelitzia reasoned. "They infiltrated the school to test the security systems and steal information. They organized all these criminals. That takes planning. They wouldn't have gone to all this effort if they didn't think they had a chance."

"That black beast with them looks positively chilling." Reiko said.

"Indeed. That massive Villain might be their ace-in-the-hole." Fumikagi said. "And these creatures of darkness are certainly adding to the chaos."

"So… what do we do?" Ochako said. "This is insane."

"Well as I said before, Mr. Aizawa ordered us to leave, so we should do exactly that." Momo answered.

"This place is getting way to hazardous." Reiko said.

"What about the others?" Ochako interjected. "If they're not here, they were probably scattered to the other areas."

"Indeed. We cannot just leave our allies at the mercy of these evildoers and their dark spawn. That would be most unbecoming of a Hero."

Momo sighed. "But… the teachers told us not to fight. We should follow their judgment."

"Strelitzia. You're plenty spooky as the Class Deputy. What should we do."

Strelitzia looked at her classmates. Regardless of their own stance, they were looking to her for guidance. Fumikage and Ochako wanted to stay and help, even if it was dangerous. Momo and Reiko wanted to follow their teacher's orders and get to safety.

Unfortunately, Strelitzia couldn't agree with that. One of those Villains in the place was wearing a very familiar style of coat. She needed answers as to how she had arrived here, and this was the first lead she had found. She wasn't going to be leaving with out confronting them, or with out helping her classmates, orders or no orders.

She took a deep breath, and gave her answer.

"Yes, we should fight."

And so the USJ has truly begun! These fight scenes were fun to write, and I hope I'm getting better at them.

Question: Considering the changes, how do you think the the rest of the USJ is going to go down?

~Dragonexx