Things on the island were looking pretty bad. The villains had gotten away, the islanders were in need of more evacuation then we could manage. Midoriya and Bakugou had been badly injured in the fight. I stayed with Kaminari and Jirou to create supplies for the injured, but it was putting a terrible strain on my quirk. Jirou came over to me, put a hand on my shoulder and steered me towards sitting down.

"What if the villains attack here next?" Asked one of the children that had been rescued.

"There's no need to be concerned. If that happens, I promise we'll do our best to protect you."

"It's a good thing there are so many vegetables on the island."

"What did they do with the villain we captured?"

"Oh. He's chained up in the basement boiler room. But he refuses to talk. Hasn't said a word."

We regrouped with Iida to discuss things and decide what to do.

" Here's the current situation. Communications are down and the electrical grid is destroyed. We can't call for help."

I sighed. "I made a drone earlier. It'll send an SOS message once it's close to the mainland. But the flight is at least six hours. Plus, even after someone comes across it, the heroes will need time to assemble and travel to us. In the meantime, I doubt the villains are gonna sit around and wait."

Iida nodded. "Right now, our top priority is to protect the people of the island. If that means fighting villains, so be it."

"Yeah, but how?"

Mineta whined, "The one guy beat up Midoriya and Bakugo so much that they almost didn't survive."

"Four of us took on the beast. And that wasn't enough. And our numbers are dropping," said Todoroki.

Jirou sighed. "Yao-momo and Kaminari both used up a lot of their Quirks already."

"Yay," said Kaminari.

"We know there are at least three villains left, but there could be more. If they attack us together, we probably don't stand a chance."

"It would help if we knew what the villains were after."

Uraraka nodded. "Mm-hm. Then we could come up with a plan."

The little boy piped up.

" I know what the villains are after. It's me."

We all turned to look at him.

"What did you say?"

" That bad guy said he wanted to steal my Quirk."

'So, it's power theft. He has the same Quirk as All For One."

"Okay, at least we know why they're here."

"We can just, like, take the boy and run away—"

Todoroki interrupted. "It's not going to be that easy. These guys are serious.

What if they start making threats? They could end up killing somebody if we don't hand him over."

"So what're we supposed to do?" Said Mineta.

"You have to hand me over to the villains!" Said the little boy.

"What?" Uraraka gasped.

"He said he wouldn't kill me. And it's fine if I end up losing my Quirk. As long as it means everyone on the island is safe."

"No, we can't do that," said Midoriya.

" Deku!" Uraraka cried out as he and Bakugou both joined us. They were - somehow - completely healed?

Iida stared. "Midoriya! You're okay?"

"And it's all thanks to Katsuma's power."

"Not with my Quirk. It's no good for hero stuff," said the boy.

"You can activate cells. It speeds up regeneration and enhances physical performance. Thanks to your Quirk, I recovered super quickly! It's an amazing

ability, Katsuma. I'm so grateful."

"You really mean it?"

"We're not gonna let anything scary happen to you. That's the whole reason we came to this island, right?"

Bakugou added, "Why are you losers so on edge? All we gotta do is k*ll some stupid villains, right?"

He and Midoriya turned to look at each other, as if there was some unspoken message carrying between them.

"Bakugo!"

"Don't worry. We'll definitely protect you two."

"The villains are as good as dead."

"And we'll keep everyone else on the island safe, too!"

"Obviously we'll win."

The despair - that feeling of panic - seemed to be lifting from everyone.

" I agree with both of you. I'll help however I can."

"Me, too!"

"I'll protect the people with everything I've got!"

"We have to fight!"

"Heck yeah."

"I can't fix Mr. Matsuda's tractor if he's not around," joked Kaminari.

"You can count me in."

"Granny Sato still has plenty of years left ahead of her."

"I've got your backs."

"Me, too."

"Awesome!"

"Let's stop 'em!"

"I'm in."

"Yeah."

"Um, obvi!"

"Ribbit."

"Let's do this, you guys!"

"I know we can!"

" Moi aussi!"

" We're heroes, right?"

"We'll overcome the impossible."

"It's just like we always say. We are going to go beyond!"

And all together, "Plus Ultra!"

…

We assembled on the cliff to keep a watch out.

Todoroki asked, "What's the plan, Midoriya?"

"We know there are at least three villains here. If we use the castle ruins on the edge of this cliff as our base, that leaves only one route for the villains to reach us. When they approach, we'll split them up with a preemptive strike. Use the terrain to our advantage."

"Then we blast 'em to hell," said Bakugou.

"The civilians can hole up in the cave on the side of the cliff. We'll personally guard Katsuma and Mahoro. We should also secure an escape route in case it comes to that."

"How're we going to deal with the villain who has multiple Quirks?"

Midoriya explained, "In the middle of our fight with him, it looked like he suddenly doubled over in pain. Using all those powers one after the other was probably too

hard on his body. I bet that's why he's trying to steal Katsuma's cell activation ability."

"] I see. So we simply exhaust him," said Todoroki.

"We'll attack him in waves and make him use his Quirks until he's at his limit. Since he can steal powers, we'll want to avoid close combat if at all possible. Hopefully that will be enough for us to defeat him."

"But even if we can't...we just have to last long enough for help to arrive!

That's all this is about."

"No way. We're gonna kick the crap outta these losers!" Said Bakugou.

Shoji suddenly alerted us that they were coming.

"There they are. There's three of them. They're taking the path you predicted."

Midoriya turned to us. "Yaoyorozu. Aoyama. We're counting on you."

"Okay. We've only got seconds. Get ready. Navel Laser to max output."

"Energy Charge!"

Yaomomo counted down, "Five, four, three, two, one!"

"Allons-y, Can't Stop Twinkling, it's my Supernova!"

"Plus Ultra!"

"This is it!"

I activated my canons.

"I made these using the last of my lipids. One final atttack and then I'm spent!"

The attack went off - just as planned.

"Phase one is complete," I murmured - at last, it was too much for me. I felt consciousness leaving me as I fell to the ground.

We were able to protect everyone on the island, but there was still tons of damage. And it would take time to repair. The Heroes Public Safety Commission immediately suspended our practical program. But we stayed the rest of our scheduled time.

All of us wanted to help the island get back to normal. We couldn't just leave. Not when people needed us.

And then, finally, it was time for us to go home. We were all assembled on the boat's deck, though Midoriya and Bakugou were off on their own. Something had happened between them while we were all out - something they'd done to save the island from the main villain. Whatever it was, Bakugou had woken up from it with the same kind of damage Midoriya usually had on his arms, and Midoriya with the same.

But neither one of them would explain in detail what they'd done to finally beat the villain.

"Shouldn't we, like, say something before we leave?" Said Kaminari.

"I know, right?" Said Ashido.

"But we wouldn't want to interrupt the recovery efforts."

"Well, I guess this is cooler."

"Yeah, it's pretty hero-like."

"True."

"I can't believe it's time for us to go already."

"Eh, good riddance."

The kids from the island were waving goodbye to us as we turned away from the island, heading back towards UA, Heights Alliance - and our home.