Hello everybody! Here's Chapter 5 of The Lost Company! Hope you enjoy a real entrance exam hehe.
But before that, the reviews!
Colossus Bridger: Yes, I am quite honnestly impatient too about the interactions possible, damn, my head is filled with ideas right now!
Indeed, we get droids! And don't worry, if B1s are goofy, comedic and dumb, THAT kind of droids is no joke. Like I said before, those ones are... Always hit head on with the main character plot armor, making them useless and weak, but I will restore them to their true valor, which is given by the lore, and maybe even enhance them a little.
Agusfedredhunter: Definitely not a Sith from the past, but battle droids they are indeed, I just... Don't want to give infos about which droid series they belong to.
Chapter 5: UA Entrance Exam (Part 2)
/
"Can someone give me a DC-17?" asked Lock, and the next moment a pistol was thrown towards him. The captain caught it skillfully, checked the energy cell of the weapon, and weighed it in his hand.
Yeah... It seemed good.
The captain kept it in hand and looked at his men... Some were checking their weapons and gear.
"Voc! You'll stay with me, I'll need a comms specialist to assist me.", ordered Lock, to which the radio responded with a nod. The sixty-three clones were very excited, almost radiating with that excitement. But Lock could still see the professionalism evident in every move. Lock smiled...
"The rules state that any support equipment is forbidden during the trial to give every participant an equal chance. You're breaking the rules! It's unworthy of future UA students!"
"But what's it to you, huh?"
Lock turned his head towards the source of the voices... And grimaced.
"It's impolite to speak like that to someone else."
"But why do I care? You're the one who showed up out of nowhere!" An outraged look bounced off a black visor without effect, but the look behind the helmet became even more irritated...
"Force…" sighed Lock, stepping forward towards the two, who were already drawing attention.
"Talking like that is not behavior—"
"Oh come on, will you shut up already?"
"Corporal Jak, calm down.", ordered the captain, the corporal in question took a step back, saluting, but Lock could still see the occasional irritated glance he sent towards the other boy... Who Lock had recognized as soon as he heard the voice... It was the boy from the auditorium, the one Lock had found even more serious than the guys from the 21st Corps... And he noticed that he had a strange habit of making a motion as if he was cutting something...
"I apologize for the corporal's attitude; unfortunately, you've encountered the hothead of the company."
The boy with glasses looked at him perplexed for a moment...
"...Company?"
"WE'RE A QUIRK, YOU DI'KUT!" Jak yelled.
Lock's head immediately snapped toward Jak, his eyes blazing with cold anger, fixing the corporal with such intensity that if his eyes could shoot lasers, the corporal would be riddled with holes.
"I thought I heard a slight buzzing, didn't you, corporal?" said Lock in a dangerously calm voice. The boy looked at him, one eyebrow raised.
"A quirk? And what does 'di'kut' mean? That doesn't sound like a known language..."
"Don't worry about the word, as for them, they're my quirk, a cloning quirk."
The boy's gaze suddenly hardened.
"In that case, you should reconsider your behavior."
Lock's jaw clenched suddenly.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Your name?"
"Yaoyorozu," Lock replied, wary...
"Yaoyorozu? Did I hear that correctly? You're not worthy of being part of such a prestigious family with that kind of behavior. You should reconsider your behavior."
The captain's eyelid twitched...
"I... You... What...?" Lock articulated between his teeth, forcing himself to restrain his anger.
Lock had never said it to anyone, not to his brothers, not even to Momo, whom he had grown close to as if he had always been in the family...
But...
This event had been the greatest of his life; he finally had a normal life... He had been made for action and had missed it, certainly, but...
There, after some battles or missions, as he and his brothers rested, he sometimes wondered what he would do after the war, if he survived, when all this would end... And given the Republic's politics and sometimes people's attitudes, no bright future awaited him...
Were they going to be discarded, forgotten, and left to their fate in a galaxy ungrateful for their sacrifices? These thoughts had long haunted Lock's mind in their universe... But now... He and his brothers had met a family that cared for them, amazing people who had given them a life, a second chance at their soldier's life, a home they could call really home...
And he, a miserable worm, dared to say that without knowing it?
It enraged him. Rage surged through him, boiling hot, adrenaline coursing through his body, he clenched his fist even tighter, his knuckles almost turning white...
That serious look... Lock felt like he was being mocked...
"HEYA LITTLE LISTENERS! IT'S ME AGAIN!" Present Mic suddenly shouted, whom Lock hadn't noticed arriving in his anger... This probably saved the captain from smashing the boy's face...
"Slana'pir shabuir," the captain spat his venom in his words before turning and walking away amidst his brothers to go listen to the new indications that will probably be given, the captain let his anger pass by taking deep breaths to calm himself...
"YOU ARE NOW IN FRONT OF YOUR EVALUATION GROUND, I WON'T REPEAT THE INSTRUCTIONS, HAVING ALREADY DONE SO IN THE AUDITORIUM, BUT I'LL ADD SOME MORE INSTEAD!"
Lock tensed, and so did his men.
"NO WORRIES! NO NEED TO STRESS OR TENSE UP LIKE YOU'RE DOING!" Present Mic remarked, sweeping his gaze over the students, as apparently Lock and his men weren't the only ones who had reacted that way.
"THE NEW RULES ARE VERY SIMPLE TO FOLLOW AND CLASSIC! NO ATTEMPTS TO INJURE OTHER PARTICIPANTS AND SECOND RULE... SURVIVE! GOOD LUCK DURING THESE 15 MINUTES!"
With a creaking of gears, the two doors of the ground opened, catching everyone off guard...
"GO AHEAD! NO TIME TO WASTE IN THE REAL LIFE!"
The students dashed forward, Lock and his men following the bulk of the group, the captain barking orders to his men as they ran.
"ALPHA AND BETA! TAKE THE LEFT FLANK, DENGLOY! YOU TAKE THEIR COMMAND! EPSILON AND GAMMA, THE RIGHT FLANK, TORDA! WITH THEM! ETA, THETA, AND LAMBDA, TAKE THE CENTER, XYOMM! GO WITH THEM! ALL THOSE I HAVEN'T ASSIGNED STAY WITH ME! SNIPERS! TAKE POSITIONS WHERE YOU HAVE A GOOD ANGLE! IF NECESSARY, SEPARATE FROM YOUR SQUAD! MEDICS! HANDLE THE WOUNDED IF THERE ARE ANY, BOTH OURS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS! GUNNERS AND AT-GUNNERS! FOCUS ON GROUPS OF 1 POINTERS OR ON THE 2 AND 3 POINTERS! ENGINEERS! SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO! FLAMETROOPERS! FOCUS ON HOSTILE GROUPS IF GUNNERS CAN'T HANDLE THOSE, COMMSMANS! VOC AND GRYM! YOU COME WITH ME TOO! I'LL NEED YOU! OYA!"
"OYA!"
His brothers responded in unison before scattering as instructed...
/
"Impressive... Such organization and obedience are rare, even in an independent cloning quirk.", Nezu remarked, "I feel like there are things not being said about them..."
Everyone remained silent, if the principal had this feeling then it meant he was probably right...
"Hey, look at the efficiency with which they engage our villain bots... They're destroyed before they can react.", noted Power Loader, as on a screen a 3-pointer was torn in two by the combined firepower of two rotary cannon wielders, lasers piercing the armor like paper before tearing through the machine's internal systems, causing it to detonate.
+3 points...
Nezu looked at all the screens, analyzing, observing... The scoreboards for each ground displayed on a tablet he held... Yaoyorozu Lock was first in everything, rescue points and destruction points, and tallied up the current points total of the top three students on the second ground, namely Midoriya Izuku, Bakugo Katsuki, and Kirishima Eijiro… And it was only the start. The principal looked at the rescue points for a long time before looking back at the screens in search of those elusive rescue points...
There, briefly on a screen, a clone knelt beside a boy who had dislocated his shoulder from a fall and expertly popped it back in.
"I'd like to point out that Mr. Yaoyorozu Lock is first in both categories, and that's on both grounds."
The other teachers stopped their contemplation of the screens where they watched the students face the machines.
"Well! He's way ahead!", remarked Midnight. And the others voiced their agreement...
"His quirk is extremely versatile. We can see that, each clone seems to have a specialty... Hmm... Let's see... There, look.", Ectoplasm stepped forward to one of the screens, pointing it out with a chin gesture.
As everyone else looked elsewhere, however, Nezu launched a new application, and on his screen appeared a single fine line, graduated...
Nezu pressed the graduated line and began to slowly ascend...
23...
39...
46...
52...
63...
79...
84...
99...
100...
Power Loader turned around, looking at him before giving a quick look at the tablet... And Nezu saw a mischievous smile form in the depths of his helmet...
The other teachers hadn't noticed anything...
Yet...
/
"ALPHA AND BETA REPORT AN ESCALATION IN THE VILLAINS BOTS' AGGRESSIVENESS!" Voc shouted to cover the ambient sounds.
"INCREASE IN THE VILLAINS BOTS' AGGRESSIVENESS REPORTED BY LIEUTENANT TORDA AND LIEUTNANT XYOMM CAPTAIN!" Grym yelled at the same time.
Lock had also noticed it.
Like they weren't actually stuck behind a pile of debris, their surroundings crackling with so much discharge that Geonosis seemed like a joke compared to this, without the explosions tho. All participants were hidden behind heaps of debris, concealed as best as they could...
"BACKBLAST!", Fog suddenly yelled, kneeling with his RPS-6 ready to fire.
"CLEAR!"
Lock shouted as everyone moved away from the ominous hole at the back of the weapon. Fog stood up completely, steadying himself while aligning a 2-pointer.
-BOOM!-
The shot pierced the exposed eardrums of the participants as the rocket went slamming into the face of the 2-pointer, which toppled over, its burnt and torn wires crackling for a moment, exposed to everyone's eyes, before the robot transformed into a fireball, blowing away the nearby 1-pointers and even causing a 3-pointer behind to lose balance.
Ignoring the metallic debris raining down on the participants and the ground, bouncing off the clones' armors, Jak got up, his Z-6 roaring to life as he unleashed his weapon's fury on the 3-pointer, which couldn't do anything as its treads were neutralized, its missile launchers destroyed, and its head obliterated by the blue lasers. The machine, deprived of its processor, slumped, and Jak switched targets, sweeping the 1-pointers who were still recovering from the 2-pointer's explosion...
Lock got up and fired a couple of times, aiming for the robots' optics, taking down one with his luck, while another was destroyed by a shot from Smoke's DC-15X into the engine. That was the last one to fall.
"WOOHOO!"
Jak shouted, punching the air with his fist, as Lock let out a sigh of relief... The villain bots had suddenly had a spike in aggressiveness that Lock had noticed, he hoped the others were alright...
/
"INCOMING!" a trooper shouted, and everyone huddled down as much as they could...
-PHIEEEWWWW...-
-BOOM BOOM BOOM BRAOM!-
In a deafening thunder, a 3-pointer fired its missile launcher, the rockets slamming into the ground with powerful explosions, explosions intended to stun or knock out the participants, but explosions nonetheless. Debris and rubble fell on them as a rocket hit a nearby building, sending debris bouncing off the clones' helmets, although Torda grimaced as a large piece of plaster smashed onto his helmet...
-BOOM!-
A rocket struck right in the middle of a group of three panicked participants, and all three were sent flying, crashing heavily onto the ground. Before Torda could do anything, the mediclones Fix and Xool darted amidst the 1-pointers' discharges towards the three teens, pulling them to cover and ensuring they were okay.
-KRAKZAP!-
There was a cry at the same time as a discharge hit something, and Arrow fell backward, seized by spasms from the sudden electric shock. Seeing this, Fix immediately abandoned the youth he was checking to Xool, to check on his brother's well-being.
Torda cursed... Kriff... What was going on. Another explosion shook the ground as a rocket exploded nearby, making the lieutenant's ears ring.
"WHAT DO WE DO, LIEUTENANT?" a trooper shouted, and Torda looked over their cover, ducking his head as a discharge narrowly missed him... Kriff... They didn't have any gunners or AT gunners in Epsilon and Gamma...
They were stuck...
From his cover, a participant emerged, seizing an opportunity, and sent an electric discharge... There was a sound of metal hitting concrete, and the retaliation forced the boy to take cover, but allowed Torda to take a look.
There were six 1-pointers, two 3-pointers preparing a new rocket barrage, and a 2-pointer coming up behind them, its four legs and scorpion-like appearance standing out from the other two models...
Noticing a lull in the barrage of discharges, four members of Epsilon squad, Corporal Incident, and troopers Shield, Canonball, and Crackpot, dared to send several shots, taking down two 1-pointers before a rocket barrage forced the four to take cover again, Torda lowering his head again as debris flew around them... Kriff... This wasn't a test anymore, it was a full-blown battlefield!
/
One of the 1-pointers, the most damaged of the four, raised its energy machinegun, attempting to find a target, but a swipe of a mechanical limb tore its head off and sent it rolling to the side, a 2-pointer presenting itself in all its power, before charging at the clones.
Three rotary cannons lined it up, and Nylimm, Ex, and Mirage opened fire in unison, the machine leaping over the first barrage, but the lasers tearing through its legs as soon as it hit the ground, eating away at them like acid, and the machine fell like a bag of potatoes, stumbling, the ruins of its legs smoking, and subsequent shots destroyed its head.
With this threat eliminated, participants rushed at the remaining 1-pointers, destroying them savagely and forcing the three gunners to cease fire...
"Sithspit... They're not holding back..." Bug, a clone from Eta squad, remarked.
A few other clones chuckled, but suddenly...
"HELP!" a cry behind them, and the clones spun around, aiming their weapons in surprise. A participant came running from a perpendicular street, eyes wide, out of breath, panic filling his eyes...
"GUNNERS, GET READY!"
The troopers carrying the rotary cannons pointed their weapons towards the corner of the street... The participant kept running towards them, looking relieved...
Like a steel monster, a 2-pointer showed up, its four legs skidding before it regained its balance... It swatted the participant like a fly with a metallic limb, sending him crashing into a wall, before its servos roared and with formidable agility the machine lunged towards them...
The Z-6 shots tore through it, and only three steps were taken...
A commotion arose from the street, and soon a large group of villains bots came rushing in…
-PHIEEEWWWW...-
-BOOM BOOM BOOM BAOM!-
Rockets slammed into the ground, sending pieces of concrete flying in all directions and smoke rising as the clones had to scatter, and the 1-pointers in the group opened fire, energy discharges flying towards the exposed squads of clones.
Several brothers fell, their bodies spasming from the shock, and some participants also took discharges, falling to the ground. The clones retaliated, accompanied by a few projectiles from quirks...
"LET'S GIVE 'EM HELL!", Uco suddenly yelled before taking a step forward. Uco was one of the few flametroopers still present, and he intended to join in the festivities.
"WE STILL HAVE A PARTICIPANT BACK THERE!" Xyomm shouted, remembering the teen who had been thrown into the wall by the 2-pointer.
"YEAH, I KNOW!", the flametrooper responded, bracing himself before unleashing Hades' inferno on the robots with his weapon. The machines' paint blistered, blackened, and dripped, and the metal heated rapidly. Uco laughed like a maniac as the systems inside the villains bots began to fry and the fuel heated up...
Until...
-KABOOM!-
The heat caused the fuel to ignite...
And detonate...
Incandescent iron fragments flew in all directions, forcing participants, and even the clones despite their armor, to hit the ground. All except Uco, who continued to laugh like a madman, braving the burning shards.
"HAHAHA! TASTE 5 LITERS OF SHLAV GAS IN YOUR FACE HAHAHAHA!"
Xyomm facepalmed as he got up once the burning metal pieces stopped falling...
However...
"HAHAHAH-?!", the flametrooper was interrupted when a monstrous metal tail, charred by flames, grabbed him and threw him backward with force. His brother screamed in fear as he passed overhead, and Xyomm followed his trajectory with wide eyes... Thankfully, he was stopped by thorns that grabbed him, preventing him from crashing to the ground.
"OPEN FIRE! SHOOT! SHOOT!" he heard Basis, a trooper from Lambda squad, shout, as the sound of a Z-6 revving up was heard amidst the crackling flames. Xyomm turned around... And hit the ground as the steel tail passed over him, sending two clones flying with cries of pain.
He pointed his DC-15S at the vague visible silhouette and unleashed a torrent of blue lasers, followed by his brothers, the smoking 2-pointer stumbling forward, swaying from side to side before collapsing, the red glow of its optics slowly fading...
However, they weren't safe yet...
-PHIEEEWWW...-
A whistle that everyone recognized and now dreaded filled the air...
"RETREAT! RUN!" Xyomm yelled as he turned on his heels, the world exploding behind him...
/
Dengloy pinned the head of the 1-pointer under his boot and emptied the energy cell of his DC-17 into the machine's processor.
"HOLD THE LINE! SHOW THEM WHAT WE'RE MADE OF!" the lieutenant shouted, changing the energy cell of his pistol, standing on a pile of debris, with the men of Alpha and Beta squads by his side, aided by a few participants.
Yellow energy beams clashed against the blue blaster lasers, the lieutenant tilted his head, narrowly being hit by an energy beam. He pointed his pistol at the 1-pointer and destroyed it with a dozen shots to the chest and head.
For now, they were managing to hold effectively behind their makeshift barricades. The lieutenant calmly descended from his pile of debris, then approached the mediclone Midnight.
"Report trooper.", Dengloy asked.
"No danger for our men hit, but Mirdip and Neex are out of commission with the electric shock they received. Hope should recover in a couple of minutes.", the mediclone replied.
The lieutenant nodded.
"What about the other participants?" the lieutenant asked, looking at the dazed and unconscious students nearby. The mediclone looked at them too.
"Out of commission for the rest of the test. Damn... We're only 9 minutes into the test and it's a damn nightmare..."
It was true. While initially the villains bots had been relatively easy to fight, they had suddenly become more aggressive and were now much more dangerous... Suddenly, someone shouted.
"LOOK OUT! THEY'RE PUSHING!" Dengloy turned his head as the remaining men of Alpha squad began to shoot, then stopped, got up in a hurry, and ran backward. A few seconds later, their barricade of debris exploded, a 1-pointer bursting through it like a reek, followed by other robots, notably a formidable 2-pointer. The lieutenant raised his pistol and opened fire, and a 1-pointer fell to the ground, destroyed by a shot to the optic.
"RE-FORM THE RANKS! HOLD YOUR GROUND! PUSH THEM BACK!" the lieutenant shouted...
/
Jak was down.
Damn 3-pointers, cursed be their missile launchers. He had only heard a worrying whistle and had just had time to yell at everyone to take cover (again) before the rockets rained down on them.
The gunner hadn't had time to take cover, and had been knocked unconscious by an explosion that lifted him off the ground. And now the clones were once again stuck behind cover, being sprayed by an increasing number of villains bots, and only able to fire sporadically to fight back.
-KRAKZAP!-
And a participant who had stuck his head out of cover fell back screaming, spasming, and Slunt pulled him back into cover, the mediclone ensuring the participant was not in any danger and had not been injured in his fall.
-PEW PEW!-
Fired back one of his brothers, before crouching behind cover as the return fire passed over or struck the debris with crackles. Voc suddenly approached Lock, getting his attention with a tap on the shoulder.
"The other groups indicate they're about to break. They're being overwhelmed.", Voc said. Lock cursed under his breath...
-PEW PEW PEW!-
-KRAKZAP!-
And a brother fell to the ground, temporarily neutralized, but neutralized nonetheless.
"Order the retreat."
The commsman looked at him for a couple of seconds more, his expression hidden behind the helmet...
"Roger that, Captain.", and with that, the clone stepped back, relayed the orders to the second communication specialist, and both began carrying out the orders. Lock himself began shouting.
"FALL BACK! PROVIDE COVERING FIRE AND RUN!"
All the clones stood up at once, opening fire in unison. The barrage of lasers destroyed several robots, which collapsed, blocking the path of the villains bots just behind. The clones took advantage of this to retreat, carrying the participants and their neutralized brothers back, scratching out a few minutes, especially as the end of the test was fast approaching...
However...
The ground suddenly shook... And a powerful explosion suddenly drowned out all other sounds...
/
"WE'RE FALLING BACK!" Torda shouted at the top of his lungs as he got up. A rocket passed just inches above his helmet with a hiss before landing a few meters away.
"Sithspit!" cursed the lieutenant, firing a couple of shots back, covering his men as the others retreated, dragging their comrades behind them. Torda himself began to back away, making sure no one was left behind.
A participant stumbled and fell on all fours. Torda stopped beside him, grabbed him by the shoulder, and pulled him up while firing at an approaching 1-pointer. Once the participant was back on his feet, Torda gave him a solid slap between the shoulder blades.
"Come on! Run!"
A beam of energy sizzled just millimeters from the lieutenant's visor, making him swear before he returned fire. However, when he turned around, he noticed that the villain bots were not pursuing them but instead retreating.
"What the kriff?" exclaimed the lieutenant.
And then, suddenly, the ground heaved in the distance before detonating in a shower of debris.
/
One step back.
-PEW PEW!-
Another step back.
-PEW PEW!-
"COVER THE PARTICIPANTS! TELL THEM TO FALL BACK! WE'RE NOT SAFE HERE!" Xyomm yelled.
The lieutenant and his men had to take a longer route due to the Uco's pyromaniac outburst. This completely blocked their path and almost killed a participant, whom they had managed to rescue. The boy had been shielded from the flames by a piece of concrete and had barely escaped the inferno. He would have a serious discussion with the trooper about this.
-PHIEEEEWWW...-
-BRAOM BOOM BAOM BOOM!-
A veritable curtain of explosions lifted dust and debris, obscuring the clones' vision. Even their helmet thermals couldn't see through it. But the clones continued to blindly fire, and Xyomm couldn't hear anything beyond his radio or even his surroundings, so filled was the air with the sounds of blasters. The energy cell of his weapon fried, and the lieutenant quickly replaced it.
However, the sound of blaster fire was suddenly drowned out by a sinister buzzing, then by a deafening explosion.
/
As soon as the order came, it was a complete rout for the clones. The once well-ordered front line had been breached, and the villain bots were wreaking havoc now that everyone was exposed. Participants and clones were sent flying through the air or collapsed after being shocked.
"RETREAT! DISENGAGE!" Dengloy's cry prompted the remaining clones to grab their injured brothers or fallen participants and pull them back, trying to avoid the furious villainous bots continuing their slaughter.
The roar of an engine behind him forced the lieutenant to dive to the side, and a 1-pointer zoomed past with two participants clinging to it, tearing through its internal systems and ripping out cables through a smoking hole, likely caused by a quirk.
The lieutenant got up just as the ground trembled violently. The villain bots suddenly retreated, seeming to flee the battle. Surprising both participants and clones... Because the machines had the advantage...
There was a second, even stronger tremor, and Dengloy started to feel slightly stressed...
Then the ground exploded in the distance...
/
"Nezu, you're devious," Power Loader remarked with an amused chuckle. All the staff in the room turned to look at him.
"What have you done?" asked Recovery Girl, her voice somewhat suspicious. Initially, the rest of the staff hadn't noticed anything... But seeing the participants starting to struggle even against a 1-pointer, the simplest of the four models, they had become suspicious of the sudden aggressiveness and disproportionate violence that the robots were displaying...
Nezu chuckled, a frightening smile appearing on his face.
"Me? Nothing too difficult! Given the great power of some participants this year..." he quickly glanced at All Might, who was the only one in the room to notice, "I decided to make things slightly more challenging... Power Loader? If you would, please explain."
The hero with the esoteric helmet had an excited smile and began his explanation. "Our dear principal asked me to install a system within the programming of the villain bots, making them more aggressive and violent than usual, it is controlled via a tablet that our principal holds there. It's purely evaluative, to see how participants fight against equivalents of real and true adversaries. The base setting on the villain bots are, to be honest, bad, it's easy to fight one, but now, they're highly dangerous."
Some were surprised by the principal's decision. "It seems, however, that you may have gone a bit overboard with the programming," remarked Recovery Girl.
To which Power Loader replied, scratching the back of his neck somewhat sheepishly, "Indeed... I may have gotten a bit carried away."
"From mistakes we learn.", declared Nezu.
"Regardless, it's impressive to see how some participants are not giving up. They continue to rack up points despite this.", said Vlad King, who had been silent since the beginning of the trial.
"It's mostly those with ranged quirks or those who think ahead. Pure brute strength won't get them anywhere like that boy there.", Eraserhead pointed to a screen where a participant with an explosive quirk was being thwarted by a 2-pointer sweeping the air in front of him to prevent the boy, who seemed on the verge of exploding in anger, from getting close enough to be effective. "He's trying to attack head-on instead of trying to play to his agility to outmaneuver the machine."
As the staff began discussing the participants, plunging the room into lively debate, Nezu turned on his tablet again and pressed a button with a mischievous smile... He took these evaluations so seriously that he sometimes let his darker side slip out... And he had a little surprise in store for the participants in the final minutes of the trial...
As the ground shook and an explosion rang out in both arenas, Snipe turned to the white chimera. "Damn, the 0-pointers now?"
The principal's smile widened, and his eyes gleamed with an even more sinister spark of mischievousness.
"We've lost him.", Present Mic sighed, noticing the mammal's expression.
"Clearly," the others chorused, with the sole exception of Eraserhead, who sighed, burying his chin in his scarf.
/
Standing tall in the sky, pieces of concrete and dust cascaded from its green armor...
A steel titan, a mechanical monster, whose engine emitted a terrifying roar as it activated, its gears and joints growling as eight red optics awakened, shining with the cold efficiency of the machine and the destruction it would cause...
It began to move, its massive treads crunching as buildings collapsed under its weight, and unfortunate villain bots found themselves in its path... Its head swayed from side to side, scanners eagerly searching for any life forms that would be its prey. Suddenly, alerts were recorded by the central processor as something struck the side of its head, an explosion tearing through the metal and damaging circuits.
The 0-pointer isolated the affected area, diverting electricity from the destroyed circuits, redirecting it via other cables to continue supplying the main systems... The massive machine turned its head, searching for the author of this attack, and soon spotted the fool who had dared to damage it. Its optics zoomed in, scanning...
A projectile weapon, a rocket launcher...
Pivoting in the narrow space of the street, helped by its arms that dug deep marks in the buildings it gripped, its treads crushed concrete under the pressure exerted, the machine moved towards its target, slowly but surely. Another rocket struck its chest, but it continued...
Suddenly, the audacious one ran... The machine pushed on its engine, and the 0-pointer accelerated slightly... Arriving at the last known location of the reckless organic who had dared to shoot at it TWICE, it was distracted by an explosion in the other arena, lifting its massive head, it watched as one of its kind had its head crushed by an impact to the face, the metal twisting inward, circuits exploding, before it collapsed, destroyed.
A cold indignation arose in the machine's processor... How dare these organics... DEFY them! It turned its attention back to its arena, continuing to search for the fool who had shot at it... However... There were several hundred alerts in an instant, and its circuits fried all at once as its shell was pierced like butter by hundreds of blue lasers... Its main systems annihilated, its cables torn... It was its end...
/
-BRAAAAA!-
The end... Finally...
The other participants cheered, relieved, and those who knew each other slapped each other on the back in friendly gestures...
Someone laughed...
"They're really crazy, huh? I HAD A BLAST HAHAHA!", exclaimed Crackpot, a trooper from Epsilon squad, spreading his arms and casting a glance at the rest. Weak laughter responded here and there, everyone was tired.
It had been a very intense 15 minutes.
They had done a tremendous job.
Pulling the wounded to safety, running everywhere, shooting, annihilating enemies, everyone had given their all in the company.
Lock could almost swear it was Geonosis all over again... And now there would be things to sort out once they got back...
Counting the ammunition and equipment used, checking for damage to armor, if any, tending to injuries here and there... In short... Their day was far from over... And then there was the present moment. Robots approached, and the wounded were deposited there, fortunately not with major injuries, but the sudden spike in violence from the villain bots had caused some fractures and other injuries.
The mediclones had tried to handle it with what they had, but it was insufficient, luckily, his vods have not sustained those kind of wounds, only scratches and bruises thanks to their armor.
Crackpot was right, it was crazy to do that to kids, but at least the company had been able to immerse themselves in combat like before, and honestly, such intensity had probably done them all some good. It had been a while.
"Do you mean WE'RE the crazy ones for enjoying this kind of chaos!" Mag replied with a smirk behind his helmet. Crackpot shrugged.
"Maybe!"
As if relieving some of the weight of fatigue, the company finally celebrated the end of the trial. Slaps on the back here and there. Little checks between squadmates, jokes, in short, laughter and pure tomfoolery.
But when they said pure tomfoolery, it was to such an extent that other participants looked at them as if they were crazy... Out of the corner of his eye, Lock saw two figures in white armor trying to slip away from the group...
"Warden, Focus.", called the captain. The two clones froze... and slowly turned... Lock pointed in the other direction.
"Wrong direction, the second arena is to the left."
The two clones looked at each other for a few seconds.
"Thanks, Captain."
/
His arm hurt...
It was a sharp, burning pain when he tried to move his arms and legs, and a dull ache when he did nothing...
Well, at least, Uraraka-san hadn't been injured any worse than she already was, which was a broken leg.
But as he saved her, he had used One For All like a brute, at 100%, without training... And had paid the heavy price for it...
"Kriff... You took a real beating, Izuku...", a familiar filtered voice said out of his field of vision. Izuku turned his head on the stretcher carried by two assistant robots and smiled despite his pain.
"Warden, Focus... Are you both alright?"
Warden chuckled...
"I am, Focus is another story."
The other clone grunted, annoyed, but didn't reply...
"You teased him, huh?" Izuku asked.
"Yep! As soon as we celebrated with the rest of the company! Focus took no less than 2 hits when he was with the captain! Right, Focus?"
The other clone grunted again. Warden stopped teasing him and removed his helmet. Izuku could see that he had sweated a lot and that he was really tired, but his eyes betrayed his concern at seeing him in this state.
"Are you going to be okay? What happened?"
Izuku grimaced, looked around to see if anyone was nearby, and replied.
"I... used One For All at 100%... It... well, you can see what state I'm in..."
The greenette noticed a slight tremor in the two clones...
"You're going to recover? Force... Your quirk really hit you hard there... Why did you decide to use it at 100% anyway?"
Concern from Warden started to surface... The boy could swear he was starting to have the same attitude as his mother.
"I was a bit forced by the circumstances, Uraraka-san was about to be crushed by a 0-pointer..."
"In the name of our friendship, please, try not to overexert yourself. If you don't feel capable of using it without breaking a bone, don't use it. It's like a weapon, don't use it if you see it's defective, it could blow up in your face at any moment... Come to us or go ask All Might, we may not be very useful for One For All... But if you need advice, don't hesitate."
Izuku nodded...
"By the way... Thank you for your help in my training... What you taught me was very helpful."
"Oh yeah?" asked Focus, speaking for the first time since the beginning of their conversation, to which Izuku nodded in agreement.
"Yep! I managed to destroy a 1-pointer without damaging its armament. It was child's play to create a little cover with the armor plates of the machine and turn it into a machine gun nest and help the participants around if they were hit...", but suddenly Izuku remembered something he wanted to say earlier, "Did you also notice that the violence of the machines increased?"
The two clones looked at each other...
"Yeah... We noticed it immediately..."
"Do you know the reason?"
"Yes, probably an additional difficulty to lower the selection criteria. The most successful ones will thus be highlighted for the hero track, not just brute strength, but also courage..."
"I see... A test within a test... That's what I also thought…"
Warden smiled, before putting an arm on the green-haired boy's shoulder, being careful not to hurt him.
"Get well soon, we'll see each other at UA, right?"
The boy returned a smile to his armored friend.
"See you at UA."
Warden stepped back as the assistant robots finally began to move to take him to the infirmary, muttering something about organics, and Izuku gave one last smile to the two clones before he could no longer see them, really hoping that their 'brother' as they called their creator, had passed the test, so he could be with his two friends...
/
Warden returned the smile, before Izuku disappeared from their view.
"He took quite a hit... All Might never said it could do that kind of damage...", remarked Focus, to which Warden shrugged, although the worry persisted.
"Don't worry, vod, he's tough, you saw it yourself, kriff, he still managed to clear an entire beach covered in debris! He's not the kind of kid to give up.", Focus continued...
"I know... But... I may not be a doctor, but he really took a beating... Remember what we promised each other... We stick with him, no matter what happens. Sithspit, if I have to I-"
"Calm down. You'd think you're a mother whose baby just got born. I remember what we promised each other, but you're worrying too much. I'm worried too, but reacting like you are right now won't help anything. He'll recover. Come on, the rest will leave without us and we'll wander around like two idiots on campus. Especially since there's no one else around."
Warden nodded, put his helmet back on, and two ran, the sound of their boots hitting the ground soon fading away...
/
Momo sighed as she stretched in her chair...
Finally...
At the same moment, Nezu entered the room, back from his observation for the physical exams of the non-recommended students and probably from the teacher's lounge after discussing with the rest of the staff what they had seen... The raven-haired girl wondered how her vods had performed... She hoped they had succeeded...
"Your time is up! Please finish what you were doing and put down your pens!" exclaimed the principal with a smile, which, though calm and friendly, suggested that the principal had just come out of a fit of madness.
The raven-haired girl put her pen down at the corner of her table and waited, the principal walked around the four tables, collecting the sheets, standing there looking at them for a good minute as if analyzing them, sometimes flipping through them... Before moving on to the next table, allowing the student from whom he had just collected the sheet to leave, but indicating to wait in the hallway. And finally, he picked up Momo's sheet.
The raven-haired girl could have sworn time slowed down as the principal looked at her sheet with the same attention... He opened his mouth, and Momo felt her heart skip a beat. Was he going to say something about her sheet?
"I imagine you're worried about your adoptive brother, aren't you? Be assured, Yaoyorozu-san, he did very well."
His gaze lifted from the sheet to settle on her, and he gave a friendly smile.
"You can go. Just like the others, wait for me outside the room."
Momo suppressed all the stress she had felt in the past minute, and she stood up, made a short bow and thanked the principal, before leaving the room. The three other recommended students were each in their own corner, not paying attention to each other... Momo leaned against a wall, and stayed there for a while... A time that seemed quite long, before the white chimera came out of the room, looking satisfied, and asked them to follow him.
The raven-haired girl made sure to be at the end of the group, as the tall teen led them through corridors, the tall teen was completely lost, the building was so large...
They went through a corridor, took a flight of stairs, found themselves in another corridor, crossed it, turned right, then left, then right again, took another flight of stairs, another corridor, another staircase, and so on, until they finally arrived outside. A sort of sports field, not very wide, but not very small either, surrounded by a small forest.
There was a running track that circled the field, four tables, and... Momo's eyes narrowed... Four robots marked with the number 1... She hadn't expected a duel...
"Welcome, recommended students, to your physical exam! Lighter than those of your fellow participants, you will have three tests. A race, a demonstration of your quirk, and finally a duel against a 1-pointer to see how you fare. The tests will be in the following order, demonstration, race, and duel. Your jury will be composed of myself, Mr. Vlad King, Mr. Eraserhead, and Mr. Present Mic. Our nurse, Recovery Girl, will also be present in case of injury. You are allowed to use your quirk during all the tests, and you are forbidden to try to harm other participants, after all, our exam must be fair for everyone. I invite you to go change in the locker rooms in suitable attire, then you can go to your demonstration table."
The raven-haired girl nodded, before heading to the locker rooms, where she entered, going to the part dedicated to girls. A uniform was waiting for her, folded on one of the benches... As she changed, the tall teen gained confidence...
She had trained with her vods, soldiers, so she was in good physical condition, and she had learned a few things.
"Come on, Momo. You can do it. You've trained for this. It's your dream. Come on.", murmured Momo as she emerged from the locker rooms in sportswear... However, she couldn't hold back the 'OYA!' that escaped her as she headed towards her demonstration table... She blushed suddenly, embarrassed, placing a hand in front of her mouth as she looked around... The three other participants looked at her slightly surprised, even though Endeavor's son had only raised an eyebrow with a cold look. And even caught the school staff off guard for a few seconds, before Present Mic let out a laugh.
"ENTHUSIASM IS WELL PRESENT!"
Eraserhead next to him gritted his teeth because of the loud volume in his ears.
"Hizashi!" grumbled the tired man between his teeth, annoyed. It brought a smile to Nezu's face before he turned to the four participants.
"You may begin. Your goal is to destroy this table, in any way you want. Go ahead."
Barely had the principal finished saying the sentence that there was a loud sound of crystallization, and an intense cold filled the area. The raven-haired girl shivered and turned her head. In front of Endeavor's son, instead of the table, there was an imposing glacier, the table was actually mostly scattered into small pieces...
Once she recovered from her surprise, she focused on her table despite the chilling air... Hmm... Oak... A solid oak table... Very resistant. Even an explosive could go off and the table would still hold... How could she do it...
A gust of air cooled the air even more, as a veritable hurricane raged over the table of the short-haired boy next to her, lifting the table high into the air before slamming it forcefully onto the ground, shattering it to pieces...
And next to her, the lipless boy literally liquefied the table...
And everyone was looking at her now...
So, she did the craziest thing she could imagine.
Turning around, she lifted the t-shirt of her uniform... There was a glow as she created what she needed... A cannon. But not just any cannon... She had rigged up something and combined it with everything that could increase her firepower.
In short... A mishmash of things she had created that did everything to throw as much power as possible...
"Kriffing hell Screwball… You're starting to rub off on me with your crazy ideas," the ravenette murmured to herself...
/
"Hey! Screwball! Everything okay?" asked Corporal Incident, tapping the engineer's shoulder... Tears were flowing from under her helmet... Screwball was crying...
"It's the most beautiful day of my life..."
"Why?"
"I don't know, I have a feeling..."
There was a distant explosion...
/
-KA-BOOM!-
The cannon fired, shaking the ground. All things considered...
"Sithspit... Maybe I should have added more systems to absorb the recoil, and I may have abused the firepower a little too much," Momo noted, arms crossed, hand under her chin, looking pensive, speaking out loud, like a mad inventor, as she contemplated what was left of the table, which was nothing, then the cannon, the recoil of which sent it about thirty meters into the trees surrounding the field. Strangely... It was the trees that had taken the most damage...
"Hizashi, I think we found something louder than you."
The blond cockatoo looked scandalized at Eraserhead.
"Shota!"
"Well, that aside! Interesting demonstrations, each as unique as the other... And for some, quite noisy.", Nezu began. Momo blushed slightly...
"Now let's move on to the race! You'll need to run three laps in a row! You're allowed to use your quirks, but remember not to harm your fellow participants! Line up at the starting line!"
The ravenette positioned herself as if she were going to run the Olympic 100 meters, an event which, by the way, had lost popularity to other competitions.
"GO!" shouted Present Mic.
And Momo sprinted off... Running faster than the boys despite her weight of 200kg, thanks to her vods for their morning routine...
However, with quirks allowed, Momo was soon overtaken. Endeavor's son passed by her while surfing on his ice, closely followed by the short-haired boy who used his wind to push himself forward, the two being very close to each other... Momo decided to give herself a little boost too... And created a kind of booster that she placed on her back, she also created another one for the lipless boy, who would have no chance otherwise, as the two missiles were already passing by her, already on their second lap.
Jumping into the air, she activated her jetpack, flying up and quickly catching up, however, this did not stop her from crossing the finish line about 25 seconds after the other two. The lipless boy arrived about ten seconds after her, dizzy and green.
She approached with a smile.
"You did well. First time?"
The boy nodded.
"Yes. And I hope it's the last time... Almost as horrible as roller coasters..."
Momo chuckled amusedly.
"Thank you, though, for the help you gave me, my quirk wasn't suitable for the challenge..."
"No problem. It was a pleasure to help," the ravenette replied. The boy returned her jetpack, but an interaction caught her attention, Endeavor's son and the other boy... Whatever had just happened, the short-haired boy was shooting lightning glares at the dual-haired boy.
But Nezu drew attention back to himself.
"Well done to all for your race, but now, your duel! You'll go one by one, quirks allowed."
Momo went last... And the duels went by very quickly.
Endeavor's son froze the robot.
The short-haired boy tore it apart with a tornado.
The lipless boy ensnared it by liquefying the ground before ripping off its head.
And then it was Momo's turn. She stepped forward, the machine awakening in front of her, looking around for a few seconds before locking onto Momo. The ravenette stood there, a Bo-staff in hand, ready to use her bojutsu skills to defeat the opponent.
The machine attacked in close combat, preceding its charge with a burst of rays that surprised Momo, kriff, this thing had blaster-like weapons, probably a stun mode equivalent. She dodged to the side and began to dance between the machine's blows. Blocking and attacking skillfully against the clumsy technique of the robot, which became more aggressive the longer the duel continued, until Momo had no time to catch her breath. She ducked and struck the blow that was aimed at her head, deflecting it into the ground before backing away hastily, narrowly avoiding the blow from the second limb of the 1 pointer, she had to do something...
'What could be done against this kind of opponent...'
Momo wondered as she created a shield, blocking another blow. The robot, however, paused for a moment in the face of this new variable and suddenly became more cautious...
An attempted blow here and there, testing Momo's defenses... Feeling out the ground before attacking...
"Kriff, you've got some smarts in your mechanical brain..." Momo grumbled.
The machine stopped attacking, backed off... And started showering her with shots. Fortunately for her, the machine was not trying to aim for her legs, but the upper part of her body... And she finally had an idea.
She lowered her guard for a moment, exposing herself to the shots that grazed her, before using her Bo-staff as a projectile, like a javelin, propelling it towards the machine, which stopped shooting to dodge, and Momo charged at it, grabbing her shield with both hands, she jumped... And brought it down with all her might on the machine's head. The metal of the shield and the machine bent, and the glowing red optic exploded under the force of the blow... Then the ravenette fell back, and her 200kg caused the machine to topple backward from the impact.
The 1 pointer struggled to try to get up, but Momo didn't give it that chance. Using her shield, she repeatedly struck its head with savagery, cursing and swearing in Mando'a, English, and Japanese mixed with such fervor that it would have made even the crudest of men blush.
And she didn't calm down until she was sure the machine wouldn't move an inch. And even then, she couldn't help but mutter, "Damn clanker." Thanks once again to her vods who said that when the toaster was acting up. And when she turned around... She blushed with embarrassment noticing the stunned and amazed expression of the staff and the other participants (except, of course, Endeavor's son)...
"Sorry, I got carried away..." she said sheepishly.
"I see..." Nezu replied, the first to regain composure, "That was rather unexpected, but at least you finished. Good."
He adjusted his tie.
"Your physical examination is over! You can now leave the establishement! Oh, and also, Miss Yaoyorozu, your brother and his clones insisted on staying to wait for you, you'll find them in the cafeteria, Mr. Eraserhead will show you the way."
With that, the tired man got up with a groan as if from a nap, stretched his neck, and gestured for Momo to follow him...
The pair walked in silence the entire way, the man keeping his hands in his pockets, and Momo walking behind him lost in thought...
However, the silence soon gave way to a dreadful racket when the pair arrived at the cafeteria...
Her vods were engrossed in all the post-combat checks they must have been accustomed to from their soldier days, but as soon as she entered, the racket intensified, the troopers exclaiming in surprise at her arrival, getting up to greet her, or hug her for some.
She felt good, surrounded by her vods, in this fraternal atmosphere that her brothers created.
And finally Lock approached. He was the only one without a helmet in the whole group, and the ravenette noticed his fatigue, but also the scratches and bruises here and there...
"Dang, what happened?" Momo worried.
"Nothing... It was just intense, it's been a while since I've had this kind of fights..." Lock replied.
Momo looked at him, concerned.
"Didn't go as planned?"
Lock laughed.
"Not at all, those damn machines went berserk, damn... They unleashed total hell on the boys..."
Momo nodded slowly...
"We'll take care of everyone once we're back home, okay?"
Lock smiled.
"Okay vod."
Glad Omen didn't spoke up before the entrance exam, because damn our clone boys wouldn't have gotten any moral after that XD. So, you noticed it, it was said, it was shown. Villain bots got an upgrade. Honnestly... It was an idea I came with... Just yesterday, and I changed the whole end of Lock's and the boys physical exam.
And it's only here for plans in the future. So... Yeah.
Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!
(And Momo needs help her vod's habits rub off on her... Quite badly.)