While I've already replied to TonyMcNucklz's comment regarding the introduction of Melissa's "secret boyfriend" in the previous chapter, one I'm sure he put a great deal of time and effort into typing up, and I applaud that he actually put his own name behind it like so many others refuse to when they just want to Shit Post, I felt like this was an opportunity to give you all a behind-the-scenes look in how I carry out my writing.

Especially since nowadays I'm real big on Worldbuilding and Nuance and other mature things like that which may be more Cerebral in nature.

*Metaphorical Inhale*

Let me start by saying that the aforementioned scene regarding them requires a great deal of "reading between the lines", as it's rather nuanced relying on pre-existing worldbuilding instead of having the thing literally spelled out in impossible-to-misinterpret English.

Melissa and Michael have known one another since they were children, at least allegedly, evidenced by the fact that he doesn't have the slightest care about her being Quirkless; a word that when spoken has the inexplicable power to make the IQ of everyone in the vicinity drop below that of a herring sandwich; or in layman's terms, below the single digits. And while it's unlikely that Melissa was ever treated as-poorly as Izuku was (something I feel is a result of Aldera Junior High's proximity to Yuuei, as-evidenced by his teachers letting him get away with all that shit he does), from her countenance it was obviously that she was outcast in at least some manner. Complicating matters further is that most who would approach her despite her Quirkless status only did so to vicariously associate themselves with Dr. David Shield "the Nobel Quirk Prize winner". As a result of all of this, while hers and Michael's friendship was publicly known, their romantic leanings toward one another was kept strictly on the down-low once they realized their feelings went beyond "just friendship".

In terms of Melissa coming out to her father (and by extension Uncle Might) about hers and Michael's relationship, it was largely an "arbitrary" decision that timeline-wise took place prior to My Hero Academia: Two Heroes. True, it was always an option to keep it a secret until they both graduated and became "legal adults", but the thing about arbitrary decisions is that they don't need pure logic to dictate the terms. As for the way they carried themselves, including but not limited to the dialogue shared about certain embarrassing slips of the tongue, that Melissa was more-embarrassed by Michael's half-serious/half-joking tone than being outright pissed, stems from the fact that they (retroactively since Melissa was keeping him a secret from the cast as well as from the Audience) have a mature-enough outlook on their relationship that they're perfectly willing to "laugh at themselves"on top of what the other does.

In summary, they're at the point in their relationship where they can be incredibly CANDID with one another and themselves, similar to how Kazuma Satou from KonoSuba is able to have conversations with his Party members while they are literally on the toilet. That is Canon btw.

And the two of them coming out was always premeditated. What they were not able to plan for was David Shield being arrested for borderline Treason to what's essentially a small sovereign country. To avoid muddying those waters any further, Melissa broke the news to her "Uncle Might" before her father, given the man was still under investigation, and her own reputation from a professional standpoint had already been damaged by what David did through the transitive property of "association". While it's true that Michael hinted-at in no uncertain terms that they were "involved" with one another, such things would've come up in the planning stage before the big day, likely when Melissa thought to invite All Might to the I-Expo, since as a Teacher, it was one of the rare times All Might had "free".

And while slips of the tongue (that they're capable of laughing about) would be allowed under the pretense of Melissa being "honest" about what she had been hiding until arbitrarily deciding to come clean, under the pretense of expressing TRANSPARENCY… the deeper specifics like "frequency", "variety", "when", "where", and so-on would be kept to themselves because while the plan was for Melissa to elucidate the "extent" of their relationship (i.e. that they were to the point in their relationship where they were sexually involved, a very mature step that wasn't taken lightly), beyond funny anecdotes that she's capable of "laughing at herself" over or "laughing together with" her boyfriend in mixed company because they're both able to be open with the fact that they're Fallible beings, it isn't necessary for the sake of Transparency that she let everything loose. The stuff she's genuinely ashamed of or just thinks it "isn't any of their god damn business", is stuff she'd keep to herself.

I once again point toward the point where they can laugh at themselves or one another within reason.

That and the fact that them coming out to Melissa's family was not a spur-of-the-moment thing they came up with in the elevator up; that it was premeditated.

P-R-E-M-E-D-I-T-A-T-E-D.

Premeditated.

That and the fact that they're incredibly intelligent, and have a more-nuanced view of things than their peers with the single-digit IQs. As well as being closer to being legal adults than the majority of the main cast in this Arc. Melissa, being outcast "by others" while Michael segregated himself from Quirk-dominant society "by choice", was always bound to paint their perceptions of not only the people around them, but also how they carried themselves in a world where they wouldn't be able to please everyone.

Also, All Might himself acknowledged that Melissa wouldn't have chosen someone like Michael as a potential life partner "for no reason". This is to imply that he personally considers Melissa to be an intelligent person, capable of making her own decisions as well as her own mistakes. He doesn't reject her life choices out of hand because she's "a woman" or because she's "a child" in his eyes, nor does he arbitrarily decide that his way is always "the right way". He's a man capable of recognizing his own failings… eventually… evidenced by how he turned Izuku toward Gran Torino; to address the shortcoming that he wasn't, at-present, the competent instructor he rightly deserved.

That and he's never had any sort of romantic partner apart from an implied Oedipean Complex with Nana Shimura.

Another part of why he was caught on the back foot, apart from the fact that Melissa "grew up so much while he was away", is that he was also thrown off by the implication that he and David were "special friends". And he couldn't exactly refute those claims with the objective truth because them sequestering themselves away to a literal security dead zone would be pretty damning under most circumstances. And part of the reason Michael was able to be so candid with All Might, weather-altering feats of strength aside, is because Melissa was able to be so candid with him, accepting from her point of view that All Might is "human", instead of the capital-G God to be worshiped that everyone else treats him as. Do you really think she'd let Michael and Uncle Might meet if she legitimately thought they could come to blows?

And it wasn't like he could turn Michael into a smear on the penthouse floor for his candor because A) Melissa would never forgive him if he did, B) he's only a part of her life for extremely brief periods instead of a permanent fixture, C) his ego isn't "fragile" like Enji Todoroki or Katsuki Bakugou's, and D) Melissa having to contend with the fact that her father is a borderline Villain has probably necessitated that she adapt the plan she'd already committed to (i.e. coming out that she had a boyfriend she was seriously involved with) to changing circumstance. She might've been cleared of potential wrongdoings in connection to her father's hairbrained scheme (read: Treason), but she would've most-assuredly been placed under intense scrutiny afterward. Hence, why she adapted premeditated plans to come out about her "secret boyfriend", lest anyone (including but not limited to the Oversight Committee) think her "clandestine actions" from that point forward, which until then had gone largely unnoticed/un-scrutinized, had anything "nefarious" about them.

Fact of the matter is, this is FanFiction, and Melissa could've very easily lived her own lifetime prior to the series' protagonist coming into her life.

Actually, scratch that, she has, with the way I've written her in this version of the MHAverse, because her "life" started a long time ago well before Episode 1 of the Canon, even if only in a retroactive sense because I'm working "backwards" as opposed to writing "forwards". If she doesn't retain the "purity" that many project upon her because she looks like an "all-American sweetheart", well, that's on you and anyone who takes offense to my content without being able to "read between the lines".

While I respect the opinion of people who are willing to attach their actual names to them instead of hiding behind a Guest's anonymity, I'm well past the point in my writing where I write things out for shits and giggles. Unless I'm writing Satire; in which case it's definitely for as such excrements and expressions.

I put a great deal of thought and effort into the OC Michael Sword, how he and Melissa function as a couple, how it affected things retroactively as well as going forward, and what their history would've been like given the circumstances surrounding them. Everything has a purpose, even if it isn't immediately apparent. And I always go over my chapters back-and-forth with a fine-toothed comb prior to posting so that I do the characters I'm writing the dignity they deserve.

And I apologize if my content is a little too high-brow for some people to understand.

*Metaphorical Inhale*

Given he hasn't replied to me since-then, he either doesn't want to admit his accusation was baseless, or gave up on Vigorous Vitality altogether.

Anywho, that's my [Behind the Scenes] for what some might consider a controversial dialogue exchange if it's taken only at face value. Single-word Reviews like "good' don't promote an exchange of dialogue beyond the fact that single-word Reviewers enjoy my work but don't enjoy it enough to articulate any further than literally the bare minimum. And that reply definitely took longer than anticipated to go through, but I felt like I owed it to TonyMcNucklz to be transparent with my counter-argument regarding the creative process.

. . .

As for OmnilBIBUltraInstinctGodzilla's comment, and another [Behind the Scenes] look…

What point of "secret boyfriend" was missed? She explained quite succinctly that she had been keeping it secret from her helicopter parents for a number of years until a good time, so there's no way she'd tell a bunch of foreigners she knew for less than a day; let alone in the middle of what's essentially a terrorist attack. And especially not when they'd willingly break any sort of "confidence" she had with them if All Might so much as turned their way and asked them to sing. I believe the metaphor was "what showtunes".

Of course, Michael isn't completely in-the-know either. Melissa was told by David himself what Izuku already knew about All Might's condition, but Melissa never saw All Might in his deflated state even in the Canon, so only Izuku, David, and Koichi knew the full extent of the man's injuries (where I-Island is concerned). Part of Michael's casual/"careless" response to All Might ("uncle" to his girlfriend or not) partly stems from the fact that as far as he knows, David and All Might really DO have the sort of relationship that necessitates slinking off together into secret laboratories where no-one knows what's going on in there.

You don't hear hoofbeats and immediately think "zebras"; you think "horses".

That said! Melissa Shield & Michael Sword will likely remain absentee for the rest of the story, similar to her role in the Canon (one or two frames and a cameo in an off-shot manga notwithstanding). They might be referenced in passing, but I don't imagine any situations that'd necessitate them appearing again in-person.

Controversial as he is, I feel like anyone other than Izuku being paired with Melissa would inspire outrage in one form or another. Just like when anyone pairs Ochako with Bakugou. That's just the way Shipping Wars go, I suppose, and unlike my other OCs, Michael doesn't have the benefit of "half-million-word stories" building him up from the bedrock.

So I suppose in a way it makes sense that the OC with the least buildup would be the most-poorly-received among my creations.

While I agree that Michael Sword might've rubbed SOME the wrong way, I at least want to go on the record in the "Fanmail Section" to contest the accusation that NO thought went into his Inclusion. I put a very GREAT deal of thought in.

. . .

I respect the fact that people have opinions differing from my own, but I will countermand the accusation that no thought goes into my work.

When I was a young author back in... shit, 2009(...?), that accusation might've held water. But that was only back in my nascent stages where I flew by the seat of my pants and wrote with a middle or end-point in mind but didn't plan for everything that came before.

Now however, I'm far more meticulous since my Beta and I met during my Swordless Shinobi phase.

. . .

Onxio: I've yet to see a story with Stars and stripes the most Amazonian woman of MHA be paired with either a female or male MC

Re: Well, I mean, we didn't get to see very much of her before she was killed off, but with how Koichi/The Crawler/Skycrawler is becoming more-popular (especially with the Anime on the horizon), Stars & Stripes might become a more-mainstream fixture in FanFic writing eventually. However, as America's No.1 Hero, it'd have to be a very compelling story with plenty of build-up, or they'd have to have as-OP a Quirk as hers for it to make sense as anything other than wanton "Wish Fulfilment"; you know the kind, there the high-profile Hero uses some random guy/girl for sex with no explanation given. In Isekai terms, the "Hero" more-often-than-not settles down with the "Elf" over the "Village Girl".
HOWEVER...! Off the top of my head if I were tackling this idea, maybe the MC would have a Quirk like Ichiryu and Midora's [Minority World] from Toriko. It's incredibly-powerful like [New Order] only based on real-world sciencce, with loads of nuance to it, and Cathleen would be able to see that person as "an equal" she could relate to and thus as a "potential life partner".
Mature Content stories that get straight into the boning with little to no buildup are kinda boring, so that's why I tend to over-think things in my own writing.

Anywho, the "Two Heroes Arc" took a lot longer than I expected, but it's finally over and I'm happy to be moving back into the Canon.

*MHA*

Upon the Yuuei students' return to Japan, Aizawa had announced that because all of 1-A and 1-B had been able to go to I-Island, as brief as a time as it was, that the Training Camp had been pushed up to the following morning. They would be departing from Yuuei's gate via bus at first light because there would be a lengthy drive into the mountains ahead of them, though the man hadn't given further details than that. As such, everyone had one night to have their provisions packed and to get over any jetlag they'd accumulated after crossing back over the Atlantic.

This wasn't a problem for many of them, as they'd already pre-packed their bags prior to leaving for I-Island, though no-one could've planned for a Villain attack cutting their stay on the moving research city short. It also gave those that had been directly involved at I-Tower time to visit Recovery Girl and have her top them off, in terms of health, before whatever trials awaited them during the rest of their summer break.

Then, quick as a flash, the day came. Class 1-A and 1-B's departure times were staggered, 1-A going first, and many in that class were sure that Monoma would take exception to that, no matter the reason that Nezu or Aizawa gave.

To 1-A's surprise and Iida's dismay, Mei Hatsume would be joining them for the Training Camp. Of course, it was only in the capacity that she'd be observing their (and 1-B's) Quirks so as to better make their Support Items. She was on Summer Break, so she could do whatever she wanted provided the Principal and Power Loader signed off on it. There wasn't any real reason for Mei to not tag along, since observing Quirks first-hand could only improve her creations.

Between a Support Mechanic who knew how a person's Quirk worked first-hand, and one that only knew about it from a standardized Quirk Registration Form, the prior would be chosen every time. For many in the Support Course, it was only seen as a lucrative line of work, or an "alternative" to the glamorized life of a Pro Hero they'd already accepted they could never acquire for themselves. For Mei Hatsume however, it was a passion. Every Support Item she made was done so with the nurturing hand of a mother, so in a way, watching how the Hero Course students' Quirks worked could be akinned to a mother giving prospective colleges a once-over.

She would of course argue that her joining of the trip was "purely professional".

Those that had heard her pseudo-confession, figured she was drawing from both wells.

Apart from their tagalong joining in, for the most part the trip was uneventful. Other than Genki nursing his spine from a number of painful injections he'd received before departing I-Island, and Aoyama soldiering through bus-induced motion sickness, everyone was the picture of health, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed. When word had spread how Momo and Toru got special costumes back on I-Island, it became the hot new subject.

Of course, then the line of discussion mutated into how the guy who made their gear was dating All Might's niece, only for the line of thought to be corrected by Izuku telling them that All Might and David Shield weren't brothers, and that by "Uncle Might", Melissa meant it like a close family friend instead of the brother of her father.

Of course, for those that hadn't met Melissa in person, much of the context went right over their heads. And thankfully, nobody had muddied the waters with how-candid Melissa and Michael were about their relationship now that they were able to come out with their long-held secret, nor the implications that could be drawn from All Might and David Shield slinking off to security blind spots whenever he visited.

Mei for her part pestered Momo and Toru to no end about the "babies" that had been bequeathed upon them. It wasn't widely known that she'd been bailed out of the equivalent of mall jail before she could get her fill of the Expo, so those not in-the-know just assumed she was being her usual eccentric self. Momo and Toru on their parts, confessed only to that their Costumes were back at Yuuei under stringent lock and key. If legit Hero Costumes for students were hot items on the Black Market, it was doubly-so for any of the next-generation tech that leaked into the world from I-Island ahead of its release into the mainstream consumer market.

*MHA*

By the time everyone tired of talking about their brief stay on I-Island, Aizawa announced that they'd be pulling up at a rest stop. To everyone's confusion however, instead of a proper rest area with bathrooms and vending machines where they could get out and stretch their legs, all they found was a dirt lot with a metal fence overlooking the heart of the Japanese wilderness, not a building to be seen for miles and miles in every direction.

Well, not for anyone apart from Mei whose Quirk was immediately able to pick a dot of synthetic white out amongst a sea of verdurous green, her eyes naturally geared towards laser focusing on deviations in color and/or texture. Obviously, a massive boon when repairing micro-circuitry for her creations where even a millimeter flaw could make all the difference between success, or apocalyptic self-detonation.

"Hold on, what kind of rest stop is this?"

"Right, and where's Class B?"

"Does anyone see a bathroom?"

"Of course we stopped here for a reason," Aizawa said tiredly.

"Heya, Eraser!" a new voice said as a pair of figures stepped out of the town car conspicuously parked over to the side.

"Sorry. Haven't seen you in a while," Aizawa hummed bowing his head.

"Rock on with these sparkling gazes!"

"Strikingly cute and catlike!"

"We're the Wild, Wild Pussycats!" a pair of women with mechanical cat ears atop their heads said after a short routine, complete with poses at the end. The woman on the right had a predominantly red outfit that wouldn't have been out of place among an ANM48 concert, a bell around her neck and a faux cat tail, her hair a dark red and chin-length, her eyes brown, a pair of pink stripes running across her cheeks below her eyes. The woman on the left, wearing a blue version of her partner's outfit with a striped faux cat tail, had long blond hair and eyes to match, a pair of blue dots painted below her eyes.

In other words, the Wild, Wild Pussycats Mandaly and Pixie-Bob, though only one or two knew them on sight.

"These are the Pro Heroes who'll be helping us out this-"

Of course, before Aizawa could finish introductions…

"Sham! SHAM! You two're an affront to hard-working legit cat-girls everywhere!" Genki hissed at them with an accusatory finger, rubbing its opposite sibling over it like he were scrubbing carrots.

Only Pony Tsunotori would've understood the gesture, were she in attendance.

"H-H-Hey! We're cat-girls at heart, you know!" the blond 'artificial cat-girl' squawked as Genki continued to throw shame at the two of them, her blue-striped Support Item swishing angrily behind her.

"We're getting really off-topic," Aizawa chuffed as he stepped up. Though honestly, he was kicking himself for not realizing sooner his newest student would have this sort of reaction to the Wild, Wild Pussycats and failing to warn him about it beforehand.

ANM48 ran the whole of the spectrum between humanoid and therianthropic traits, but the minimum requirement to join the Ares Idol Agency's flagship idol group was having legit animal traits, be it "only ears" all the way to being a "furry" as the perverted Americans called it.

Of course, he couldn't really throw shame their way because Japan had "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife", which inspired entire genres of erotic art that Nemuri hadn't shut up about once she got her teacher's license and a job offer. It was only by the narrowest of margins that they were able to avert an utter catastrophe with the PTA before her first Modern Hero Art History class.

But he digressed.

"Genki, you're going to find fake cat girls everywhere in the industry. Get over it."

"Sensei, I'm well-aware. I'd just assumed you had enough foresight if not respect for me, to warn me about this… this… travesty in advance."

"Hey, we're cute as buttons!" Pixie-Bob, and you could almost hear the caterwauling in the backdrop.

"I'll be more mindful of such in the future. Can we please get back on track here?" he groaned as he rubbed at his eyes, Genki nodding his head after sending one last finger-rub at the fake cat-girls. "As I was in the process of saying before we got sidetracked, the Pros who'll be helping us out this time are the Pussycats. They're-"

"They're a four-member Hero Team who all work under a single Agency!" Izuku suddenly blurted out in full fanboy mode. "This veteran team specializes in mountain rescue operations! They've been in business for twelve years now-"

*POW!*

"We're eighteen at heart!" the blond Pussycat said as her large cat-like glove clamped down over Izuku's face once the topic of age came up.

"Anyway, this whole area is our territory," the red-haired Pussycat, Mandalay, said turning to the fence while her blond compatriot made Izuku answer their age with a more-flattering answer. "Your lodging is at the foot of that mountain right over there," she said pointing off into the distance, a single claw poking out of her fluffy paw-shaped Support Item.

"SO FAR AWAY!" the students gawped.

"Huh? But then why'd we stop halfway?" Ochako asked nervously.

"I'm getting a very tight sphincter right now…" Rikido shuddered.

"We should… get back to the bus…" Hanta said, his own sphincter beginning to tighten.

"It's now 9:30 AM. I'm thinkiiiing… around noon, at the earliest," Mandalay hummed as her faux cat tail wagged behind her.

"Aw crud, no way…"

"RUN!" Mina cried when Eijiro's blood ran cold. "BACK TO THE BUS!"

"Kitties who don't make it there by 12:30 won't get any lunch."

"Sorry, kids," Aizawa apologized without a hint of enthusiasm, Pixie-Bob dropping to all fours and activating her Quirk as the students scrambled for the bus and whatever illusion of safety it may've offered.

*MHA*

When Pixie-Bob had sent them all over the edge of the rest stop in a veritable tidal wave of dirt, the majority of 1-A had lost their composure, the "avalanche" occurring so-quickly and so-suddenly that many were forced to go along for the ride. The lot of them screamed bloody murder the entire way down and/or prayed to whatever deity they worshiped that they wouldn't immediately die.

Those that had the composure, the reflexes, and/or the skill to turn their situations around showed a glimpse at what they could accomplish as future Heroes.

Tsuyu Asui, shooting out her tongue at Ochako and reeling her in, grabbed her wrists and used the girl's Quirk on them both before shooting out her tongue and reeling herself toward a protruding branch.

Eijiro Kirishima, in a less-than-spectacular show of Quirk application, merely activated his [Hardening] across his body, doing what he did at the Entrance Exam and planned to simply tank the landing like one would when bellyflopping into a pool.

Rikido Sato, thanks to his own training from the Herculean Hero: Kabutomushi, angled himself toward the cliff face and activated his Quirk. Strengthening himself throughout all of his muscle fibers, without a moment's hesitation he dug his fingers and toes into the rocky crest, digging deep furrows as he fell. The sugar-powered teen bleeding off most of his momentum, by the time he came to a stop, his handhold had become a solid rock that came loose and he fell the rest of the way. The landing that followed would've left most reeling, but Kabutomushi's hits hurt far more, and he was dusting himself off while most of his peers were still groaning and rolling about in the dirt.

Mezo Shoji, utilizing a technique he'd most-recently shown off during the Yuuei Sports Festival, spread out his webbed arms like a wingsuit. Actually managing to glide down, he strained his core muscles desperately to keep his legs angled straight behind him so he wouldn't fall out of the sky like a poorly-steered kite.

Hanta Sero, with all his training from the Spider Thread Hero: Arachnid, quickly shot out a line of tape into the cliffside and reeled himself upward, bleeding away more than half of the momentum before he began to rappel down the cliff face.

Fumikage Tokoyami attempted to use his Quirk, weakened by the nearing-noon sun as it was, to grapple onto the cliff face and slow his fall; at the exact same time, Shoto Todoroki attempted to use his flames like a retrorocket. Not only did his inherited [Hellflame] shrink the already-weakened [Dark Shadow] and render the sentient umbral entity little stronger than a toddler, but his own skill with his Fire Quirk was so low all he really did was singe his own clothing in the process.

Katsuki Bakugou, having just come out of an air-conditioned bus, desperately fired off his Quirk in an attempt to use his own "retrorockets", a feat he was infinitely more-confident of than his "Half and Half" peer. Unfortunately, by the time he landed he'd only been able to bleed off a third of his momentum.

Momo, with greater confidence than she had at this point in another time and place, threw out a grappling hook she formed from her midriff onto a tree branch followed by gloves on her hands. The synthetic leather absorbing the rope burn as she rapidly descended, the rich girl slowly decreased the number of fibers she was expelling to preserve her lipidal count until she got a firm grip on the rock face. Forming a pair of climbing pickaxes, she then began to descend.

Genki for his part threw off his shirt and attempted to flutter his wings to dampen his fall. When his elytra opened and they caught the air however, a surge of pain like napalm in his veins spread throughout his body from the painful injection sites between his vertebrae, and he fell like a stone.

Of course, because of his Heteromorphic traits, and the training he'd received prior to Yuuei, he'd been able to angle himself into the nearby cliff and bleed off the energy from the fall little by little with his own body until he too landed in a pile of loosely-packed earth at the bottom of the cliff. Like Sato who thanks to his own training could take a beating, Genki was able to get up before the majority of his peers, though with greater strain and effort on his part.

As for everyone else whose landings were less than graceful… Weeeellll…

"H-Hey!" Sero shouted from his own perch as he rappelled down. "Anyone who isn't dead, sign off!"

"Uuugh."

"Blagh."

"Moan."

"Sumbitch."

"Mommy."

"FUCK!"

It was truly a credit to the 'veteran' Hero's skill with her Quirk that she was able to send enough loosely-packed earth ahead of her catapulted victims, that they all had a soft-enough landing the fall hadn't killed anyone on impact.

"This is our private territory, so feel free to use your Quirks!" Mandaly said into all of their heads using her own Quirk. "You've got three hours to reach the facility on foot through The Beasts' Forest!"

"I can't feel my legs. I can't feel my leeegs!" Mei cried from her own loamy pile of dirt, holding her feet out in front of her and giving them a limp shake, shocked gasps spreading through 1-A.

"That's 'cause those are my legs!" a voice called from underneath, the salmon-dreadlocked girl pushed off of Kyoka Jiro, revealing that it'd been her feet Mei had been waving about.

"Oh thank god," Genki sighed in relief, rubbing the bridge of his nose as his eyes flickered purple. A couple of his classmates saw this, but they assumed it was a trick of the light and/or they were still reeling from the fall.

"Everyone, help out those that are still buried! Iida and I will take stock of any injuries and remedy aid where needed!" Momo called from her own perch as she descended.

"Genki!" Tsuyu cried as she and Ochako floated down.

"Holy *urp* crap! What *glurgh* happened to you?" Ochako cried fighting the urge to blow chunks as she and Tsuyu found Genki covered in dirt and scratches.

"I couldn't fly…" Genki confessed as he shook his head, quashing down the pain. "And my pain meds are back in my bag. Shit…" he swore as his legs buckled, Tsuyu rushing over and catching him.

"I knew it. You're still hurting from I-Island, aren't you?" the [Frog Form] girl pouted.

"Just a bit…" Genki groaned. "Momo!"

"G-Genki! What in the world happened to you?!" she gasped as she hastily descended the rest of the way.

"You wouldn't happen to know how to make aspirin, would you?"

"Well, I can, but it won't taste very good," she confessed as she began to fuss over him like a worried mother, or perhaps even a spouse.

"Trust me, the pain is much worse," he said as he looked out into the woods. "I can barely move right now, so I need something to take the edge off if we're going to make this hike before lunch. Unless the fake cat-girls were using themselves as a metric, in which case, we'll be lucky to close the gap before dinner."

"You're still hurting from I-Island, aren't you?" Momo asked as she furrowed her eyebrows at him.

"Yes. Yes, I'm still in pain. But I need to keep getting stronger so I can reach my ambition, and if I get pulled out of the Training Camp, I'll only fall behind again. I won at the Sports Festival because I hit everyone hard and fast before they could get a bead on my Quirk, but if I don't keep going beyond, Plus Ultra-style…"

" . . . Alright," Momo nodded after a moment, her palm glittering pink and blue as she created a round white pill and gave it some friends. "But!" she said closing her fingers around them when Genki moved to take it. "The moment I feel like you're pushing yourself too far, I'm going to send up a signal flare. Do you understand me?"

To emphasize her point, the girl crafted a flare gun with her free hand before loading it with a shell, showing she was deadly serious.

"I understand," Genki answered with a nod, Momo returning it before she handed him the pills, the Heteromorph throwing one back.

"Man that sucked…! And I still have to pee!" Kaminari cried as he ran out into the woods.

"Oi! Kaminari! Don't run off on your own!" Kyoka called out.

"Yeah! That's like, horror movie logic 101!" Toru added right as a giant dirt-caked limb caught the [Electrification] user in the side and sent him flying in an exacting parody of what'd happened to Mineta during the Obstacle Race. " . . . The fuck?"

"The hell!?" Hanta cried as an enormous quadrupedal creature as large as an elephant, made of dirt and tree roots, a parody of a flesh-and-blood mammal, stepped out of the shadows.

"Calm yourself, creature. Please, back down," Koji pleaded aloud, only for the thing to let out a roar like grinding booulders, the boy's Quirk failing to work on it altogether.

In the next instant however, Iida, Izuku, Shoto, and Katsuki went full-bore on the thing, the textbook definition of "overkill".

"Geez, it's like something out of Dragon Quest…" Mina groaned as she looked into the dark woods, the growling of similar beasts filling the air.

"Well, the goal isn't going to come to us, so we might as well get moving," Iida said adjusting his glasses.

"Okay, but where the heck're we supposed to go?" Kyoka asked. "I can barely see anything out there."

"Mei knows where it is, down to the exact distance and bearing from our starting point," Genki spoke up, Mei unabashedly preening.

"What? Absurd! How could she have possibly-"

Iida's arm-chopping froze when he saw Mei's crosshair-patterned eyes, and recalling how she'd been able to see straight into the spectator's booths all the way up in the nosebleed section as though she were sitting across from them at the lunch table.

"I suppose it would be helpful, so as to not pass right by it…" he then admitted.

"Wait, there's more," Genki stated. "Ochako, can you maintain your Quirk on four people without blowing chunks?"

"Four of the lighter ones. Why?"

"I have a plan. Iida and I are going to ferry two apiece up through the woods while you've used your Quirk on them. Aizawa and the Rip-off-cats-"

"Pussycats," Izuku cut in.

"-said we only had to get there," he continued ignoring his friend's comment. "He never said anything about not working together to get there in a more-expedient manner."

"But would that not go against the spirit of the exercise?" Iida inquired.

"If you have to rescue people from a landslide, are you going to make them walk?" Genki deadpanned as he gestured to his dirt-caked peers, some of them getting dirt out of their shoes.

"I… suppose you make an excellent point," Iida conceded, realizing in his own mind that the exercise could be treated like Rescue Training. Getting endangered people through hazardous, uneven terrain towards the promise of safety, where obviously expedience was the end goal.

Even a second's delay could mean lives lost, and like Midoriya and Bakugou had done in the Heroes v Villains exercise, he had almost "taken advantage" of the fact that this was technically an exercise.

"Alright, then we'll need to make a cue; those weakest against Rock and Ground-Types first. We should be able to make it in four or so trips depending."

"O-Oh! I can help with that!" Izuku spoke up, mind whirling as he applied Pokémon archetypes to their current situation. "Alright, here's who'll go first!"

*MHA*

The plan in of itself was quite ingenious, and Aizawa would later realize that such flagrant loopholes could be easily exploited by those with a more realistic worldview of the industry. Being a Hero wasn't a linear game, it was open-world filled with sequence-breaking exploits, as Hizashi might say; if there was an obstacle in front of you, if you couldn't power through with brute force, you could always take a detour. There wasn't a need to risk a burning stairwell when you could simply rappel out the window or have someone on the outside catch you.

An added caveat to the plan, once Kaminari, Koda, Sero, and Toru were picked for the first "Away Team" was the addition of a Walkie Talkie, courtesy of Momo. In that way, Ochako would only have to worry about maintaining her Quirk until delivery, as opposed to waiting until they returned empty-handed.

With the absolute worst matchups for Pixie-Bob's dirt monsters ferried away, cutting the number out in the open down by a fifth, those that remained made their own way towards the goal thanks to the compass on Mei's phone. Not only would this stop those that remained from fighting a standing battle with their backs to the wall once Pixie-Bob caught wise to their plans, but it would also shorten the return trips that their primary runners were having to make. Especially since Iida and Genki would be making what'd be an hours-long hike for normal people a dozen or so times through uneven terrain and in far less time.

And it was actually to the benefit of those that remained that four of their number, six if you count the runners, had been spirited away because those with more-powerful Quirks were freed to move about and really cut loose.

Once the first "Away Team" arrived at the cabin, Ochako got the call, and she released her hold on her classmates. She had been nowhere near her weight threshold, but using her Quirk for so-long on objects that had been carried so-far-away from her was taxing in its own right. And the "Air Mail" idea actually had a lot of merit in a real-world setting, so she imagined she could save a great many people if she could pass victims off to fast runners without weighing them down.

Iida and Genki making their way back to their classmates on their first return trip, on the half-minute mark Momo ordered Aoyama to fire his [Naval Laser] into the sky like a beacon to draw them back home in case Pixie-Bob forced them to deviate their own course. Smoke signals wouldn't work in such thick foliage, after all.

When it came to the second "Away Team", there was a bit more debate on the subject because no-one wanted to be singled out as the "next-weakest" after the first batch, but eventually it was decided that those who had exhausted themselves the most in the interim would be carried off next. This meant it was Mina, Mashirao, Tsuyu, and Rikido who went next.

The next down-and-back for the two mailmen was even shorter than the second, whereas those who remained knew to better pace themselves so that when the time came, not everyone would be in a similarly-depleted state. This meant heavy hitters like Izuku, Katsuki, Shoto, and Tokoyami didn't do the majority of the work as they pushed themselves forward, with Katsuki insisting that he could make the hike all by himself and that he could "do this all day".

The third "Away Team" came down to Mezo, Kyoka, Aoyama, and Mei. With those that remained kicking up the most noise as they fought for ground, Iida and Genki wouldn't need any sort of beacon for the remaining runs, and having familiarized themselves with the woodland between their starting point and the Pussycats' Catnip Inn, Mei was less needed to keep 1-A on the right bearing.

For the fourth "Away Team", though there were seven non-runners left, it was decided that they'd all make the final push together even if it meant pushing Ochako alarmingly close to the limits of both her Quirk, as well as her stamina. Iida carried Ochako, Izuku, and Eijiro, while Genki ferried Shoto, Fumikage, and Momo. Katsuki said he could make the remainder of the trip on his own, and no-one felt like arguing. If he wanted to sweat it out in the woods, that was just fine with Genki, though Iida made an admirable show of trying to get him to accept a helping hand.

It was thusly to the sight of a depleted buffet table a couple hours or so later that Bakugou arrived to.

"Where's the food…?" he blinked. "WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THE DAMNED FOOD!?"

"Well, you see, it went like this…" Eijiro began awkwardly once Bakugou was done scaring the birds.

*Past*

"Whoo! *Huuuurgh* Made it!" Ochako cried as she finally tapped her fingers together for the last time that day, dropping herself and the remaining five passengers to the ground, Iida and Genki collapsing to the ground. Like a pit team, Momo and Mashirao ferried Iida into a lawn chair before giving him a pitcher of juice and fanning him off. Tsuyu and Mei in turn brought Genki plenty of bread rolls and water.

"Man! I can't believe we really made it this close to noon!" Kaminari sighed as he poured some water over his hair.

"What're you drenching yourself down for? You were on the first boat out of dodge," Kyoka huffed.

"Engines… burning… Thighs… cramping!" Iida panted. It was never the weight of his passengers that exhausted him, Ochako's Quirk saw to that. Instead, it was the uneven terrain and the alternating routes that had taken the most out of him.

Genki on the other hand had clearly made use of his internship with Edgeshot, bounding through the forest like some kind of… ninja anime protagonist. On top of that, he'd been leaving dabs of oil on the trees along their route to help navigate them back to the Pussycats' base with a scent trail, so he'd never gotten lost for longer than a minute on each return trip.

That the Heteromorph had been able to bring so many distinct talents together for a cohesive plan that saved time, which in the real world would've meant lives saved, was something he begrudgingly envied. While he had his brother, father, and forebearers down the Iida line to look up to and model himself upon, that Genki had taken wisdom from so many lesser-known "Underground Heroes", meant his knowledge was neither rigid nor stale.

And for someone who valued structure and a rigid adherence to the rules and guidelines, that was something difficult to accept. That someone could be so liberal out in the field and yet draw such tremendous gains.

"Um, guys, are his eyes supposed to be glowing like that?" Mina asked as Genki went deathly still in his seat, his eyes shining a vivid purple instead of their normal level brown.

"What? Glowing? That doesn't make sense…" Rikido hummed as he waved his hand in front of the Heteromorph's face, a shiver going up Izuku's spine as he recalled the last time he'd seen similarly-glowing eyes.

"Everyone! Get away from him!"

The others confused by Izuku's outcry, when Genki suddenly took to all fours and zipped toward the buffet line, instinctive feminine yells went out as the light caught his shiny brown hair and carapace. Then to all of their abject horror (if not amusement as-applicable), Genki began rapidly devouring what remained in the buffet line, using his hands instead of utensils to gorge himself like a starving animal.

"Somebody stop him! He's going to eat everything!" Iida cried as his fellow runner ravaged the table like a one-man swarm of locusts.

"Do you wanna put your hands anywhere near that?" Hanta asked with a deadpan as their currently-feral classmate snapped his head up at them, eyes shining an unnatural purple and a feral hiss leaving his lips before he resumed binging.

"Er… Perhaps I should rescind that previous statement," the Class Rep reiterated as pieces of food and unused utensils bounced across the ground.

"Smart man," Mina said patting him on the shoulder.

*Present*

"And that's what happened."

What had been left out was that in the interim that followed, Pixie-Bob tried to stake her claim on Tenya, Izuku, and Shoto three years in advance, and that Izuku got punched in the junk by Mandalay's nephew, Kota. Outside of 1-A unloading their luggage from the bus, nothing else of note occurred that Bakugou needed to know. Nor would he have likely cared.

"That damn bug…! I'LL SQUASH HIM!"

"Hey, Bakugou, cool your jets. We managed to save something for you before Genki 'Zerg Rushed' the buffet line," Kyoka said holding up a couple of Tupperware that Momo made, filled with a little bit of everything from the buffet line.

" . . . I ain't saying thanks, Ears."

"You're welcome~" Kyoka hummed as she walked away.

*MHA*

"Ah, Class 1-B! Welcome!" Iida greeted as his fellow Class Rep, Kendo Itsuka, led the bedraggled Hero Course students up to the Wild Wild Pussycats' lodge an hour after Bakugou had arrived.

Hours and hours later closer to dinner time…

"How'd… you get here… so fast?" Tetsutetsu panted.

"Oh, you know. We found a workaround~" Mina grinned. "Unrelated note; they're all out of food, so until the supply truck gets up the mountain trail, we're all going to have to settle for MREs and CalorieMate."

"Hooooh~ So Class 1-A finally reveals its true, gluttonous colors?" Monoma asked in a gleeful tone, Itsuka raising her hand to chop him on the neck, only for her exhaustion to stay her hand. "Then again, what is there to expect from the class who thinks they're so-much better than-"

"Oh. My. God," Tsunotori grumbled in English as she bopped him on the head, the equally-exhausted [Copy] user falling flat on his face.

"Thanks for that," Itsuka replied.

"No probrem~" Tsunotori grinned back in her slightly broken Japanese.

"Hey, has anyone seen Genki?" Izuku called out as he walked onto the scene. "After the last of the food got eaten, I and the others lost track of him."

"Hm, no, I don't believe any of us have seen him," Iida replied as he and Momo handed out MREs and CalorieMate from the Pussycats' emergency reserves to their exhausted peers. "Sensei?"

"Genki is still on lodge grounds, but is… recovering," Aizawa answered, pausing to find the right word.

"If he's hurting, shouldn't we airlift him to-"

"Genki's present condition is still within expected projections by his primary physician back on I-Island as well as Recovery Girl," the Erasure Hero said interrupting the vice-rep. "His health is our utmost priority, and there is nothing about his physicality to imply that he need be pulled out of the Training Camp. Simply focus on your own training and he will rejoin you when he's most able."

It was a clipped, succinct answer, one they'd come to expect from him.

" . . . Water? Fruit juice, anyone?" Iida inquired as he turned his attention back to his peers.

*MHA*

"Soooo… Just gonna come out and ask. What was up with Genki?" Ojiro asked after a dinner of MREs, CalorieMate, and some fresh provisions that'd arrived close to the end of the meal slot.

At the moment, the boys in Class 1-A were in an open-air hot spring. It was technically their second time, sans Bakugou, since they'd freshened up and soaked their exhausted bodies after lunch.

"He uh…" Izuku said glancing to those that had been at I-Tower less than a week before. Seeing that no-one else wanted to be forthcoming, he decided to speak up. "Genki got exposed to something rather… dangerous on I-Island. B-But he got patched up just fine! Though him 'Zerg Rushing' the buffet line was unexpected…"

"I assume it had something to do with his tortured soul," Tokoyami hummed from where he sat, arms crossed, referring to the unnatural purple glow of his fellow Heteromorph's eyes.

"Youuuuu could say that…" Izuku answered awkwardly. "Still, I don't think Aizawa would've let him stay if his health were at genuine risk, so I'm sure we'll see him tomorrow, give or take."

"Damn bug better keep his fucking cravings under control…!" Bakugou growled, still pissed that apart from pity-chow, there was only tasteless survival crap to eat.

*MHA*

At the same time on the girls' side.

"Kyoka, what are you looking at?" Momo inquired as her friend eyed the top of the dividing fence.

"Hm? Oh, nothing, nothing. Just forgot for a minute that Mineta isn't here anymore."

"Ugh, yeah, he would definitely try to perv on us!" Toru whined, flailing an arm above the water, her invisible body making it look like there was a cavity.

"I wonder what he's up to right now…" Tsuyu hummed.

"Do you even really care?" Kyoka asked.

"Not really, but it felt polite to ask," the cute frog-like girl answered.

"Still, I'm worried about Genki-kun…" Momo hummed, bringing her hand to her chin. "That… implement he was exposed to," she said choosing her words since Toru hadn't been present at the Tower. "It's obviously having some side-effects."

"Yeah, like when he dropped like a stone," Toru hummed. "Not that I was much better."

Thankfully, no-one could see the face she made on the way down as she flailed about like a screaming toddler.

"Still, sensei says he's fine, so I guess we'll just have to take his word for it," Ochako hummed.

"Maybe he's in the infirmary?" Mina asked aloud.

"No, Kyoka and I checked there and the boys' room. He's in neither place," Momo said with a sigh. "I can only pray that the numerous back-and-forth runs haven't hurt him after his… treatment. Perhaps if I'd given him something a little stronger-"

"Momo, 'what ifs' won't do you any good," Kyoka cut in. "All we can do is sit and wait. Either he'll be well-enough in the morning to come train with us, or he won't."

"I suppose you're right…" Momo said looking into the water despondently, Tsuyu sending the pretty girl a cross look that was largely subdued by her naturally-occurring features.

"Hey, where'd Mei go?" Ochako asked looking around, realizing they were short one.

"I think all she did was clean up before going back to our room," Kyoka hummed.

"With such a fine hot spring here?" Momo inquired curiously.

First time around she'd compared it to the one in her backyard, which of course triggered Ochako's slight complex regarding her family's socioeconomical status.

"I'm sure she'd be here if Genki were," Mina hummed, remembering Mei's somber words during what had come to be known as 'The Dakimakura Incident'. "Think she'll try to perv on him~?"

"Says the girl who oil wrestled with him~" Toru giggled.

"I doubt anyone on this side of the wall would actually try perving on them," Kyoka hummed.

"Says the girl who wire-tapped the boys' locker room~"

"Ugh, not you too!"

*MHA*

Mandaly's nephew, Kota, for his part manned the gap between the two sides.

He largely ignored what was being said, and didn't have to actually stop anyone from climbing or otherwise perving.

Nothing of real import happened for the rest of the night.

*MHA*

At the same time, down in the bowels of the Pussycats' Catnip Inn…

"So he was like this when you found him?" Aizawa asked as he stared into the dark of the basement, the light from the hallway sending a bar of light into its depths.

"Ya-huh," Tomoko Shiretoko aka the Wild, Wild Pussycat: Ragdoll nodded. "I thought he was just finding a nice quiet place to sleep all the food off, but when he winked out on me…"

"You sure he'll be safe down here?"

"If we put up a lock and a sign."

"I won't even pretend to understand how this makes sense," the Erasure Hero grumbled as he nibbled on some CalorieMate, having become well-acquainted with the texture (and/or the "flavor") over the years when the luxury of a warm meal eluded him. "I hope you don't mind, but I called in an extra instructor that wasn't on the original itinerary."

"Oh? Friend of yours?"

"In a manner of speaking," Aizawa shrugged. "Sleep tight, kiddo. We'll have someone check on you in the morning."

*Lub…Dub…Lub…Dub…Lub…Dub*

"You think he can hear us?" Ragdoll asked.

"No idea, and I'm too tired to care," Aizawa said as, without ceremony, he climbed into his sleeping bag, laid on his side, and nodded off right there in the basement hallway.

*MHA*

AN:
As far as McGuffins go, the Q.A.D. doing what it'll reveal to have done next-chapter, is pretty clever in my opinion. That idea I've been brewing since this story's earliest development phases, so I hope it'll be interesting when it comes to fruition.

Anyway, see you all next time on Young Justice: The Hunter. And remember...

GO BEYOND!

EXCELSIOR!