Chapter Ten
Deku and Iida jogged off, Mina walking up to me. "Wish me luck!"
"Good luck," I replied, "don't underestimate them."
"Pfshaw, they better not underestimate me!" she shot back, smiling as she headed out, following the guy who could talk to and command animals, who was looking incredibly nervous.
The cameras were already tracking both pairs, and we could see Deku say something to Iida who raced off with his Quirk even as Izuku broke out into a run. Confused, I watched as Tenya got to the building and raced up the stairs, coming to the top-floor and the bomb, in an identical room as the last several fights.
However, instead of preparing the space the man picked up the 'missile'. Carefully maneuvering it down the hallways, then the stairs, he met Midoriya as they carried it into a room on the third floor, in the darkened maze of hallways covered in thin metal panels, without any windows. Picking a room, seemingly at random, they tucked the 'missile' away, snug with the inside corner, and then made a few trips up to the top floor to grab boxes, wood sheets, and other clutter, bringing it down and covering the 'missile' with it. Then, they moved to the room on the opposite side of the hall, and waited.
A quick conversation was had between the two, but as soon as All Might announced the start of the exercise, they fell silent. Anivoice guy called to a few pigeons, saying something to Mina, though he covered his mouth with his hands. The birds flew up, circling the building, peering into the wide, open windows. Returning to Dolittle, they reported their findings, which he relayed to Mina, the pinkette cocking her head in confusion, before shrugging and taking off into the building, skating forward on trails of acid. Koda looked around nervously before hurrying after her.
The pair looked in the rooms they passed, but they were cursory looks, glances really. However, even those ate up time, and while they did the same for the second floor, by the third floor, darkened as it was, they didn't even step inside to look, just peering through the doorways as they moved.
We could see Midoriya practically sweating bullets as they neared his position, Mina glancing through the doorway the two 'villains; were hiding on either side of, out of sight, both ready to jump into action. However, with almost a third of their time gone, Mina and Koda were in a hurry, not seeing them, nor did they see the hidden bomb in the next room they 'checked'.
"Oh come on!" Bakugo barked out, "You mean that Shitty Nerd's plan worked!" He glared at me, "We're checking every single fuckin' room, you hear that, Lightfoot?"
Lightfoot? I wondered, before realizing the main use of my power he'd seen was me turning my legs to lightning. I just shrugged, "Sure."
"Hmfph," he growled, turning back to watch. The pair of 'villains' listened carefully, and, as Mina and Koda ascended the stairs to the fourth floor, Izuku nodded to Iida, reaching into his belt and taking out a roll of capture tape, and carefully started walking after them, obviously trying to be quiet. Iida, counting to himself, hit zero about thirty seconds later and moved to the hidden 'nuclear missile', carefully un-burying it.
The fourth floor was better lit, and Deku moved up behind the hero team, getting ever closer. Mina finally spotted him as she turned to say something to Koda, catching the 'villain' out of the corner of her eye and reflexively tossing a gob of acid his way. Deku ducked, one of his 'ears' getting hit instead of his face, and rolled forward to a sprinters stance before a flicker of green lightning shot down his legs and he blurred into motion, going from zero to faster than a sprint in a second, legs pumping furiously just to keep himself from falling.
He blasted down the hallway, tape stretched between his hands as he closed. Mina ducked low, leg out, and sent a streak of acid along the ground to trip him up, but Midoriya jumped, some of the corrosive substance catching on his leg, and hit the side of the hallway, twisting to keep moving as he ran along the wall.
Mina used her acid to pull herself backwards as Deku leapt, but he wasn't going for her, he was going for Koda, who shrieked. His mouth went wide in unmistakable terror as he held up his hands in fright, and was hit full on by the green-haired missile that was Midoriya.
From the floor below, Iida, likely hearing the rock-headed student's shout, picked up the weapon and started to carry it out of its room, down the hall, and towards the stairs opposite of the ones the 'heroes' had used to go up.
On the fourth floor, the two went down in a tangle of limbs, but Midoriya was able to wrap Dolittle's arms in capture tape, prompting All Might to announce, "Koji Koda has been captured!"
However, captured as he may be, his call had brought a plague of pigeons down on Midoriya's head as he got to his feet, the birds streaming in through the open windows. They mobbed both still-standing students, covering Koda before he yelled again and they all dispersed.
There was a moment where the two remaining combatants just looked at each other, a very confused Midoriya saying something, Mina replying, and Koda cringing in embarrassment. Deku perked up, smiling, starting to talk, Koda pulling his taped together hands down from his face and listening with hesitant interest.
Mina rolled her eyes, starting to back off, her acid carrying her away while she kept facing the happily chatting Izuku, and stood as if she wasn't moving at all. Deku grinned, nodding to Koda, before glancing up and seeing Ashido almost to the stairs.
With the jig up, she turned and dashed for the door, entering and climbing the stairs as Izuku gave chase, slipping and falling on the acid she'd left behind and spread out across the floor to trip him up. Meanwhile Iida continued to carefully maneuver the 'missile' down the stairs, on the second floor, and continuing his slow progress.
Deku, scrabbling forward, his exposed leg red with irritated skin and with one of his 'ears' eaten away, got to the stairway, which Mina had covered with more slick acid. Frowning behind his mask, he instead clambered up the handrails, thin glowing red trails of power visible on his skin the second before he launched himself up to the next floor's railing
Mina was checking the rooms in the center of the building, the ones without windows for Koda's pigeons to have looked through, and turned to face Deku as he skidded around the corner, running full blast. The boy wasn't able to fully turn himself and started running up the wall as he charged her, yelling something.
Her eyes went wide as she blasted a stream of acid at him, and he avoided it, jumping off the wall and losing speed as she rushed to the last room and opened the door, looking inside at another empty room.
Obviously swearing, she pulled back and dodged as Izuku charged her, glove glowing slightly. Springing backwards into a handstand, his punch missed her by inches, catching the doorway and splintering the wood as he twisted out of the way of her kick.
I grinned, having been hit by that move when we'd sparred, as acid jetted out of Mina's boots, hitting Midoriya with physical force, knocking him backwards into the room as it accelerated her handstand backwards into a full flip, coming back upright and skating for the stairway.
Deku recovered, half his costume eaten away, and came after her, taking a second to gather his power at one end of the hallway before launching himself over the acid trial she left behind, rocketing right for her, another roll of capture tape out and ready.
Mina turned, hand out to shoot acid, but before she could do more than start to send out a jet he was on her, capture tape starting to wrap around her outstretched arm. However, before it could trap her she reflexively extruded acid from her arm, creating a semi-solid sleeve that caught the bindings, keeping her safe.
Turning and twisting, trying to get away, instead of stopping Midoriya's flight as he crashed into her, she redirected his path towards the outside wall, and right out a window. The class gasped, All Might, even giving out a distressed "Midoriya!" as the student was defenestrated, the capture tape slipping right off Mina's arm and going with him.
Even Mina looked distressed, rushing to the broken window and watching as Izuku fell. Luckily, he moved fast enough to catch himself on the window-sill of the next building over, two stories down.
Iida, who had made it out the front door with the weapon, set it down and rushed over, likely towards the sound of broken class, to see Midoriya clinging to the side of the building. Deku looked at him, and flashed him a tense smile, Iida nodding and quickly running back to the weapon. Mina followed Izuku's gaze, but didn't catch Tenya, who was already gone. However she'd noticed him staring at something.
Frowning, but obviously relieved, she left the window and headed back for the stairs. Midoriya, worriedly looked at her disappear, and frowned, before a resolved expression firmed on his face. He pulled his legs under him, the thin red lines of power more visible now, and launched off the wall, the bricks under him cracking, but not breaking completely, as he shot off, arms over his head as he crashed through the third story window, slamming against the opposite wall. He stumbled, not completely losing his balance as he rushed into the stairway, blind-siding Mina with a punch, though an unpowered one, thankfully. His blow knocked her backwards, almost tripping on the stairs, halting her decent.
Mina spun around with another kick, but Midoriya leaned forward into it instead of dodging, blocking it with his right arm and as he charged another punch with his left. Mina's eyes widened behind her mask, noticing the glow from his glove, and used her planted leg to launch herself up the same way she had from the long-jump, lifting up and around him, dodging the punch which hit the metal stairs, denting them.
Arcing over his head, she swung herself back, hands full of acid catching the ceiling and dragging her along as if pulled. She twisted around to get her feet ready as she hit the side of the stairwell and started to spiral down it, skating on the walls, not bothering with steps.
Deku saw her speed away, shaking his head, muttering something, before vaulting over the railing, falling down through the thin opening the stairs coiled around, arm charged with thicker red lines. Midoriya landed with a slam, fist first, the ground breaking around him from the impact and sending concrete shrapnel flying, even as Mina tried to rush past him for the door, the blast sending her sprawling.
Wincing in pain, he staggered to his feet, and lunged for Mina, who herself was a little dazed, bleeding slightly from a cut on her scalp. He lunged, and she reflexively dodged, his grip on her arm sliding off as she exuded acid from it.
Madly dashing for the door she just made it out, Iida holding the weapon over a dozen feet away and ready to run, Midoriya hot on her trail, the buzzer sounded. "And that's time! Villains Win!" All Might announced, sounding a little relieved.
Mina's combat ready stance dropped as her head fell in disappointment. Midoriya laughed, working the arm he'd landed with back and forth, flexing his fingers. Iida ran over to Midoriya, yelling something, bowing for some reason, and Koda got up from his prone position on the sixth floor, only his hands bound, and even then not tightly together.
The four of them made their way back together, and soon enough were in the monitoring room. As Mina walked over to me, I slipped the medical tape from a pocket in my belt. A fairly common support item, it was combination bandage, tape, and general medical salve, I'd made a 'wish list' of things to carry, and while most of it, like the small block of C4 (who needs detonators when I am the detonator!) were a no-go, this was one of a half-dozen items they'd let me have, along with capture tape, a small bit of wound-spray, and others.
"Hell of a showing," I grinned as I stepped forward, holding her hair out of the wound and taping it over.
"I still lost," she complained, though she smiled. "I might've won if you hadn't helped him."
I nodded, even as I disagreed, "And if he accidentally hit you as hard as he threw that ball yesterday?"
"Losing works for me," she agreed instantly, All Might standing up fully from his hurried discussion with Midoriya.
"I still insist you see Recovery Girl after this," he told his apprentice, turning to face us. "Now, who's the MVP this time?"
Unsurprisingly, Momo raised her hand, but All Might looked past her. Shrugging, I raised my own hand, All Might calling out, "Young Todoroki! Who do you think it is?"
Glancing over, the temperature emitter had his hand raised as well. Instead of responding, he turned to Tenya, "Was the plan to move the weapon yours?"
"No! It was Midoriya's! I thought it was a foolish move, but lacking a superior plan I went along with it!" the uptight teen replied.
Shoto nodded, "Then it's Midoriya. He came up with the plan, he captured one of his opponents, and held up the other until time ran out."
"Indeed!" All Might agreed.
"I couldn't have done it without Iida," the boy in question deflected. "And Ashido got away from me. If she'd had more time, she'd've gotten it."
She shook her head, "Nah, Iida's like super fast. If he ran I wasn't going to be able to catch him."
"It is good to know one's limits," All Might boomed, reaching over to pull another two balls from the boxes, having removed the ones of teams that'd already gone between matches. "And our next fight is. . . These guys!"
Heroes: Kaminari Bakugo Versus Villains: Asui Yaoyorozu
I smiled at Momo, who gave me a confident, but serious, smile in return, quickly creating a pair of skates before she ran for the door, Asui hopping out after her.
"Additionally, do not remove the weapon from the block it is found on. Outside is fine, but no hiding it in other buildings, or running down the road with it," All Might added over the intercoms, coming in through the ear-pieces we were all given. "This exercise assumes a police cordon, and accurate intelligence, which are common enough."
Bakugo grunted, "We don't need help," stomping out the door.
"Thanks!" I told the Symbol of Peace, jogging out after my teammate. "So, plan?" I asked.
"Go in, find the weapon, kill anyone that gets in my way," he snarled.
". . . you do know we're not allowed to kill our opponents, right?" I questioned.
"I'm not a fuckin' moron, Pretty Boy," he shot back. "What's your Quirk?"
I held up a hand, sparking. "Hybrid-Quirk," I announced, giving the technical name for abilities like Todoroki's. "Main aspect lets me make electricity. No control over it once it leaves my body though, and too much and it fries my brain for a bit, though I'd need to electrify the entire building for that to happen." I turned my hand to lightning, "Second aspect lets me turn into electricity, like my dad. Use limit there is that if I do too much, it snaps back and cramps. I can do a hand or foot easily enough, but more than that and it's a bit unstable, snapping back and cramping if I try to force it, also just like my dad."
He nodded, holding up one of his own hands, covered in his grenade gauntlet. A small explosion went off. "This, and I can make 'em big, but you saw that yesterday." He tapped the pin on the grenade. "I pull this, get the fuck out of the way."
"Concentrated blast?" I asked.
"Yeah," he nodded, thinking, silent until we arrived at the building, similar to all the others the previous teams had used for their tests. "You think Deku was hiding his Quirk?"
I raised an eyebrow, "Dude, I know you were listening. He didn't know about it until the test. Probably was dormant until he wouldn't insta-gib himself the second he used it. I mean, unless he was lying."
That got a laugh, though it wasn't a nice one. "Shitty Nerd can't lie to save his fucking life."
"So, plan?" I asked again.
"Split up. I take first floor, you take second," he rattled off. "You see anything that could hide the bomb, fuckin' check it. They sneak by you like Glasses did to Rock Head and Slip-and-Slide, I'll kill you myself. Got that?"
"Other than the empty threat, yeah, I do," I nodded.
He glared at me, hands smoking, "What're you callin' an empty threat, Pikachu!?"
I just narrowed my eyes in confusion. "You do know this is a school right? You can't actually attack me if I mess up."
"Just don't fuck this up, Short-Circuit" he snarled, looking away from me to glare at the door.
Looking around, I found a bit of broken cement, grabbing it and tossing it from hand to had. Bakugo shot me a questioning look, which I returned with a bland one. Before he could say anything All Might's voice announced "Begin!"
With a blast, Bakugo shot through the front door, and I threw my rock through the closest window on the second floor. Taking a second to prepare, I shot out my arm as a tongue of lightning, my armor turning to lightning like the rest of my clothing naturally did.
Hooking it into the broken window and 'gripping' tight, I let everything but my hand snap back to normal as I jumped, dragging me upwards, just like I had with the power line. Covering my head with my other arm, I was launched through the window, breaking the rest of the glass as I let my hand snap back to normal as well, the sharp edges not piercing my armor or bodysuit.
Landing on the second floor, I could faintly hear Bakugo running around downstairs and started my own search, going room to room. Thankfully, because I'd already seen three runs through these kinds of buildings already, I could guess where all the doors were, letting me rush through, sparking occasionally to light up darkened corners.
Bakugo, likely having done the same thing, finished before I did, and I heard a screamed "Fuck!" and an explosion from the stairway. "Pretty-boy, Bob the Fuckin' Builder trapped the stairs!"
"Then go around!" I called back, ducking inside the second to last room, jumping for an oddly large pile of trash which turned out to just be trash.
A second later I heard another couple of explosions, and the sound of glass breaking, Bakugo on the level above me.
A few moments later another blast went off as I checked the last room, finding it empty. Running to the right window, I kept track of the building's layout in my head to find one that had another window above it, the third level only having four open windows, the others all boarded up. I broke it with my gauntlet, taking a step halfway out of it to reach up to the next level. I couldn't reach high enough to jump two floors at a time, so I reached for the next one up as more explosions sounded.
Pulling myself up to it, I broke the window and looked into the darkened area, a flash of light shining down it as another explosion sounded. "You need help?" I called.
"Found the fuckin' Toad!" Bakugo shouted back. "I can take her, keep going!"
"Rude, ribbit" Asui added, a wet slap sounding, the explosion-maker screaming in inarticulate rage before setting off another detonation.
Leaving him to it, I jumped another level up, entering the fourth floor, my biceps twitching a little from the use of Electrobody, needing the full arm to reach high enough and get a good grip. I could hear the fighting below me as I ran through the area, checking door after door. Running the main hallway that ran through the floor, I tripped over a wire, reflexively extending a foot as lightning and pushing me forward as something detonated. A mass of capture tape exploded out from a hidden device, missing me by a good bit.
Traps here too? I thought, looking around and letting sparks play across my arm, lighting the area up. Another wire near the stairs glinted in the now bright hallway, but that was all. Keeping the electricity dancing, the drain negligible, I searched the rooms, finding nothing.
Moving to another window, I broke it, the fight below me still going, though the explosions weren't coming as fast. I hesitated. Did I help him? He said he didn't need my help, but he wasn't winning either. Did I go search the next floor, since Bakugo couldn't? Shaking my head, I moved to the other side of the building. The large room that the 'missile' started off in always took up a third of the top floor on the same side of the building, and it wouldn't take that long to check. They might've moved our target, like Midoriya's team had, or Momo might've set up a defensive position, and it would be easy to check.
Breaking the other window, I lifted myself up to the fifth floor, taking a second to rest before jumping up to the sixth. Reflexively breaking the window to get a better grip, I found the inside of the window covered by a thin wire mesh, the glass cracking but not falling away.
Inside there wasn't one 'missile' but three, the only door to the room was covered with metal plating, and every window had the same thin wire mesh over it. Two canons were pointed towards the door, while a smaller one sat in the middle. This one was on a wheel, and Momo, spotting me, was quickly turning it to face me.
I got a second to take in the inside, noting the wires that criss-crossed the room, shiny with something, before I had to dodge, jumping sideways to another window as her canon faced me, and she fired.
I shot my hand through the glass, the wire inside conductive and letting me anchor myself as I swung over to it. From where I'd just vacated an explosion of goop went off, not breaking the mesh but flowing around it, pushing the glass out with it, but quickly hardening.
Glue? I thought, shaking my head even as Momo, who was panting, created another shot and loaded it in the canon. She was prepared.
I grinned to her, giving her a thumbs up as I let go of the window, dropping down as the glue-shot went off above my head, reaching out and hooking electrical feet into the window sill two levels down, landing hard on it, arms twitching and a slight cramp working its way into my muscles.
If I could go full electricity, like my dad, I could've just flowed right through the mesh wiring and been on her in seconds, but the one time I'd tried to do that I'd been left with full body cramps for over a minute, and weak for half an hour after that. My dad had told me it was a bad idea, but I'd needed to see how bad.
No, short of going Railgun, there was no way I was getting in there. Unbidden, my hand came up to my chest, my necklace under my armor, but over my suit. I could grab a coin and try to blast my way inside, but the chance of hitting her was too great. No, I needed the middle ground, and he was back on floor three.
Sighing, hoping I got this right I jumped over, dropping down another floor. Both arms to my elbow shifted, shooting forward and digging into the concrete outside of the building, on either side of the window, and I shot myself through it, feet first.
I pulled myself tight, and hit my target, passing through the already broken window, but didn't stick the landing, hitting the far wall before I could slow down. I bounced off hard and was sent sprawling backwards. Jumping to my feet, I slammed the door out of the room open, to see Bakugo launch himself at Asui, who jumped away, tongue lashing out to smack him in the back of the head, the boy already having several cowlicks.
"The fuck are you doing here, Pikachu!" Bakugo yelled, head snapping over to glare at me even as he kept his eyes on Tsuyu. "I said I got this shitty ninja turtle wannabe!" He was breathing hard, and so was Asui, who sat, content to let him talk while she rested. While this had originally been tight, cramped quarters, Bakugo had taken out several walls, though thankfully nothing load bearing. Whether that was accidental or on purpose I couldn't tell, but it gave them both more room to maneuver.
"That was almost five minutes ago," I snapped back, wondering where his bullshit confidence came from when he was actively getting held up. "We're running out of time while you play patty cake with the frog!"
He launched himself towards Tsuyu, who jumped out of the way, giving his hands a wide berth as he tried to track her with his palms in order to blast her. Seeing where she was going, I turned my feet to lightning and jumped as well, electricity sparking from my right hand as I reached for her.
Her eyes widened as her tongue shot out, sticking to the wall and changing her trajectory to miss me. However, I smiled, as her path was now set. Running electricity through my gauntlet, I activated the device within, shooting out four pronged metal darts, wires leading from them back to my arm. The device only had a range of thirty feet, but we were well within that, and she couldn't shift direction again.
She still twisted mid-air, one of the prongs missing her completely, another skidding off her rubbery costume, but two pierced her side, and I only needed one.
Blasting electricity through her, instinctually knowing it wouldn't be enough to seriously hurt her, but that it would be enough to put her down for the next several minutes, we both lit up with bright yellow light, Bakugo swearing at the sudden illumination that he wasn't prepared for.
I landed easily as Froppy dropped to the ground, twitching, and smoking slightly. Running towards her, in case she was resistant to shocks, having a mutation Quirk, I quickly wrapped a strip of capture tape around her arm, taking her out of the fight as All Might announced over the comms, "Tsuyu Asui has been captured!".
Pulling out the taser barbs, I powered the motor that retracted the wires, pulling out my medical tape and patching up her twin punctures. Turning to Bakugo, before I could talk he yelled, almost in my face, "I said I didn't need your fuckin' help, asshole!"
"Well I needed yours, shitstain," I snapped back. If he wouldn't be polite, then I'd meet him on his level. "Momo's got her defenses all laid out, and I can't get in without hurting her. You can. So you gonna call me names or are we gonna win this?"
He glared at me, before looking away, demanding, "What's Ponytail got?"
I briefed him as we both climbed up to the sixth floor, me reverse repelling while he just rode an explosion up, blasting in. The hallway to the door had half a dozen tripwires, but he just snarled, setting off a large explosion that tripped them all, sending the capture tape flying uselessly.
"So we go straight in?" he asked, holding up his arm towards the door and grabbing the pin of his gauntlet.
"Bakugo!" All Might started to command as I shouted back, "Fuck no! We're not doing what she's prepared for! You go to the side room, blow a hole through that when I open the door, which is probably trapped."
All Might didn't say anything for the moment, and my teammate nodded. "Sucker punch her? Didn't think you were that way, Pretty Boy."
"Combat isn't nice, 'Splodey," I shot back, checking my phone. "We got two minutes, we need to move."
He nodded, running down the hall, around the tape, slowing as he quietly opened the side door, sneaking inside.
I jogged up, a good ten feet away from the door, and held my arm at the ready. Shifting it to lightning I shot the limb forward, electrical appendage grabbing the door handle. Slamming it open, a hidden capture-tape mine went off and, a second later, Bakugo let off his saved up gauntlet blast, an almighty roar that shook the building itself.
Dashing to the right to follow him into the main room, I rounded the corner to see that side of that room was gone, Bakugo blasting the smaller cannon to bits as Momo tried to turn it to face him. The 'missile' to the right had been torn in half, the edges weirdly ragged, capture tape hanging limply out of it.
Momo fell back, grabbing a black staff and swinging it for Bakugo, who blasted himself up and over her in a familiar move, setting off another explosion behind her to get him in range for a point blank explosion to her back.
Riding that explosion he headed for the bomb to the left, grabbing it as I ran towards Yaoyorozu. She'd caught herself with her staff, back lightly burned, but she was already turning around, chest glowing as she created something else.
The weapon Bakugo grabbed was a fake, and it erupted in a plume capture tape, the outside surface merely colored paper. He blasted off again, pulling away from it at the last second. Flying backwards towards the far wall, he hit the hardened glue from when I'd first peeked inside as he re-oriented.
Momo pulled back to throw whatever device she'd just created as I leapt for her as fast as I could, my legs electrical and throbbing in pain as I overstressed them. Sweeping forward with an inhumanely extended kick, I hit her side with a tendril of living lightning, which wrapped around her stomach instead of hitting hard. Running with this, not having trained to see what would happen if I pulled off half of what I was trying now, I instead poured electricity through the extended limb, which caused her muscles to spasm, fouling her aim.
Bakugo blasted off, twisting to dodge the few remaining, glinting wires still up, most of them torn down by his first attack when he blew out a wall. The boy drop-kicked the final 'missile', the solid metal thunk of his boots hitting its surface showing it was the real deal and not another fake.
I let my legs snap back to normal, which dragged me towards her, my arm cocked back for a flying punch. I was set to hit Momo, who was swinging around with her staff even as the buzzer rang, All Might announcing "Heroes Win!"
Twisting I caught her strike, even as she tried to pull it back, on my vambrace. She stood, teeth gritted and twitching, as I grinned at her. At my waist, the alarm I set, telling me I had ten seconds left so it was do-or-die time, rang out. A flicker of electricity turned it off, and I told her, "That was close. Good job!"
She pulled away, frowning. "You say that, but I lost."
I looked around at the devastation around us, "Barely. How tapped are you?"
"Maybe three more charges. I might have. . . overreacted when I heard you breaking glass," she stated, looking at the dozens of windows, all covered, a small welding torch discarded by one of them.
Reaching over, I grabbed her staff. It was hard, but had a little give to it. "Rubber?" I asked with a grin.
She gave me a raised eyebrow. "I was fighting someone who could create electricity. Using metal weapons seems the height of foolishness."
I laughed, "You were prepared, weren't you?"
"Oi! You fuckin' lovebirds can chat when we get back," Bakugo snarled, and Momo glared at him.
"No one's keepin' you here, 'Splodey," I called back, and he growled, before blasting off and out the opened wall, dropping down and away, another explosion likely him slowing down to land.
Shaking my head, I told Momo, "I'll grab Asui. Can you get through the traps you left on the stairs?"
"Is she alright?" she asked, concerned. Holding up a hand, I sparked. "Oh. Right. Yes. Yes I can"
"See you at the bottom," I told her, following Bakugo's lead and jumping out the blasted out wall and off the building. Shifting my arms to lightning, I dragged myself back inside, breaking another window, landing on the third floor.
I don't stick this landing either.
Swearing to myself, I stood up, glad I hadn't hit the wall as hard this time, and promising myself to practice this move. I wasn't sure how I was going to practice it, but I was going to practice it.
Tsuyu was trying to struggle to her feet, twitching pretty badly, and rolled over to turn a large, baleful eye towards me. "Oh. It's you."
"Sorry, I might've overdid it," I apologized. "Was in a hurry, and mutation Quirks are a crap-shoot on how they react to things like shocks. Need a hand?"
She tried to stand again, arms twitching and sending her sprawling. "Please."
Walking over to her, I picked up the small girl in a princess carry, having to hold her firmly as she twitched. Moving towards the broken window, she tried to tense, "Ummm, ribbit."
"It's fine," I told her, careful to make sure she didn't rub up against the broken glass, as her arms wrapped around the back of my neck. Stepping out of the window, my metal boots crushing it without issue, she pulled herself tight against me as I jumped, but it was easy to turn my legs from the calves down to lightning, reaching out to make contact and slow my fall, letting them switch back.
As half of a Charley Horse ran through my calves, warning me that I was pushing things, I realized that I was showing off, and now was not the time to do that. So I stood there, legs locked, as it ran its course while I waited for Momo. She exited the building a few minutes later, carrying her staff, the end of which was covered in capture tape.
Seeing me carry Froppy, she rushed over. "Are you alright?"
"I'll be fine," the smaller girl replied, still twitching a little, though she'd gotten better. "Just not used to getting electrocuted. It's kinda intense." I wasn't sure if that was a veiled insult, but she wasn't exactly wrong.
There was no sign of Bakugo, likely long gone, so the three of us started walking back towards the monitoring room. "Oh, I talked to my parents about your thoughts on my Quirk," Yaoyorozu suddenly announced.
"Oh?" I asked, interested.
She nodded, "I must apologize, the explanation I gave you was incomplete. I use lipids, but what I can use is stored in a buffer of sorts. It is slowly replenished from what I eat, though pulling too hard drains me, pulling them directly from my bloodstream, which is quite enervating. What I told you was what my registration states, not how it truly works. It is an additive process, starting at a hundred to one ratio when I was young, and increasing with practice."
"What is it now?" I asked, "If you don't mind."
"Three thousand to one, approximately," she commented off-handedly.
"Daaaaamn," I swore, "that's impressive. Those cannon's must've been a giant resource sink."
"They weren't real cannons," she informed me. "Well, they were, but they weren't steel, like the originals, because they didn't need to have those tolerances. Even then, yes, they were a significant drain, and I wasn't even able to use them!" she semi-whined, shoulders dropping, cultured facade breaking a little.
"If I hadn't spotted them, you would've," I reassured her. "Bakugo was going to blast straight in until I had him come in obliquely."
She nodded, likely brightening at the thought that she would've had a chance to shoot the explosion maker had I not intervened.
"I can walk now," Asui chimed in, and I glanced down, having forgotten that I was carrying her, light as she was. Putting her down, she took a few uneasy steps before nodding and falling in line with us.
"Anyways, thanks for telling me," I offered to Momo, smiling. "It would've bugged me."
She nodded, frowning, "I just don't know why they haven't updated my registration."
"Misinformation," Asui commented easily, continuing as we both looked over to her. "If people look up what you can do, they'll expect you to be weaker than you actually are. And the heroes you want to impress will see you in action, and know that your registration is wrong. Mine is Frog, but that doesn't tell anyone the specifics of what I can do. Only that I'm 'like a frog'. Which you can tell just by looking at me," she shrugged. "Ribbit."
I nodded, seeing the value in that. Yaoyorozu scowled, muttering, "It's still not very heroic," but before she could say anything else we were at the monitoring room.
"Took you fuckin' long enough!" snapped Bakugo the moment we opened the door.
"Ahem," All Might coughed, "Young Bakugo's exuberance aside, now that you're here we can continue. Once again, who's the MVP of this exercise? Young Midoriya, what do you think?"
The boy stiffened as everyone turned to look at him, nervous under the attention. "I, um, well, I think it's Yaoyorozu!"
"THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY!?" Bakugo exploded, figuratively.
Momo was similarly confused, though not to the same. . . extent. "But, I lost."
"Well, your defenses held up your opponents right to the end, and if they couldn't move around like they did it would've stopped them completely," Deku told her, turning to look at a fuming Bakugo. "She was able to stop Kaminari right before he tried to get in, making him go get you, Kacchan. Wasting time. And if you'd gone the way you wanted she would've probably hit you with something that would've stopped you, or slowed you down long enough for her to win. And even then there was less than a minute left. If she'd made a few different choices she could've won, while Asui just held you up, and Kaminari ran around without really doing anything, when he could've taken down Asui and freed you both up," he explained.
Yaoyorozu stood up a little straighter at that and I opened my mouth to say that I couldn't have known I needed to do that, but I kind of did. To be honest, I just didn't want to have to deal with Bakugo's bullshit until I absolutely needed to. If we'd ganged up on Froppy straight away, or if Bakugo had scouted out the area, we could've saved a lot of time.
"Point," was all I said, nodding to the small boy.
"Well put!" All Might agreed, "Even a superior hero can suffer from a poor match up! Now, we have two teams left, but who shall fight for good, and who. . . For Evil!"
Reaching in, he pulled out two of the exact same letter, pausing for a second before dropping them back in, before reaching again and pulling out two different letters. "Here we go!"
The last match up was Ochaco and Ojiro on defense, with Todoroki and Mineta on offense.
This was going to be over quickly.
As the 'villain' team rushed off to get ready Mina made her way over to me. "That was so cool!" she cheered. "You were like, swoosh, and crash, and like, 'Oh I missed, no I didn't!', and then bzzzzzzt! It. Was. Awesome!"
I smiled at her exuberance, "It was really fun, and Momo was pretty cool too."
"I know!" Mina cheered, turning to the girl in question, who still stood beside me, looking surprised by the change of topic. "I so thought the traps on the stairs were gonna get them, but they were like, 'Stairs, I don't need no stupid stairs!'" she scoffed, doing a terrible impression of Bakugo, who growled, but then pretended he didn't hear her. "And then Denki was like 'hello there', and you were like 'my cannon says hello back', and you almost got him!"
"But I didn't," Momo frowned, losing some of the good cheer she'd regained from Midoriya's praise.
"Pfshaw, you will next time, sweetie" she scoffed, looking over to me, "No offense."
I laughed, "She just might. The fake missiles were inspired."
Yaoyorozu brightened up again. "I could not both hide the weapon and defend it adequately, so I obfuscated which one was the real target. It was, as Mr. Aizawa might say, a 'Rational Deception'. I was worried that having the real one be in the middle was too obvious, but it paid off. If only I had a few more defenses."
"Who could've expected Sir Frowny Exsplodesalot would take out an entire wall," Mina disagreed. "I totally would've gotten caught. Face it Momo, you were awesome!"
"I suppose my performance was somewhat impressive, wasn't it," the brunette smiled to herself. "Next time," she promised me.
I grinned challengingly at her, "I'll be training, so we'll see."
"And so will I," she announced right back.
Mina jumped between the two of us, an arm around each of our shoulders. "Training, whoo!"
"All Right. Begin!" All Might called, dragging our attention to the screen.
Exactly as I expected, Todoroki said something to Mineta, took a couple steps inside, and froze the building solid. The effect even spread out to the monitoring room, Mina pulling Momo and I in close for warmth as everyone started shiver, Asui starting to pass out, but caught by Midoriya.
I moved behind the two girls, wrapping my arms around them and rubbing them to warm them up a little. Mina gave me a thankful smile, and Momo gave me a questioning look, but, when I stopped, blushed and moved the arm I was holding, prompting me to start again as she leaned in towards the two of us. Considering she could've just made a blanket, I took that as a good sign.
Deku copied me, Asui curling in towards him and his warmth, a good bit of his bare skin exposed, his costume eaten away by Ashido's acid.
Ojiro was frozen to the floor, but Ochaco jumped, using her own Quirk on herself to float and dodge the freezing effect. Dropping to the ground, she slipped, barely catching herself on her high-heeled boots. Her partner was stuck, and she tried to move the weapon, but it was frozen to the ground too.
Todoroki calmly walked inside, Mineta debating with himself before starting to follow. Shoto stopped to say something to the smaller boy, who replied, and the ice/fire user turned to face forward and continue his slow walk, Mineta following closely behind.
By the time he got to the top floor, Ochaco had broken off several pieces of ice and had them ready, levitating them as she heard his steps. As he walked through the door, she threw several at him, causing him to pull back, the pieces flying over Mineta's head.
Taking the initiative, the ball-headed boy rushed in, grabbing spheres from his head and throwing them at Uraraka. She dodged some but was hit by others, which stuck to her armor, but didn't stop her as she sent several more chunks at the small boy. Mineta's eyes widened as he ripped a ball from his head, threw it on the ground, and jumped on it, bouncing away at speed as the projectiles hit where he was, one impacting the ball Mineta left behind and getting stuck, the power of his balls even working on ice.
Todoroki leaned into the doorway and almost negligently waved his hand, sending a wave of ice shooting for the girl, dropping the temperature even further.
Uraraka negated her weight and jumped, dodging it the frozen wave, barely, but as she bumped off the ceiling one of the spheres on her hit the ceiling, sticking there. Ochaco tried to push off the ceiling, but as she twisted she accidentally put another sphere in contact with the top of the room, further trapping her to the ceiling.
Todoroki stared at the flailing girl, then looked to Mineta, who seemed just as surprised as he was. Ojiro said something, though lacking audio we couldn't hear it, and Todoroki replied as Mineta ran across the ice, grabbing on to the weapon, using a ball to stick to it as he tried not to fall on the slick floor.
"Heroes, wiiiiiiiiiin!" All Might announced as Todoroki put a hand on the wall, a wave of heat spreading out and instantly melting the ice, returning the room we were all watching in to a more normal temperature and freeing both Ojiro and Ochaco, though the latter immediately got stuck to the floor. "Please meet us at the entrance!"
I stepped away from Momo and Mina, the latter who gave me a smile and a "Thanks, Hun!" Tsuyu woke back up, blinking wide eyes at Midoriya who asked if she was okay. She nodded, and told him he could let go now, whereupon he sprang back as if he was burned. Looking at him, I noticed his right hand, the one he'd landed on, was actually bruised pretty heavily.
As we all filed out, and Mina talked to Momo about the match, I dropped back to walk with Midoriya. "How hard did you go with that last hit?"
"What?" he asked, and I pointed at the mottled bruising. "Oh, um, eight percent. That's more than I can handle, but I wanted to stop her."
"Better than breaking the arm completely," I noted, and he smiled, nodding.
"Yeah," he agreed, "Much better. Thanks."
"No prob," I waved away as everyone gathered.
"So, who's the MV-" All Might started to ask, over half the class responding "Todoroki!" in perfect chorus.
"Heh, don't really know why I asked," All Might chuckled. "Well, that's a rap! Everyone really stepped up to the plate, and no major injuries, which is better than I was expecting for your first taste of combat! Be proud, and excellent first day of training all round!"
With a few more words of encouragement, All Might left us, announcing, "Now I need to tell Eraserhead that you'll be returning to class! Now watch how a Pro exits, like he's got SOMEWHERE TO BE!!!" he yelled, blasting off in a mad dash that was so fast it sent out a shockwave, as well as a cloud of dust, as the man rushed to get to a secure location before his form switched back to his true, near skeletal physique.
"Such a manly exit!" Kirishima cheered, several of the class agreeing.
We made our way back to our classroom, Mina jogging up and bumping shoulders with me. "So, Sparky, what're ya doin' after school?"
"The same thing I do most evenings, Pinky," I told her, "Try to take over the world! Er, I mean, train," I corrected, having gone with the joke automatically, Sato of all people bursting out in laughter.
"Sorry, loved that show," he told us. "Parents had an old copy of the series."
Mina shook her head, "Taking over the world seems like waaaay too much effort, but mind if I join ya for the training?"
"Not at all," I smiled, happy with how today had turned out, and feeling an odd warmth in my chest as she smiled back. "Not. At. All."