After the excitement and energy of their first Heroics class, they were somewhat disappointed to not only return to normal schoolwork but spend the next few on basic workouts and combat maneuvers. It was useful knowledge, to be sure, especially as they put into different groups to spar based on their demonstrated abilities, and got to do a lot more than most could training outside of UA, but it just wasn't the life-or-death battle simulation All-Might had previously prepared. Therefore, when a practice rescue training in a simulated environment was announced, everyone was excited. Even those who had no interest in rescue.
Would they be climbing treacherous mountains? Running through burning buildings? Navigating untrustworthy rubble with the guidance of their Pocket Monsters and unnatural talents? Aizawa-sensei was noncommittal about answering these questions, but he seemed to imply that the answer was yes. People were practically vibrating as Iida did his best to get them onto the bus in an orderly matter, making sure that they lined up and walked in a way that would ensure they wouldn't get in each others' way as they sat down.
While he was slightly embarrassed to see that UA's buses used a wide open seating arrangement that made that concern far less important than in a normal bus, no one commented further as they took their seats.
--
Izuku, out of habit, sat where he could keep to himself and not bother anyone, at least that was the plan until an otters' nose was pointed directly at his face.
"Hey, Midoriya, I was just wondering, because I've never heard of a 'Gyarados' before. It kind of looks like Milotic."
This sent the boy into a mild panic. He was doing a terrible job of keeping the secret of Outsider's Growth, at least inside of his own head, and his social graces meant that he had no way to save himself before another boy, he was pretty sure it was Kirishima, unwittingly did so for him.
"No way, they're just kind of sea-serpent shaped. Milotic's more like a fireworks display, as pretty as it is dangerous, while Gyarados is just a straight-up beast. Man, I wish I had a flashy Monster like that." Seeming to take a second to process his own words, he suddenly corrected himself. "Not that there's anything wrong with you, Metapod! You're my lifelong pal, and I wouldn't trade you for the world!"
It seemed a little silly to the Atavist; his Pocket Monster was in his pocket, or wherever the creatures actually went when they weren't summoned, and couldn't hear him anyways.
Izuku, as well as any trainers nearby, understood him perfectly. "It's fine, we've all had those days. You've seen how Gyarados can be, and as ashamed of it as I am there were days when I wished I had another Monster. To be fair, I think everyone does at some point, except maybe Bakugo."
"What did you say about me, Useless!?" The boy just named piped up.
"Why wouldn't he be concerned?" Asui sincerely wondered. "He's good, sure, but his Monster just looked average in power to me. If so many trainers think like this, why wouldn't he?"
"Have you seen his attitude?" Kaminari interjected himself into the conversation. "Of course he'd think he was the best, no matter what he had."
"That's because I am the best, spark-plug! And so is Voltorb! I'll kill for suggesting that he's just average!"
"Now that doesn't sound very heroic," Asui observed.
"Yeah, that's the attitude I was talking about," Kaminari laughed.
"Shut up, extras!" Bakugo shouted, only prompting more laughter.
Izuku stared in confusion. Bakugo was threatening people and boasting, but they weren't afraid? Or fawning over him? This school had already shown itself to be strange compared to his Middle-School years, but this was something else. It made sense in hindsight, and probably actually said far more about the people he used to know than the ones he interacted with here, but adjusting to this…it would take a while, but he felt that he would like getting used to it.
--
UA had another impressive building to show them. They might have gotten used to the ruined cities they used for training, but the Unforeseen Simulation Joint was truly something else. Great fires, an entire cruise ship sinking in a pool, a crumbling mountain, all of that and more had the teens gawking in wonder and admiration.
"Welcome, students," a woman in a spacesuit greeted them, "to the USJ."
Several of them just caught on to the building sharing an acronym with a major theme park, which distracted them for long enough that few saw the moon with eyes start to float next to her. With the spacesuit and the Lunatone, Izuku clearly recognized the Pro-Hero… "It's Thirteen, the Moon Hero!" Ururaka shouted in glee. "She's one of the best rescue-heroes out there, and her Pocket Monster is almost the same type as mine!" "
"Isn't she Rock-Psychic, while you're Ground-Psychic?" Izuku pondered, mildly confused. "
"Yeah, but Ground and Rock are almost the same type! We might as well be twins!"
Not really wanting to bring down his friend's good mood with an argument over elemental technicalities, he instead tuned into the Pro-Hero's lecture on the importance of knowing just how dangerous one's Pocket Monster could truly be.
"Cosmic Power," Thirteen commanded, causing Lunatone to glow and illusions of stars and galaxies to flit around it. "Now use Psychic on that rock right there," she ordered, pointing at a boulder presumably placed there for this very demonstration.
The children were politely impressed when Lunatone effortlessly reduced the stone to pebbles; it was a great display of strength, but not something that they didn't already know Pro-Heroes could do.
"Imagine that was a human skull," Thirteen demanded, immediately getting their attention back to her. "Imagine a human being, a fragile human being, nowhere near as tough as that rock that Lunatone so effortlessly pulverized, being confronted with that power. Imagine that, and then remember that that's the power level your own Monsters and Unnatural Talents will develop and you train with us. Imagine that, and understand why we restrict such training to those who actually use it. Imagine that, and understand why we try to take down the Monster and force trainers to surrender when they turn to villainy rather than going directly for them. Imagine that, and understand why holding back is just as important as going all out when civilians can get caught in the crossfire."
The silence was deafening. After giving them a few minutes to process her words, she continued.
"Each of you has a wonderful gift, giving you the power to save and protect, and we'll be teaching you how to harness it here at UA. But you also have a weapon, and never forget how dangerous it can be."
--
With that out of the way, and a quick conversation between Aizawa and Thirteen that none of them caught besides Aizawa muttering about an 'over-hyped idiot,' they walked forward into the building proper in order to practice learning how to rescue others.
At least, that was the plan until a flash of white light instantly popped into existence on the opposite side of the building, quickly formed into humanoid silhouettes, and then left a small army of gruff looking men in its place.
One would not be remiss to wonder what was happening, until one focused on the two most prominent of the visitors, one a Weasel Atavist and the other a trainer dressed in black clothing that covered his face and hair, where one would see the Alakazam staring directly at its spoons and looking angry.
"Is this another exercise?" Kaminari shouted out while everyone else slowly panicked.
"Get back!" Aizawa shouted. "We'll protect you while you evacuate the area and contact the authorities."
That was answer enough. They were dealing with real villains.
--
Shigaraki looked around, tapping his feet in annoyance. He had an entire villainous monologue planned out to terrify All-Might, but the overrated buffoon was nowhere to be seen. Hiding the Main Objective like this was a cruel move on the developer's part. Oh well, maybe he'd come out if the kids were threatened.
"Kurogiri, make sure they don't escape. Everyone else, attack!"
--
Aizawa summoned Hypno before jumping into the fray. Many of the children worried for their teacher, but that proved unnecessary when his own martial arts skills proved more then enough to evade the Pocket Monsters and strike down their mostly untried and poorly trained Trainers. Hypno himself managed to send a dozen to sleep before devouring something from their minds, then blasting another group with a wave of Psychic energy.
Some of the students watched their teacher demolish the band of villains in awe before Thirteen convinced them to snap out of it and run for the exits.
"Someone's blocking our communications, so we'll need to alert UA ourselves!" She shouted as they ran for it.
At least, running was the initial plan, before the Alakazam and its disguised trainer popped up right in front of them.
"We are the…League of Villains," there was a hint of a sigh there, as if the man were embarrassed by what he was saying, "and we are here to kill All-Might. I am afraid that I can allow any potential witnesses to our glorious deeds get away."
"Stand back, kids," Thirteen shouted.
"There's no way I'm standing down from this two-bit loser!" "Hell yeah!"
Bakugo and Kirishima completely ignored Thirteen and ran forward, the former ordering Voltorb to let off a Spark and the latter wielding Metapod like a club.
"Use Psychic while I deal with these two," Thirteen shouted in frustration, which was probably why she had no response when Kurogiri shouted "Mirror Coat!"
Both Voltorb's Spark and Lunatone's Psychic blast bounced off the fox-like humanoid and went right back to their trainers. Thirteen, trying to grab Kirishima before he got any closer to the dangerous villain, did not notice until the burst of power ripped her suit open and shredded her back. Bakugo, thanks to his Pocket Monster's attack being a lot weaker than Thirteen's (although he's never admit that), was able to shrug off the electrical burst, or at least what he couldn't dodge, but not quickly enough to avoid the villain's next move.
"Telekinesis."
Most of Class 1-A was lifted into the air, and then tossed around. They were scattered among the USJ's arenas, separated from their peers and unable to escape.
--
Tenya Iida was not one of them. When he saw Thirteen go down, his training with his brother kicked in and, leaping onto Ponyta's back immediately after summoning her, ran for it. He realized, unlike his boisterous peers, that he was not ready for a villain of such apparent caliber, and that the best option would be to go for backup, and thus he exploited his Monster's speed to do just that, evading the Alakazam while it thrashed his peers, gritting his teeth as his desire to help them and his desire to follow proper procedure conflicted. You are helping them, more than you would by staying back, he insisted internally.
--
While Aizawa continued to do well against the decently large horde of villains (in spite of the fact that they'd managed to breach UA and their numbers, they were all individually quite weak), some of the smarter ones were trying to strategize.
"I know this guy, he's Eraserhead! His Monster can stop Monster moves and spells, but he can't do anything against physical atavism or cyber-tech!"
"It's a Psychic-type, where are the Dark and Bug-types at?"
Fortunately for him, their attempts were thwarted by a chaotic environment and the fact that these goons clearly weren't used to working together. As much as it was mocked, the Hollywood cliche of mooks fighting the hero one-on-one instead of using their numbers to advantage was more accurate than you'd think; fighting next to someone was hard when you didn't know them.
While many ignorant onlookers would be shocked by his display and how casually he was dispatching so many villains in so short a time, in reality they were doing the majority of the work for him.
At least, that was the case until a Gorilla Atavist stomped right through his allies, and empowering himself with some sort of Atavist trick, screeched like a wild ape as he pounded his fists where Aizawa was standing.
This forced the Pro-Hero back, and required him to get Hypno to join him. The Atavist's raw strength was too much for his own martial arts to do anything more than dodge, and whatever effect the creatures own abilities had on its mind prevented Hypno's Hypnosis from doing anything at all, unfortunately. He might be in serious trouble.
--
A screaming Mineta flew through the air at (in his opinion) unreasonable speeds, until the strange energy surrounding him vanished and he was promptly dumped from several meters in the air to a large mass of water that looked no more appealing than simply splatting onto the ground, to be honest.
"Wurmple, save me!" He shouted, not having the presence of mind to give any more specific commands. Fortunately, it used String Shot on Asui. Since she had managed to latch on to the side of a half-sunken ship to escape her own fall, she was able to grab on to the webbing and pull both Pocket Monster and trainer toward her.
Mineta barely processed that any of this happened; all he knew was that one second he was falling to his doom and the next he was piling right onto something soft and pleasant, oh so pleasant, was this heaven…Asui shoved him off of her and tossed him to the ground.
Awkwardly guessing what he might have been touching, and cycling between a need to apologize (if just to save his own skin) and being frustrated that he hadn't been in the right frame of mine to properly appreciated it, he didn't have a real excuse. Not that one made itself apparent before Midoriya started shouting to get their attention, himself having gripped onto the ship's crow's nest for dear life.
"I can take care of him!" Mineta quickly shouted, ordering Wurmple to launch a String Shot and helping to slowly guide the boy down.
"it's funny," Asui noted as they all got together on the boat. "This was actually the place I was looking forward to most when I saw where we'd be training. I'm usually pretty good in the water."
"You are, aren't you?" Midoriya noted. Looking out, he wondered out loud, "so would they send you here, with a water-type like me?"
Neither Asui nor Mineta had an answer before Midoriya himself resolved the question to his own satisfaction. "They must not know what you can do. This attack didn't account for the students and their strengths. We weren't part of the enemy's intelligence gathering. They have no idea what we can do."
"Well great, how does that help us?" Mineta demanded more to control his own rising panic than to actually critique.
"It means that we might be able to fight our way out of here," Izuku answered, looking out to the water surrounding them and the thug-controlled Pocket Monsters that awaited them.
--
Raw power was useless against the monstrous gorilla he was facing, so Aizawa went for tactics. Noting that this guy had no regard for his allies, and had in fact taken several out by accident already, he chose to dodge and weave in a way that put them in danger and made the gorilla himself a target.
Shigaraki watched this with amusement. Eraserhead was so cool. It was frustrating, but fun to watch and observe. What could he learn from this experience? Hearing the whispers of the afterlife, whatever it may be, resound in the back of his head, he started his first interference in the fight with a simple spell.
"Wrack," he spoke in a language unknown even to himself when not using magic, and simply smirked when Eraserhead crumpled over in pain.
That should have been enough for the Gorilla Atavist to finish him off, but the idiot can gone and agro'd his own sides MOB's. It was some of his own henchmen that started attacking the gorilla, apparently fearing him. Worthless. He had proven himself far more than any of them had.
So annoyed with this was he that he looked to some whose bodies had been crushed, who were barely among the living, and cast another spell, another easy one from the Apprentice List, to carry them over that last bit to the other side. He whispered, once again in that incomprehensible language, and those who were close to death collapsed. It wasn't killing minions in a range. No, it was saving resources; he didn't need to use up his hands with these corpses here.
--
"Okay," Izuku nodded to his classmates. "I think I have a plan."
"Why?" Mineta asked seriously. "Shouldn't we just wait here until the adults come and save us? We're not Pros yet. We shouldn't have to fight!"
"The villains won't care if they decide to kill us before the Pros have time to show up," Asui noted bluntly.
Izuku, somewhat more concerned for his companion's mental state, pointed out, "she's right, we don't know how long we'll have to wait, or how long it will be until the villains surrounding us decide to attack. While we might not be Pros, we are training to be, and we have to be ready for dangerous situations. Besides, we're not taking them down to arrest them, just to get past them so we can escape."
Escaping sounded good to Mineta, so he did what little he could to steel his nerves and tried his best to listen along as Midoriya laid out his plan.
While his heart sank as he realized just how utterly insane this plan was going to turn out to be, he heard someone in the distance shouting that they had waited long enough for the 'brats' to do something and yelled as 'Carvanah' to go on the attack and prayed that he had the courage and all three of them had the luck to pull it off.
--
Aizawa suddenly found himself flaring in pain; there was no physical damage, but it seemed as if something inside of him was being rent apart. Something fundamental was being wounded.
Luckily, some thugs had gotten a little annoyed at the Gorilla Atavist running over them and turned to friendly fire, giving him time to think on it. Black Magic. As rare as that specific brand of Atavist magic was, he had spent enough time stalking the Underground to run into it before; it acted as both a Dark and Ghost type attack when directed against a Pocket Monster, making it particularly bothersome for Hypno.
With his familiarity, he was able to also recognize the only Atavist focused enough and seeming skilled enough to pull off such magic; it was the weasel that was standing at the front when the villains first attacked, but whom had kept to himself, merely observing the battlefield, ever since.
Apparently he decided to join the fight. Luckily, that meant Hypno could pull off Eraserhead's signature move.
"Disable!" He shouted, pointing out the Weasel. A flash of yellow burst from Hypno's fingers, and the Weasel started cursing in frustration as the pain that assailed Aizawa vanished.
--
Cutting off a spell like that, without even the spells of 'Privilege' that most wizards learned. Eraserhead was too cool. It was irritating. Oh well, if that spell was nerfed, then another would have to do. He'd meant to use it anyways.
Leaping to the side to avoid being 'disabled' again, or vulnerable to any attacks now that he had the trainer's attention, he quietly chanted under his breath, cursing and twisting the barrier between life and death, warping the forces that kept the living alive and the dead still, and sent forth the Black Energy into the corpses he had created earlier.
--
Aizawa didn't have that much time to focus on the leader before the frustrating Gorilla from earlier came to attack him once again, but thanks to its 'allies' it was now weakened and bloodied. He could certainly have taken it on with Hypno by his side, it it weren't the for the moaning. Someone, downed with a broken leg, lurched upward, completely ignoring his shattered bones and standing upright. Another, who had his hip crushed by the Gorilla's fight, found no problem leaping and shambling. Zombies? But I haven't been killing anyone!
He could accept intellectually that some had died due to his actions, but he was being as careful as he could be in the circumstances; there was no way that this many casualties…had the Black Wizard been killing his own minions subtly? Was there no low that a villain wouldn't sink to?
Dismissing the worthless thought (he knew full well how awful villains could be), he instead dodged out of the way of a hand swiping at him as if it were clawed and dodging another person trying to bite him.
--
Right now, the only thing keeping Izuku, Asui, and Mineta safe from a veritable army of weak but vicious Water-type Pocket Monsters was an imitation of a wrecked boat. Naturally, the most unpredictable plan they could come up with would be to destroy it.
Asui, calling on her primal urges within, leapt much farther than even her impressive muscles would to leave the boat and take to the water, surprising several villains who thought they'd all be easy picking. As she flitted and darted about beneath the surface, her otter half letting her swim circles around even the aquatic Monsters, she found herself as amused as she was terrified.
By itself, there was no way that this could last forever; the villains would take her out through sheer numbers, and she'd get tired from having to dodge them constantly like this even if that weren't true. Fortunately for her, she only had to avoid them long enough to get out of the blast zone, which was more than easy enough considering their relative skill levels.
--
Mineta held Wurmple, a String Shot connecting them to the ceiling, while Izuku held onto Mineta with one hand. The smaller boy was regretting cheating at the gym right now. Midoriya, less concerned about that and instead focusing on the boat beneath him, activated Outsider's Growth and let Gyarados do his thing; sure enough, the massive draconic serpent smashed through the half-sunken vessel, sending debris flying everywhere and creating a vacuum in the middle of the pool that caught the majority of their enemies' Pocket Monsters.
As far as they could see, Asui was the only one strong enough to resist the sudden vortex; hopefully she still would be with two boys to carry, as Mineta couldn't swing them all the way to the edge of the enormous pull with Wurmple's current strength. Midoriya, being Midoriya, lost control of Gyarados almost immediately, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise when its tail smacked into them and sent them flying toward Asui's location. Maybe he had more influence than he thought.
Asui was proud of her strength and swimming skills, but also honest enough to admit that she probably wouldn't have made it without tapping into the deepest reserves of strength she held, and even then only because the vacuum didn't take her by surprise. She could feel the animal taking over.
It was a good thing otters weren't that aggressive, or Mineta and Midoriya might have been in trouble when they grabbed onto her tail and relied on her physical gifts to bring them to shore.
When she collapsed on the side of the pool, utterly exhausted, she would later opine that it was only the fact that their opponents were a bunch of trainers without their Monsters that they didn't die right then and there.
As it was, smoke were screaming in frustrating when their beasts were caught up in the whirlpool, others were panicking at the size and appearance of Midoriya's Monster, and the rest were screaming in pain as Mineta, surprisingly the one of the trio in the best state to immediately start fighting again, ordered Wurmple to launch Poison Sting after Poison Sting into the crowd of villains.
"What do we do? I can't see Shellder anywhere!" One villain shouted.
"Gyarados, attack!" Midoriya screamed before anyone could answer.
Izuku had no idea whether or not Gyarados was loyal to him today, he was planning to attack the large horde of villains anyway, or whether his Monster just decided to let out the biggest roar it was capable of mustering, but regardless that roar was more than enough to send the villains around the shipwreck zone running for it.
--
Milotic was utterly exhausted. It wasn't All-Might's fault; well, actually, it was completely All-Might's fault, but it was for an understandable reason. There were so many problems in the city, minor villain attacks, people caught in accidents, and just so many other crises that he was the most qualified person to resolve. It would be an insult to his ideals to ignore it, even if it conflicted with his new job and duty to young Midoriya. Thirteen and Aizawa would probably do better as rescue teachers anyway.
Those were the justifications he planned to use when Nedzu asked to speak with him about clocking in so late, but something about the principal's demeanor utterly silenced him. The Mouse-Atavist wasn't being outwardly intimidating in any way, but the casual manner in which he drank tea while asking All-Might about what he'd been doing this morning and whether he could really afford to do so somehow made the Number One Pro-Hero feel like a child being admonished for stealing a cookie.
It was almost a relief when young Iida burst through the door. Unfortunately, what Iida had to tell them destroyed any positive feelings his interrupting may have caused.
All-Might let every justification for his earlier actions die within; while he hated to do it, Milotic had to be utilized once more. Whether her exhaustion let her operate at a high enough level was just something he would have to deal with. As Nedzu left to organize the rest of UA's staff, All-Might himself charged toward the USJ, his beleaguered Monster reluctantly racing with him.
His prayers were all centered on young Midoriya, and whether his mistake might cause him to show up too late and unprepared.