abciluvpie: Please ham them bring up the Lemillion costume. Toru going n*** is stupid in any case.
NeoNazo356: That is an excellent point to make, but what happens if Toru's "sheddings" lose their "transparency" after they're cut?
Her Quirk isn't [Transparency], it's [Invisibility]. If her Quirk actually did make her "transparent", her Super Move, Light Refraction, wouldn't actually work as-shown in Canon. Toru's Quirk bends the light striking her body, while her Super Move simply re-directs that light in a radial, omni-directional fashion, instead of "going around" her body as-usual.
Also, Mirio's clothes aren't made completely out of his hair, it's merely the "binding agent" that links his Costume to his Quirk, similar to how DC Comics'Hank Pym's costume "synchronizes with his bio-electric field" to enable it to shrink and grow as he does. Still, that is an excellent point to make, so I'll be sure to bring it up in the future.
*MHA*
"Alright, now that the ballots have been drawn, it's time to decide the Teams and Captains!" All Might announced as everyone stepped forward holding color-coded balls in their hands. "On the Red Team we have…"
Pulling out his phone, a red-colored hologram began to list out names.
Eijirou Kirishima
Fumikage Tokoyami
Hanta Sero
Katsuki Bakugou
Shoto Todoroki
Tenya Iida
Toru Hagakure
Tsuyu Asui
Mezo Shoji
Mina Ashido
"On the Blue Team we have…"
Likewise, a blue-colored hologram listed out the remaining names.
Denki Kaminari
Gokiburi Genki
Izuku Midoriya
Koji Koda
Kyoka Jiro
Mashiro Ojiro
Ochako Uraraka
Rikido Sato
Yaoyarozu Momo
Yuuga Aoyama
"And as for our Captains…" he announced, everyone turning their ballots over until two gold stars came into view. "Katsuki Bakugou and Gokiburi Genki!" he announced, Bakugou and Genki's names gaining gold stars. "And just a reminder, if the Team Captain gets captured, it's an automatic loss for that round," All Might tacked on, Bakugou grinning maliciously while Genki sighed tiredly.
'The more things change, the more they stay the same,' he lamented.
"Alright then! The exercise begins in ten minutes after I've taken Red Team to their flag," All Might announced as he stepped into a side street before driving out in an extra-long open-air shuttle. "I'll be monitoring the exercise out-of-sight, and Red Team… If the flag or any structures are erroneously destroyed by certain items, it'll be your loss," he added as he not-so-subtly turned his attention and finger to Bakugou, the teen bristling at the implication as the Red Team drove off.
"Oh man, the Reds have two of our heavy-hitters right off the bat," Kaminari sighed.
"Hey, and just what is that supposed to mean?" Kyoka huffed, her [Earphone Jack]s rising up menacingly like twin serpents.
"G-Guys, please don't fight! We have to protect our flag, remember?" Izuku stepped in.
"Still, it does seem like the bulk of the Reds are those that Genki has beaten during the Sports Festival," Momo hummed. "Could it be coincidence, or…?"
"Pretty sure it's just a coincidence. A freaky, freaky coincidence," Ojiro stated.
"Guys. You don't have to worry about a thing," Genki cut in, smiling brightly. "The Reds might have Bakugou and Todoroki, but we've got a heavy-hitter of our own," he said grinning Momo's way.
"Wait, you mean me?" Momo asked, confused as to why she was being held at the same level as the second and third-place winners of the Sports Festival.
"Yep!" Genki said giving the girl his brightest smile. "Craterface and Todoroki might have raw stopping power, but you have even more stopping power. And plus," he said as his smile turned a bit more devious, his gaze panning sidelong. "We have a secret weapon of our own. Heh heh heeeeh."
*MHA*
"Listen up, Reds!" Bakugou bellowed as soon as Red Team was in position around their flag, which was mounted atop a flat circular dais set into the center of a thoroughfare. "We're gonna squish that damn bug under our boots before internships, and we aren't going to lose our flag even once! You hear me?"
The others' response was less-than-enthusiastic, as was due the toxicity of their leader's abrasive personality.
"Streaker Girl!"
"S-Streaker?!" Toru yelped objectively.
"You're going to go on ahead and run reconnaissance. Tell us who is staying behind and who is aiming for our flag. We'll plan our counterattack appropriately," Bakugou huffed as he threw himself lazily onto a nearby bench, eyes glued to the flag. "We'll let those dirty Blue Bugs come to us until you get back."
"Hey, who died and made you leader!?" Mina cried out.
"Your dignity. When you all lost to that damn bug from the General Course!" Bakugou growled, still-bristling at the memory.
"I feel like that's your problem more than ours," Mina hummed. "I mean, yeah, I'm a little bummed out about it, but Gen-chan worked really hard for that win, so I guess it just doesn't bother me as much as you."
"Bothered!? I'm not bothered! You're bothered, Raccoon Eyes!" the explosive teen raged.
'So mature…' the rest of Red Team thought, Toru taking the opportunity to excuse himself before Bakugou exploded all over her.
'Definitely not boyfriend material,' she thought to herself as she tip-toed away.
*MHA*
The respective "camps" of Red and Blue Team were located a quarter-mile apart, each on a main thoroughfare, staggered by an eighth of a mile. In this way, you couldn't go in "a straight line", and since erroneous property destruction "wasn't allowed", you couldn't make your own doors either, you had to work around your environment; not unlike CTF Modes in video games.
Obviously this exercise leaned more in the favor of those with mobility-type Quirks on the traversal, but the open space of the "camp" in the middle of each thoroughfare made it equally defensible by those with offensive and supplementary Quirks. As such, no one Quirk could dominate everything, necessitating teamwork and cooperation.
Of course, the fact that none of them were given earpieces like in the Heroes vs Villains battle, a reflection of real-world conditions where Heroes had to coordinate on the fly in an informal matter, meant that trust and planning was more-powerful than any Quirk.
Hence, why Toru Hagakure found herself sneaking up to Blue Camp, cut off from the rest of her team as she did recon.
Each camp's topography was arranged so that while the flag was exposed on the longitudinal, there were buildings occupying the latitude, meaning the only approach to the flags were along the straight of each thoroughfare, or even the vertical for those with flight-type Quirks.
Sneaking along one such alley behind the Blue Camp's flag, her gloves and boots left behind a parked car in another street, she was, for all intents completely invisible.
Koda crossing the mouth of the alley in front of her, Toru froze in place, wide innocent-looking eyes passing right over her before he walked on past her.
The girl letting out a relieved sigh, she continued to tip-toe to the mouth of the alley, peeking half of her face around the corner.
Blue Team was circling the flag, digging themselves in; a sensible approach when the opposing team had more heavy-hitters and could cause more "damage" in a straight-up 10-v-10 matchup.
However, they were so-widely spread out that the flag was left wide open, no-one standing immediately next to it. A tempting target if ever there was one.
Recalling how-swiftly Bakugou wrote her off, a hot knot of anger formed in the invisible girl's stomach at being called "streaker", her fists went knuckle-clear as she tip-toed her way to the flag.
'Let's see him call me a "steaker" when I get him the first flag,' Toru thought to herself as she made her way to the flag.
*SNAP*
"Itai! What the-" Toru yelped as something clamped around her ankle. Looking down, the girl saw a literal bear trap around her leg. Only, instead of iron, it was made of a near-transparent plastic.
"There she is! Get her!"
"EYAAAAAAAGH!" Toru cried as multiple Blues lunged at her with Capture Tape held like garrote wire.
*MHA*
"Well, looks like that was a bust," Bakugou shrugged as Toru's quote/unquote "image" on the nearby scoreboard went dark.
"You're awfully nonchalant about losing First Blood to Genki. Again," Todoroki hummed causing Bakugou to bristle.
"Doesn't matter. She was dead weight anyway," Bakugou growled irritably tapping his foot.
"Guys, I hear something," Shoji said, the ears on his [Dupli-Arms] twitching as he looked around. "Sounds like… a leaky tire…?"
"YOINK!" Genki whooped as he flew in from the rear of the camp and snatched up the flag, foregoing any form of subtlety. The next moment he unfurled his wings, beating them rapidly and firing off blasts of compressed air from his feet as he made his getaway.
"WHAT!?" Bakugou raged as the blur of brown shot by. "AFTER HIM!" he shouted, blasting off with his Quirk while the rest of Red Team struggled to follow after.
"Curses! I can't reach him!" Iida cursed as Genki began to fly upward.
Sure, the [Engine] user could run up the wall with his then-current speed and try to catch up to him, but unlike his brother who had top-of-the-line airbags-type Support Items built in, his own costume had nothing to protect him from the fall if he missed, and no-one else on his team really had a Quirk condusive toward a soft landing.
"Don't worry! I've got him!" Sero whooped as he swung up before firing off his tape at the teen's blindspot, only for the Mutant to aileron roll out of the way. "What?! How'd he know to Star Fox away from that!?"
"Unlike most of us, Gokiburi doesn't need his eyes to see," Shoji hummed.
"Icy-Hot! Send your ice up the buildings and stop him!" Bakugou raged as Genki continued to stay out of his range.
"Thanks for telling me your entire plan!" Genki smirked over his shoulder, transferring the red flag to one hand before aiming his remaining limbs straight down. "Goki Thruster!"
With a shout, the teen launched himself upward, well above the surrounding buildings before curving his trajectory into an arc, disappearing from view.
"Okay, now I'm confused."
"What by, Tsu-chan?" Mina asked.
"Cockroaches can't fly under their own power, yet Genki is soaring through the air like Captain Celebrity…" the [Frog Form] girl hummed. "How's he doing that?" she asked, watching Bakugou struggle to keep up as Genki continued to accelerate.
*MHA*
Meanwhile, back at Blue Camp…
"Are you sure it was a good idea? Sending our captain into the lion's den like that?" Sato asked worriedly, eyes glancing at the scoreboard as though expecting Genki's image to darken any second.
"Well, Red Team has too many heavy-hitters to risk a frontal assault, and even if Bakugou only went after one of us, Todoroki's the bigger obstacle," Ojiro hummed, a chill running across his feet at the memory of the first Heroes v Villains exercise.
"Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it, the best way to get an early lead is to blitz them," Kyoka admitted.
"Not very gallant, though," Aoyama sighed.
The next moment, explosions off in the distance scared numerous pigeons from their roosts, Koda locking up off to the side as Bakugou's rage-filled bellows echoed into Blue Camp.
"Well… Looks like our team captain's still alive," Kaminari hummed, looking up at the scoreboard.
"Yes, but for how much longer…?" Momo mused, mind racing as she thought about all the ways the joint plan could go wrong. "Only three, maybe four of Red Team have any measure of verticality, but it's still one against twenty. He could still be overwhelmed at a moment's notice."
"Look! Up there!" Ochako suddenly cried, pointing skyward. "There's Genki!" the brunette called out as the Mutant teen began descending toward them.
"And Bakugou's right behind him!" Kyoka cried, the explosive teen trailing right behind, slowly gaining now that gravity was on his side.
"Team! Deploy anti-air counter measures!" Izuku called out, the ground-bound members of the team scrambling to deploy the items Momo had made with her [Creation] for this very situation.
"My Quirk might not be very precise, but I can still do this much," Denki said as his fingers sparked. "Fire in the hole!"
Electricity leaping from his fingers onto the fuses laid out across the ground, everyone scattered as fireworks were shot from the launchers scattered across the ground. Projectiles screaming into the air, the lenses in Genki's mask polarized as soon as the explosions of bright colors began to go off, the Mutant teen weaving expertly between projectiles. Bakugou on the other hand wasn't so lucky, a blast of light and color blinding him, causing him to careen completely off-course.
"Deploy airbag!" Momo called out, Koda, Sato, Ojiro, and Aoyama ferrying a large two-stage airbag into position where Bakugou was going to land, the expertly-crafted item stopping Bakugou from painting the block a very disgusting color.
"Midoriya-senpai! Catch!" Genki cried as he spread out his wings and fluttered to a stop, tossing the flag to Izuku who caught it frantically before planting it in the Blue Team pedestal.
"Blue Team wins Round One!"All Might announced.
"Wh-What?!" Bakugou raged as the spots from his eyes finally cleared.
"I said, Blue Team wins Round One!" All Might repeated.
"Way to go, team!" Genki cheered as he floated about. "Uraraka-senpai! High-ten!"
"Yeah!" Ochako cried happily, the two's palms meeting before Genki was sent pinwheeling through the air uncontrollably. "Ah! Wait! Hold on! Release!" the girl cried bringing her fingertips together, the effects of her [Zero Gravity] on the bug-like teen disappearing, dropping him to the ground. "Whew… I know it was just you up there… but that was actually a lot of work," she admitted. "Deku-kun! Great job! Your plan went off without a hitch!"
"Y-Y-Yeah, I guess it did," Izuku replied with a flushed face, scratching at the back of his head.
"What?! Your plan!?" Bakugou growled.
"All members of Red Team, please return to your base while we reset the exercise!" All Might called out as one of the steward robots came in, grabbed the flag, and zipped off.
"Yep!" Genki chirped happily. "Sure, I've had a good idea or two in my time, but this guy? This guy here's a heavy-hitter in his own right!" he said throwing an arm around Izuku's shoulder. "Face it, Baka-gou, you didn't stand a chance against this guy's super-powered brain! Aaah hahahahaha!"
"Rrrgh! Why youuuuuu…!" Bakugou growled, Izuku shuddering in fear as the explosive teen stomped violently toward him.
"I repeat, all members of Red Team, please return to base while we reset the exercise."
" . . . I'll get you in round god damn two," Bakugou growled under his breath as he stormed off.
"Good luck with that!" Genki replied warmly, the explosive teen fuming as he walked off. "Whew, that was a close one. Craterface almost got me."
"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure the same gimmick won't work twice," Kyoka huffed. "Next round, they'll definitely have people on the high ground. It's what I'd do."
"So what's the plan? Do we dig ourselves in?" Kaminari asked.
"I wouldn't recommend it. In this scenario, the lead we have over them is too small," Momo stated. "If we try to wait out the clock with a one-zero lead, if they're able to get two in succession, running out the clock at this early stage could easily work against us in the long run."
"So we need to stay on the attack, then," Sato stated, crossing his arms.
"Which is where this guy's super-brain comes into play," Genki said ruffling the greenette's messy lochs. "Good job thinking of synergizing my [Gokiburi] with Ochako's [Zero Gravity]."
"Y-Yes, well, you couldn't fly under your own power because your wings weren't strong enough, but if your weight is nullified, that no longer becomes an issue," Izuku explained. "It really is a combination move only-possible with Quirks like yours. Even if a weight-lightening Quirk were applied to your body, you'd still lose a massive amount of freedom, and I was only confident you'd be able to make use of Uraraka-san's Quirk because you can maneuver through the air omni-directionally like an astronaut through space-"
"Okay, we get it," Kaminari said chopping the greenette on the head lightly. "So, what's next?"
"I'm pretty sure I have something up my sleeve this time," Genki said with a smirk. "Yaoyarozu-senpai! The success of our second volley comes down to you once again. Ready for a made-to-order?"
"Hai!" Momo nodded firmly, sheaving through the pages of her Yaoyorictionary.
That her [Creation] had been so-pivotal in their first win of the exercise gave her the confidence she needed to tackle her next tasks with gusto.
To Be Continued…
*MHA*
AN:
Originally this exercise was going to involve a TF2-style "protect the briefcase" kinda scenario, but I changed my mind at the last minute. Main reason I wrote in another Hero Informatics exercise before the Internship arc was so that everyone would get to see Genki in-costume, that way imagining it down-the-road would be easier.
As for Genki and Mina's costumes having the same designer, Kyoka & Kaminari, and Uraraka & Bakugou also had their respective costumes made by the same designer, which was the trend that inspired the idea. In Kyoka & Kaminari's case, the "trademark" was leather jackets, while for Uraraka & Bakugou it was the the colon ( : ) mark on their respective costumes. Because Genki and Mina both have secretion-related facets of their Quirk it just made the most sense to have their costumes have a similar designer.
Anyway, hope you liked the chapter, and I look forward to hearing from you now and in the future.
GO BEYOND!
EXCELSIOR!