The final thirty-two who survived the first round of the Sports Festival had teamed up in their groups of four, ready for the next challenge. They all found themselves standing on the edges and sides of the huge arena, facing the pro-heroes in the middle, who were all facing a different direction. Dotted around the perimeter were a number of waist-high walls, providing cover for the students once the bout began. Izuku and Uraraka felt their fingers twitch inside their respective support gloves, while Mei twisted her wrist to select her ammo with a serious look on her face. Shinso didn't have any gadgets to fiddle with, so he just stood there trying to look cool.
"Ready, set, Go!"
Every group of students broke out into a sprint towards the pros.
A week earlier, Gang Orca, Kamui Woods, Punchgate and Pixie-Bob had been invited to Principal Nezu's office with an urgent request. They hadn't been given any proper information, but now sat on tiny chairs that barely fit them, while Nezu sat on a comfy leather armchair and sipped from a fancy teacup. The others had all been given teacups too, but so far only Pixie-Bob dared to drink from hers.
Nezu slurped his tea loudly and then put it down with a smile. "So, you must be wondering why I called you here today?"
Cutting to the chase, Gang Orca spoke up. "If this is about the Sports Festival, I don't tend to do last-minute security gigs."
Laughing, Nezu answered him, "Oh no, no, no! I have something much more fun in mind for you four!"
Punchgate raised an eyebrow and asked, "What do you have in mind, sir?"
Leaning forward and with a gleam in his eye, Nezu responded, "How would you feel about beating up some of my students?" The shocked expressions on three of the four heroes' faces amused him greatly, except for Gang Orca who seemed unconcerned. "Don't worry, nothing too harsh. Just enough to spice things up!"
Back in the present day, the pro heroes sprang into action as soon as the signal was given. Gang Orca and Kamui woods soared into the air and landed with loud thuds on opposite sides of the arena, sending dust and debris flying. Gang Orca unleashed his strength and smashed a fist into the ground, creating a powerful shockwave that knocked a few students off their feet and sent them tumbling backwards. Kamui Woods used his quirk to stretch his wooden limbs and whipped them around the arena at a dizzying speed, pulling himself around at breakneck speed and tripping anyone who got in his way.
Meanwhile, Pixie-Bob used her Earthflow to make constructs burst out of the arena floor, forming a protective barrier around her from the sudden onslaught of student's projectiles. Punchgate activated his own quirk and began opening glowing orange portals, darting around the arena with ease.
The students all did their best to dodge, fight back and cooperate with their teammates, but they were clearly outmatched by their opponents - especially in terms of raw power. Pixie-Bob had created what looked like golems made of soil and rocks, which occupied most of the students' attention. The crowd cringed in unison as they saw Neito Monoma get hit by a massive gravelly fist and get hurled across the arena like a ragdoll. Some students, seeing how futile it was to fight like the combat-oriented students, decided to focus on grabbing bandanas without getting into direct conflict. Others waited for an opening to make their move.
Team Midoriya sprinted around the edge of the arena as one, dodging the flying debris and the relentless attacks of Pixie-Bob's monsters. "I have a plan!" Izuku yelled to his friends, "We should go after Punchgate! He's the only one who depends on support gear, we have an advantage!"
They narrowly avoided a chunk of dirt that flew past them and hid behind one of the low walls to catch their breath and plan their strategy. "Ugh!" Shinso said, annoyed, "They're not holding anything back! Half of the students here aren't even in hero classes! Alright Midoriya, what's your plan, how are we handling this?"
"Okay, this is everything I know about Punchgate," Izuku said. "His quirk is called Momentum Gate, it lets him create portals between two points, but how far they let him travel depends on how fast he's moving when he makes them. He can open portals with any body part, but he usually makes them by running because it gives him the most control over their placement. He can also make them when he's falling, and at different angles. He can have 10 pairs of portals at a time, but they close after 30 seconds."
Uraraka was stunned, "How do you know so much about his quirk?! I hadn't even heard of this guy until today!"
Cackling, Mei grinned and said "You see that bracelet he's wearing, and the shoes?"
"I designed those." Izuku finished.
Shinso felt a headache coming on as he rubbed the back of his neck and sighed, "What kind of people have I gotten myself mixed up with…" He muttered to himself.
Not paying any attention to him, Izuku kept on explaining his plan. "The bracelet has a screen that shows him how many portals he's opened and how much time is left for each one, it also has a speedometer that shows him how far the next portal will be based on his speed. There's a dial too that he can turn to set the speed he needs to go for the distance he wants, and the shoes give off a small vibration when he's reached the right speed."
"If we can mess with the gear, he'll be in big trouble!" Mei said, with a sinister glint in her eyes. "We might be able to make him lose control of his portals!"
"Okay, we have a plan then…" Shinso nodded, trying to sound confident. "But how are we going to pull it off?"
—
On the other side of the arena, Gang Orca found himself dealing with a sixteen on one situation. It was no trouble for him, really. As the number 10 hero in the country he had faced far worse odds in his career. In fact, he'd fought a bigger group of trigger dealers in the city this morning before he even came to the stadium!
The real problem he was having was remembering these were first year students who had barely started their training, and he had no idea how much they could endure. Obviously he didn't want to injure them too badly, lawsuits were a headache and he didn't like the idea of hurting children at the best of times, but he also didn't want to make it too easy for them. He decided to use about 6% of his usual power, but that was still enough to crack a couple of ribs.
As a result of his going easy on them, some of the kids had managed to grab onto his body and started climbing him like a giant tree. Two of them were especially stubborn, one who could turn his body to stone and another who could turn his body to steel. They both had potential to be good sidekicks someday… No, he had to focus!
With a flex of his muscles, he threw all the students off his body like it was nothing, them all landing in a heap around him.
"Team Kirishima have rocketed into first place!" Shouted Present Mic, "Bad luck, Gang Orca!"
"What?!" Gang Orca looked to his side and saw that both the bandanas on his right arm were missing. Oh, it's on now.
Around the same time, Tenya Iida managed to get an advantage over Pixie-Bob, using a powerful burst of speed to destroy the lion-like construct she had been riding around the arena. That extra effort paid off as his team got three bandanas from her.
—
Izuku waved a finger in the air as he did some mental calculations while watching Punchgate zip around the grounds, and muttered to himself. "Murmur murmur carry the two, mutter mutter divided by the square root of…"
"What's he doing?" Uraraka asked, unable to understand what Izuku was trying to figure out. Or was he just going mad?
Mei looked just as confused, but for a different reason, "You really can't tell? What do they even teach you in these hero courses?!"
Smiling to himself, Izuku clapped his hands as he finalised his calculations. "Alright, I got it!" He said, as he casually moved one step to the side, right in the path of an orange portal that opened directly in front of him. Punchgate emerged from the portal and immediately stumbled, not expecting to see a student in his path. He'd planned this portal perfectly to avoid this group of kids, so what the hell?! He and Izuku fell to the floor in a heap due to the momentum, only to have his wrists grabbed by the incredible strength offered by the Strike Gauntlets. There was a surge of panic as he realised he couldn't move his arms, how was he supposed to punch open a portal if he couldn't move his arms?!
"NOW!" Izuku shouted, as Uraraka slapped a hand on Punchgate's back and used her quirk to remove his gravity, causing him to float aimlessly in mid-air and struggling to free himself from Izuku's grip. He felt a wave of nausea and confusion as he lost his sense of direction, and couldn't control the opening of his portals.
"What the hell is this?!" He shouted, trying to kick his legs to swim through the air but failing miserably. He even tried opening a portal by moving his head quickly to the side, but even then there was no way to get through it! "Let go of me!"
Shinso calmly walked over to the scene with his hands deep in his pockets and wearing a smug expression. "Hey, how does it feel to get outsmarted by some children?"
"You just got lucky!" Punchgate snapped back.
"Gotcha." Shinso said, smirking, as he felt the hero fall under his control.
With Punchgate incapacitated, Mei took the opportunity to fire off a few of her lower-voltage stun pellets at his bracelet and shoes, short-circuiting the gear inside them. The pellets were harmless to humans, but could fry pretty much any electronic device and had been tailor-made just for situations like this. The other three members of the team cleared their opponent of bandanas entirely, taking every single one of his points. The advantage they just gained in the competition was huge!
"WOAH!" Came the loud voice of Present Mic once more, "Team Midoriya just netted themselves an UNBELIEVABLE uh… How many points did they just get?"
Eraserhead answered, "218,450 points."
"TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN THOUSAND ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Looks like Team Midoriya just put a huge target on their own heads!"
Team Midoriya looked around in fear, feeling the giant red beacon that must be flashing over their heads right now. They just made themselves the biggest threat in the arena and everyone would be after them specifically!
"I didn't know that was a part of this!" Mei yelled, "I thought we got to keep the bandanas!" Immediately after saying this, she saw Mezo Shoji barreling towards them with Tsuyu on his back, both determined to grab some points.
Uraraka felt a wave of nausea wash over her as she struggled to keep punchgate in the air, and knew she was going to have to let him drop soon, "Ulp, I'm gonna hurl…"
Springing into action, Izuku divided the bandanas into two halves and handed some to Uraraka. He shouted, "Don't worry, we got this! Uraraka, you take these, do whatever you need to keep them away from the other students! Shinso, you snap Punchgate out of it! I swear I'm going to make sure you get to the finals!"
Shinso nodded and slapped Punchgate hard on the back of the head right as Uraraka released her quirk. Punchgate groaned and opened his eyes, only to see Tsuyu's tongue headed straight toward them. Reacting on instinct, he punched open a new portal and dove through it, barely even registering the lack of bandanas he now held. With the points clutched in his hand, Izuku jumped in after him.
Out of options, Uraraka removed the gravity from her set of bandanas and decided to do something risky. Throwing them as hard as she could into the air. The bandanas floated far, far into the sky, away from the chaos on the arena floor and far enough that not even Tsuyu's tongue could reach them.
—
Meanwhile, Team Todoroki, made up of Shoto Todoroki, Juzo Honenuki, Mina Ashido and Hiro Kazutani (Mina's decision) were making some fantastic headway of their own thanks to Mudman's quirk. Trapped up to her waist, Pixie-Bob struggled to escape even while trying to create constructs underneath her. They just kept turning to mush again and again.
"Grrr, darn it!" she relented, as the students got the points from her head and arms. Along with a lucky bandana that had fallen from Kamui Woods as he moved around the arena at high speeds, they now had an impressive 126,130 points, getting them far into second place. Only issue now was, they were the target.
Todoroki had a plan, and like most of his plans, it involved a lot of ice. Seeing the horde of students coming straight for his team's bandanas, he knew he had to act fast, and slammed a hand on the ground. Immediately a vast sheet of ice spread out from his fingertips, covering almost the entire arena floor. Everyone who stepped on it lost their balance and began to slip and slide all over the place. This included Izuku, still trying to follow Punchgate
One of the students aiming for Todoroki's collection of bandanas was Akari Hana of the support course! She was part of Team Hagakure, and so far they hadn't managed to collect a single point, much to her consternation. With a wicked look on her face, she pulled the cables connecting to the sunflower backpack she had worn to the event, making the flower spin faster and faster.
With pollen releasing into the air, the allergens sprinkled down upon her, as her face got more and more crazed and her eyes got more and more bloodshot. "Don't worry, gang! I got this!"
Over in the teacher's stand, Power Loader's eyes widened as he recognised the danger of the situation. All too familiar with Hana's quirk, he jumped from his seat and waved his arms as he tried to stop her. He shouted, "HANA! NO! THAT'S TOO MUCH!"
But it was too late.
Hana felt a huge pressure in her nose and mouth, and couldn't hold it back any longer.
"Ahhhhh….Ahhhhhhhhhh…."
Every single person in the crowd seemed to instinctively know that something was about to happen. Time slowed, as Power Loader cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled "HIT THE DECK!"
"AAHHHHCHOOOOOOOO!"
A sudden blast of hot air filled the arena, as a massive burst of fire shot out of Hana's face. It was like a flamethrower, but bigger and stronger, and it engulfed half of the arena in flames threatening to burn everything in its path. People barely had time to react, but Todoroki was on it. He unleashed an enormous wall of ice in an attempt to block the flames, which licked around the edges of the makeshift barrier. Students on the edges dove for cover or tried to run, but most were lucky enough to be behind the ice.
As quickly as it happened, the fire stopped coming. Hana wiped her nose and giggled nervously, "Oopsie, my bad!" she said, as the crowd surveyed the devastation in the arena. Small fires were still burning in random areas and the fire suppression robots had to be called worked fast and efficiently, but the damage was done, the arena was charred and smoky and more than one person was completely knocked out.
One of them was Kamui Woods, dizzy-eyed, unconscious, and bandana-less on the edge of the arena. The fire had completely destroyed all his points.
Present Mic couldn't believe what had just happened. "I said it once, I'll say it again! POWER LOADER, WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING THESE KIDS?! The 10 million point bandana is out of commission along with Kamui Woods! What an incredible day this is turning out to be for the Sports Festival! You don't get this at Shiketsu, that's for damn sure!"
"What a splendid show!" Principal Nezu laughed to himself, pouring himself another cup.
Izuku meanwhile, was unbelievably thankful that Punchgate had good enough control over his quirk to get him on the other side of the arena away from the fire; some other students had hitched a ride through the portals too. He stood panting next to his teammates, their points still firmly clutched in his hands.
—
With one 10 million point bandana unavailable, every competing student's eyes immediately locked on to Gang Orca. He sighed to himself, and tensed his muscles, causing a small shockwave to emanate from his feet. Maybe it was time to start playing for real. He began to run towards the crowd of students, pushing people out of the way, throwing some, tackling and dodging. These kids clearly weren't as helpless as he'd first assumed!
Unfortunately, the shock of the fire and the new threat of Gang Orca had caused Uraraka to lose her control on the floating bandanas, which had begun to float back down to earth. Punchgate was the first to notice, tossing down a portal at a 45 degree angle and rocketing himself skyward. With a fistful of bandanas back in his possession, Team Midoriya's point total shrank to 54,610, putting them in second place.
Mei was not pleased about this, they had come this far and there was no way she was leaving without giving it her all! Plus goddamn Ultra! She stood almost imperceptibly still, but her eyes skipped back and forth, all the chaos and noise of the arena completely devoid to her.
Uraraka looked at her concerned, then at Shinso. "Did you do this?"
"Don't look at me! This is all her!" Shinso protested.
"It's fine," Izuku assured them, "She's figuring things out."
Suddenly, Mei smiled, lifted her arm and twisted her wrist a few times. "You guys might want to cover your eyes. DISTRACTOR SHOT!" she yelled, before firing off a projectile straight toward one of Punchgate's still open portals.
As soon as it hit the portal, blindingly bright lights flashed forth as a blaring siren played. Exiting one portal it kept travelling and entered another, expelling more light and sound. Out of one portal, into another, into another, lights and sounds blanketing the arena until the entire ground was covered in bright flashes and a cacophonous siren. Students could barely see, but Mei knew EXACTLY where Gang Orca was! Going by memory alone, she ran headlong into danger!
There was a mad dash of students heading straight for the temporarily blinded Gang Orca. The light dissipated as Mei reached up to grab the 10 million point bandana…But it was gone?!
"THE FINAL STRETCH, 10 SECONDS REMAIN!" Shouted Present Mic. "WHERE IS THE BANDANA?! WHERE IS THE 10 MILLION POINTS?!"
Slowly, the unassuming sweetheart of the support course Kuri Kuri, opened his chestnut shell, revealing the 10 million points bandana wrapped around his head.
"KURI KURI HAS THE POINTS! TEAM KIRISHIMA WINS!"
