The baddest of the bads, Class 1A's legion of doom, the kids who nearly blew up the USJ, stood together in a line in the middle of an empty cafeteria, looking like pure evil. Izuku, the ringleader, satanic red aura emanating off him, looked ready to go ballistic. Hagakure, AKA The Night Terror, was close by. Though nobody could see it, her eyes dripped with venom. Kirishima, the spiked monster, was busy thinking up ways he could demolish the room. Aoyama, though he sparkled like a discount disco ball, was one of the cruellest of the bunch. Ouchie Aoyama, they called him, and he definitely put the "ow" in flamboyant. Provided you spelled it wrong. And last but not least, Bakugo. Bakugo was a… He was a, um…

Lunch Rush tapped his pen against his notebook a few times trying to get the creative juices flowing, but it seemed that the well was dry. Looking up from his page at the gaggle of awkward teenagers across the room, he started to wonder if this random assortment was the best inspiration for his novella. Deciding against it, he tore the page out and crumpled it up. There was just no possible way these kids could fuel his heroes vs. villains civil war AU.

The cooking hero was supposed to be in charge of these ne'er-do-wells, but luckily for him a new member of staff had insisted that Lunch Rush take a much needed break while he looked after the detentioneers. And if there's one thing Lunch Rush would never do, it's say no to a break.

The slender, blonde-haired man skillfully tossed a pair of exquisite knives into the air, catching them effortlessly before slicing a fish horizontally in one fluid motion. With a swift grab, he began chopping thin slices of meat, delicately arranging them as the students watched in awe.

He then tossed the knives behind him, where they landed perfectly in a knife rack, and proudly displayed his finished work. "And that, young heroes, is the correct way to fillet a fish. Any questions?"

Dumbstruck, none of them really knew what to say. Thankfully, Kirishima didn't really mind not knowing what to say. "Uh…Yeah," he began. "...Who are you?"

"Crap!" The mystery man shielded his face from the group in an embarrassed panic and tried his best not to sick up a little blood. This is a food prep station, he's not that careless. "I forgot to introduce myself!"

As if nothing had happened, he turned back with a cheesy grin and rubbed the back of his head. "Haha, sorry! I'm Mr Yagi, I'm one of the new cooks!"

They weren't saying anything back. Why weren't they saying anything back? The green haired one squinted his eyes dramatically and leaned forward slightly. "Hmmmm…." he mused. "Hmmmm….. Hey wait a second, I know who you are!"

"Ulp! You do?" Yagi said, trying to hide the concern. "This young man didn't figure out my identity already, did he?!"

"Yeah!" Izuku answered. "You were in the recovery room after the USJ!"

"Right! Of course! Hahaha!" Mr Yagi chortled in relief. His secret was safe for another day. "That's right, I also do some voluntary work with Recovery Girl from time to time! I was the one who cleaned that head-wound of yours, don't you know?"

"But I didn't have a-"

"Anyway!" Yagi interrupted. "For your detention service, you're all going to be helping me with preparing lunch for tomorrow. Hygiene first, so let's all get to those kitchens and get scrubbed up!"

"Kitchen duty?!" Bakugo blurted out in disbelief. "It already blows that we're missing heroics class for this garbage, and now you've got us making sandwiches for a load of extras?!"

Aoyama put a hand on his arm, "Hush, mon ami! Alas, we have done the crime, and must - as they say - do the time…"

"The only crime here is this bozo's fashion sense! Get a shirt that fits, you mff~" Before Bakugo could say another word, an invisible arm threw him into a headlock.

"Hey, watch your mouth! Don't you know who you're talking to?! That's All-" She was about to reveal a gigantic secret, but when she looked over and saw Yagi theatrically doing a zip it motion with his hand, she changed gears. "That's all I'll say about the matter!" she said, releasing her classmate from her hold.

Earlier That Week

Toru, trembling slightly in her school uniform, nervously craned her neck to the gigantic man ahead of her. He stood in complete opposition to how she felt, exuding an incredible air of confidence and strength. Toru on the other hand felt small, in both stature and emotion. The empty lot they stood in, (soon to be the site of a brand new McMight's Burger Bar), wasn't the ideal place for a life-changing offer.

"But… I don't get it?!" She said, her voice betraying her with its high pitch. "Why me?! I haven't done anything special, nothing to really stand out… Out of everyone at the school, why me?"

All Might's grin widened in his characteristic way. A little known power of the number one hero was that with subtle shifts in the angle of his smile, he could transform the emotional intent. Right now, he was a beacon of reassurance.

His presence seemed to fill the empty space around them, his broad shoulders blocking out the sun as he spoke. "Because you, young Hagakure, have the passion, the drive, the gumption, and, dare I say, the STONES to be the symbol this great nation needs! Nay, deserves! " He raised a finger emphatically, his voice booming with conviction. " At the USJ, I saw how you leapt into action without a second thought, without a hint of concern for your own wellbeing!"

"Well, I mean there was a little bit of concern…" Toru shifted her feet slightly

All Might posed in such a way it felt like a flag might spontaneously appear behind him, or an eagle might land on his arm. "When I look in the space where I assume your eyes to be, I don't just see a student. I see a young woman who dedicated herself to improvement. Dedicated herself to mastery of her craft!" He projected his voice like a seasoned Broadway star, the smile never faltering. "I see someone who took what nature gave her and moulded it, like a sculptor manipulates the clay syphoned from the very Earth on which we stand! You, young Hagakure, are the future of heroism!"

"...O-oh, okay."

"Embrace it! Feel the weight of the responsibility, but also the pride! You're on the path to greatness, young Hagakure!" He echoed (perhaps too loudly considering this was supposed to be covert) before reaching up and pulling out a single strand of hair with a poink sound "This is only the beginning. EAT THIS."

Toru was practically vibrating with excitement. "Is this the quirk?! I feel like I could vault over mountains! I feel like I could… I don't even know! Something awesome!"

Gulping down three whole bottles of water just to swallow the hair, Toru was now buzzing with anticipation. When you're on the cusp of inheriting the mightiest power known to man, it can be a little challenging to keep your cool. Consequently, she'd sprinted around the vacant plot about fifty times and was currently shadowboxing.

All Might laughed, "You bet that's One For All! You now have the collective power of eight generations coursing through you, and by the sound of it, you need to let it out!"

Toru put up her dukes, at the ready. "I'm game! I always wanted to see if I could take you on."

"Woah now, not so fast!" All Might put his hands up "Let's ease into it, shall we?" He paused for a moment and scanned the lot for something he could use for a demonstration, when he spotted a pile of cinder blocks. "Aha, perfect!" He exclaimed, grabbing a few and rearranging them in a tower, lickety split.

Nodding and cracking her knuckles, Toru eyed the blocks. "Any tips on how to, y'know, let the energy out?"

"Hmm," All Might pondered, his fingers rubbing his chin. "I always say, let it out with a roar! Shout 'smash' and trust your instincts to do the rest!"

Toru had been itching for the moment she could finally shout a battle cry, her signature move before launching an attack. She was in her element. "Alright, here goes nothing!" Hoisting her arm aloft, she prepared the karate chop of the century.

"SMAAAAAAASSH!"

Her arm descended with the might of a meteor, a weapon of cataclysmic force. For Toru and All Might, time crawled to a near halt, both brimming with anticipation for the unleashed fury of One For All…

Alas, her hand collided with the block's edge, sending a jolt of agony up her arm, "Yeeeouch!" she howled, nursing her wrist. "That freakin' smarts!" The cinder blocks stood defiantly unscathed, mocking her efforts.

In an instant, a puff of smoke revealed a lanky figure where the mighty All Might had stood. "Well, that's odd," he mused, scratching his head with a look of concern. "Did you make sure to swallow the hair?"

"Aaah!" Toru leapt back in fright. "Who the hell are you?!"

After All Might managed to explain who he was ("It's still me! It's still me!") and narrowly avoided being hit by a cinderblock hurled by a startled Toru, they concluded that consulting an expert would be their best bet. Unfortunately, the only expert in sight was All Might himself, who was utterly clueless. So, they settled for the next best thing: a visit to Nezu.

As they strolled down the street, Toru let out a frustrated sigh. "I just don't get it," she lamented. "I followed all your instructions, but nothing's happening. What if I'm not meant to have it? Maybe I'm just not worthy or something."

All Might flashed a reassuring smile. "We just need to be patient. Sometimes, the power within us takes time to awaken." He gently placed a hand on her shoulder and added, "One thing I know for sure is that you are worthy. And that's not up for debate, because I'm the one who decides."

"Thanks, All M- Oh, shit! I shouldn't call you that when you're like this, should I?"

"You can call me Mr. Yagi when I'm like this," he smiled. "That's a good point, actually. We need to discuss how much of all this is okay to tell anyone—"

Before he could finish, Toru's sharp eyes (were they sharper than usual?) caught a glimmer of movement on the pavement. A tiny snail was slowly trundling along, blissfully unaware of the impending doom approaching in the form of Mr. Yagi's boot. The snail, now realising its fate, looked up with tiny beads of sweat trickling down its eyestalks. This was it—the end. They'd never see their snail wife again...

"LOOK OUT!" Toru cried out, instinctively thrusting her hand forward. Instantaneously, a shimmering barrier sprang to life directly in Mr Yagi's path.

THUNK. Mr Yagi's face smushed up against the semi-visible wall, his expression frozen. "Hagakure…"

Toru tentatively lowered her hand, causing the barrier to disappear. "I-I, I've never done anything like that before! I don't know what, was that me?!"

Then, with a sudden burst of energy, Mr. Yagi threw both his arms up in celebration, ignoring the blood trickling from his nose. "YOU DID IT, MY GIRL! THAT'S THE POWER I WAS TALKING ABOUT!"

"Do you think I can do it again?!" Toru asked excitedly.

"I have no doubt!" Mr. Yagi beamed, his enthusiasm undiminished despite his slightly battered appearance. "Let's keep practising, and you'll master it in no time!"

The Present Day

Covered in fish oil, the sight of a laughing Mr Yagi still fresh in their minds, the detention group of class 1A sat mentally exhausted on the outskirts of the UA woods. Well, most of them. Bakugo had called them extras and gone home. It turned out that the ultimatum from Eraser Head had done some good; he was still being a huge git, but at least he hadn't tried to explode anyone. Aoyama left with him.

Due to the unpleasant fishy smell that clung to them all like a second skin, the outskirts of the woods were the only place where anyone could tolerate their presence at the moment. Not even those unsettling rumours about The Forest Goblin , a possibly malevolent spirit who lived in the woods, could faze them.

Toru lay backwards in the grass, continuing the explanation to her friends which we just so rudely interrupted. "So basically, the principal thinks the shock from the USJ gave me what they call a 'quirk awakening'. That's why I knew Mr Yagi already, he's an expert on this kinda thing apparently." She wasn't exactly enthralled at the idea of lying to her friends about this, but at least she was allowed to give them something . One For All might be a secret to the greater public, but there was just no way she'd be able to hide an entirely new power-set from her friends.

"That's incredible, Toru!" Izuku exclaimed, his excitement evident. "Hard light barriers? The defensive possibilities could be amazing!"

"They're pretty sturdy, too," Toru grinned. "I haven't had a chance to properly test how strong they are yet, but I'm pretty confident I could stop a car."

Eijiro sighed, shaking his head as he leaned back with his hands behind him. "I can't wait to see what my quirk awakening will be... Maybe I'll transform into a dinosaur or something."

"Why a dinosaur?" Izuku questioned.

"Dinosaurs are just awesome," the red-headed boy shrugged. "By the way, I invited Mina to join us. She said she'll be here in a sec."

Izuku's eyes widened, and his face flushed with surprise. "She is?!" he exclaimed. He quickly tried to tame his unruly hair by running his fingers through it like a comb. "How does my hair look? Is it okay?"

"Since when have you cared about your hair?" Toru asked. "Man, what is going on between you two? It's pretty obvious you've been avoiding each other." Then, she gasped dramatically. "Did you guys kiss or something when I wasn't there?!"

"No!" Izuku protested. "When would that even happen? The only time you weren't with us, we were being attacked by villains!"

"A lot of things can happen on the battlefield, Izuku." Eijiro offhandedly quipped.

Just then, Mina's voice joined the conversation, "What kinds of things?"

Toru shrugged, "Like Izuku being a big weirdo, but what else is new?"

"I'm not being weird!" he protested again, but to no avail.

"Actually, could I talk to you, Izuku?" Mina tilted her head to the side, inviting him to a quieter area away from the others.

"Oh right, sure, of course! Absolutely." Izuku blurted out, springing to his feet and dashing to her side with a speed that betrayed his eagerness. He was relieved; it meant the world that Mina was reaching out again.

As they slipped away, Toru raised her hand in a lazy wave. "Knock 'em dead, slugger." She halfheartedly drawled, before she collapsed back onto the grass.

Away from their friends, Mina paced back and forth ahead of Izuku, her anxiety evident in every tense step. Her hands fluttered nervously at her sides, unsure of where to land. After a moment of heavy silence, she finally turned to face him, "It's about what happened at the USJ," she began.

Izuku raised his hands in what he hoped was a calming gesture, a sheepish smile playing on his lips. "Listen, you don't have to say anything. I'm sorry that what I did scared you, but - "

THWACK.

Mina's knuckles collided with Izuku's jaw, the sharp sound of the impact echoing through the surrounding trees. The unexpected blow sent him reeling backward, his hand flying up to clutch his face in shock.

"Agh! Why did you punch me?!" he yelped, his eyes wide with bewilderment and pain.

"Because you're a dumbass, that's why!" Mina snapped, her dishevelled pink hair framing her furious expression. "You're SORRY that you SCARED me?!"

Rotating his jaw, Izuku reeled from the attack, his mind racing to catch up. "I thought that's what the problem was? My mom said it was because you didn't want to see me get hurt!"

"Oh my God, Izuku, seriously?" Mina rolled her eyes, her irritation mounting. "We're in a hero course, obviously I'm going to see you get hurt!"

This was getting more confusing by the second. Izuku shook his head, trying to make sense of it all. "Then if it's not that, then what?"

"That's what I'm trying to explain!" Mina's voice cracked, betraying her emotions. "We've been at school for two weeks, and how many villain fights have you been in during that time?"

"Uh, does the killer robot count?" Izuku scratched his head, his mind sifting through the chaotic events since their first day.

"Yeah! Yeah, the killer robot counts!"

"Then four. ...I think," Izuku replied with uncertainty, trying to tally up the incidents.

"Oh my god, dude, you can't remember?" Mina threw her hands up in exasperation.

"It's a lot to keep track of, alright?!" Izuku shot back defensively.

Mina clenched her fists, her frustration boiling over. "This is my problem! You're out there, risking your life! Getting into danger!"

"But I thought you weren't mad about-"

"My problem is that I'm NOT getting into any danger! I'm jealous, Izuku! Okay?!" she yelled, her voice echoing through the trees.

Izuku blinked cartoonishly, utterly unable to process what he was hearing. "You're JEALOUS?! That people keep trying to kill me?!"

"Yes!" The words tumbled out of Mina in a rush. "Everybody else keeps having these wild adventures! Your quirk levelled up like twenty-five times in the past year! You can fly now, Izuku! FLY! I can barely skate on my acid without eating shit!"

He could do nothing but stare at her dumbfounded, never even thinking to consider this perspective before. "You're… Jealous? Of me?" he repeated, hoping that saying it a few more times would make it make sense.

"Yes, alright?" Mina confirmed. "You keep getting all these amazing opportunities to prove yourself, and I'm stuck feeling like I'm falling behind!"

"But at the USJ, you came with me, we went for the villains! Doesn't that count?" Izuku asked, a hint of confusion in his voice.

"No, YOU went for the villains. I ran for the door," Mina confessed, her shoulders slumping slightly.

Izuku frowned, his brow furrowing. "Wait… Did you? I don't… really remember."

"That's because you went supersonic." The annoyance in her voice started to melt into something more vulnerable, and she sighed. "God, see, man? You're so used to doing this stuff you don't even remember the details."

"I'm sorry, Mina, but… I don't really know what I'm supposed to say? I thought you were mad at me for something." Izuku's voice wavered.

"I'm not… I'm not mad at you." Mina sighed, her eyes softening. "I just… Damn it, Izuku, I want to have an adventure! I wanna fight bad guys! I wanna slide down the sides of skyscrapers, I wanna ride motorcycles! I wanna be a hero!"

"Isn't that what we're at school for? To learn how?" Izuku asked, trying to understand her perspective.

Mina stepped closer, her eyes intense, and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Izuku," she said, her voice low and fervent, "let's do something stupid."

Izuku looked back into his friend's passionate gaze, watching the fire burning inside her. He saw the determination and longing in her eyes. A sight that couldn't stop him throwing caution to the wind.

Slowly, he nodded, and grinned, "...Okay. Let's do it. Let's do something stupid."

Meanwhile, across campus, fellow heroics course student Momo Yaoyorozu confidently walked up to the doors of the UA development studio, brushed the creases out of her skirt, and prepared to knock.

KABOOM!

The sudden explosion rocked the building, and it was a testament to the structural integrity of UA that the huge metal doors remained intact, although smoke billowed out from underneath. From inside, she could hear frantic voices and the recognisable sound of fire extinguishers.

"What on Earth..?" Momo muttered to herself, before moving to push open the door, which immediately fell to the ground with a loud clatter. Ah, maybe not as structurally sound as she first assumed.

Inside the development studio, various gadgets and inventions lay in a heap, the result of yet another of Mei Hatsume's 'experiments'. Mei had made something of a name for herself in the short time she'd been a student, becoming akin to an urban legend amongst the staff, tales of a genius inventor whose only barrier seemed to be conventional physics. Only her tutor, Power Loader, could attest to how much of it was true (which was a worrying amount).

"Mei!" Momo called out, stepping over debris. "What happened this time?"

"Creation! Perfect timin'!"Mei exclaimed, before coughing out a puff of black smoke. "We had a breakthrough with the robot head!"

She was referring, of course, to the robot which had attacked Momo and Izuku back in the hostage training exercises! Not that I have to explain that to you, you remember, right?!

"That's what caused the explosion?" Momo asked, looking over the scattered equipment.

"Huh, what? Oh, that?! Nah that was somethin' else. You reminded me though," Mei pulled a pocket voice recorder out and started to speak into it, "Nitroglycerin does NOT work as an alternative to cooking oil. Fried egg grenade moving into second stage of testing."

Clicking the button again, she put the recorder back in her pocket. "Anyway, yeah! The robot! Come look, come look!"

Momo followed her through the lab, gingerly stepping over the still smouldering pieces of metal. They approached a workbench where the decapitated head of the robot from the earlier encounter sat, the top of its head removed and wires snaking out of the exposed cranium hooked up to computers.

Pushing some papers to the floor, Mei climbed up on the workbench to pull a monitor closer, before hurriedly typing something on a keyboard. "So I figured out what the malfunction was-"

"Hatsume," Power Loader interrupted, "Team effort."

"Psh, right, yeah, we figured out what the malfunction was. This baby was reprogrammed!" She announced, like it was the greatest news she had ever heard.

"Oh my!" Momo gasped, "By whom?"

Power Loader took off his ridiculous headgear, placed it on the floor, and sat on it like a stool. "No idea. But listen, you can't go around telling everyone, alright? I'm only letting you know since you're basically the only person who gets Hatsume here to eat and she's gonna tell you about it either way."

Momo nodded, absorbing the gravity of the situation. "Yes, of course. But, I am curious. How was it reprogrammed without anyone noticing?"

"That's the craziest part!" Mei jumped in with excitement. "Whoever did this was a genius, they left almost no trace and the code actually wiped itself when we cracked this thing open!"

"But then, how did you know anything was different?"

Mei grinned, "System logs! These combat robots have automatic diagnostic settings, every day at the exact same time, down to the millisecond! But this baby here didn't match up to all the others! It was just a second off, but it was enough to make us suspicious."

"That's right," Power Loader added, nodding. "Whoever did this is not only highly skilled, but also very cautious. They didn't want their tracks to be found."

Looking at her teacher pleadingly, Mei put her hands together like she was praying. "Please let me tell her the coolest part, teach! Please please please!"

"Alright, fine! I hate when you do that… Yaoyorozu, this stays here, alright?"

Momo nodded, "Yes. Of course."

"It was reprogrammed wirelessly!" Mei blurted out. "No computers, no terminals! Someone, from I don't even KNOW how far away, got inside this robot's head and went nuts!"

Rubbing her chin, Momo thought about this for a moment. "Do you think it was a quirk?"

"If it is," Power Loader said, "It's unregistered. Technopaths are incredibly rare, a 1 in a billion chance, and all the ones we've ever known about could do little more than turn a tv set on and off."

"They're a super hacker!" Mei exclaimed happily. "My first supervillain… Ahahaha!" she cackled with glee. "Let the games begin, mystery hacker!"

While the inventor girl rubbed her hands with a manic glee, Momo smiled politely. Hatsume was… A lot, at times, but it was remarkably difficult not to like her enthusiasm. It helped that she emphatically refused to use Momo like a personal factory, saying there was "No thrill" in getting her to just make everything. After their first meeting, Momo felt an odd kind of kinship with Mei. In a way, they were both creators. They'd taken to eating lunches together in the labs, or rather, Momo brought a lunch and wouldn't leave until Mei ate something too.

"Would it not be wise to inform the authorities?" Momo asked, her tone even. "Surely they have protocols for these situations?"

Power Loader shook his head, "Until we know what we're dealing with, the protocol is to keep it in house."

"Especially when it comes to hackers!" Mei interjected, "Gotta keep this bad bad baby away from the civvies, you dig?"

Momo couldn't help but smile back, her concern mingling with a touch of admiration for Mei's relentless spirit. "Right, of course." She bowed to them both. "Then I suppose I'll leave you to your work."

"Wait!" Mei shouted, making Momo jump back in shock.

"W-what is it, Mei?!"

"I haven't eaten yet."