Chapter Thirty-One
Staring down the teams charging me, I knew we needed to move, and that letting them converge on us was a bad idea. However, the question of where to go was an issue. Looking at the three teams charging us, however, the answer was easy.
"Run away!" I called, moving to the side, swinging our group around, before pouring on the speed, all three of us able to move far faster than the other teams, who all had to run after us on foot and awkwardly at that.
Pulling a Sir Robin, I high-tailed it for the other end of the arena, knowing I couldn't run forever, running out of places to go, but they'd either have to move slowly, or spread out enough that we could handle them one at a-
" Left!" Mei shouted, and I turned left, trusting her, even though we only had a hundred feet before we hit the wall. From behind us came a loud smash, and it was when Mei commanded, "Right," and we went back on track, did I see that what we dodged was a boulder, easily several tons, that'd crashed down on where we would've been.
"Don't do that again, Ms. Kodai," Miss Midnight chided. "If they hadn't dodged, that would've hurt, and not in the fun way!"
Glancing backwards, I saw that the groups had, indeed, started to separate out. Big-hands was leading, Monoma the power copier in the middle, while Shoji was falling back, having to run while carrying his entire team. However, I'd seen enough of the man to know he should've been able to keep up.
Ah.
"When I jump and turn, weapons free," I instructed. "We'll stop the lead, while Shoji attacks the rear. Don't use up more than a fifth of your load, we're gonna need it." Receiving affirmations from my team, feeling Mei stow her pistol and grab another weapon, I shoved off the ground in a leap, putting enough of a twist into it that I brought us around, Mina's acid tweaking our path just enough to help us come down facing the other way. Slamming spike-shaped feet down to stop us, my legs strained to absorb the force, and I reached back, hands amorphous, to wrap a limb around each girl's waist to make sure we didn't snap the harnesses.
Mei, one hand grabbing my forehead to stabilize herself, sighted and fired. The lead horse, the telekinetic girl, glared, trying to pre-emptively catch the blast of containment-foam goo she expected.
Which was why the beam caught her directly in the shin.
The condensed kinetic energy shoved her foot out from under her, causing the girl to stumble, but her team, to her credit, caught her, keeping her upright. However, her attention was broken, which allowed Momo's grenade to be launched, unhindered, directly for them.
The rider, seeing it coming, clapped her enlarged hands together on the grenade, and if I didn't already know what it was I would've had a heart attack at the sheer stupidity. Thankfully the grenade wasn't actually explosive, but another containment foam device, which released its pressurized, fluid payload, blue containment-foam spurting out from around her fingers.
Panicked, the girl shrunk her hands, trying to get rid of it, and if she'd waited for it to set that would've been smart, but in its semi-solid state all she managed to do was bind her hands tighter as the goo spread out, sealing them together and also gluing them both to the hair of the telekinetic girl right in front of her.
Moving forward towards them, the all-female team suddenly looking far more unsure, Mina laughed, shooting a stream of low-intensity acid at their feet, and caused them to slip, going down in an undignified heap as we, giving them some space, moved around them to deal with the power copier.
The second team had, wisely, slowed to a stop, and as Mina and Mei fired on them, both the brown-haired boy in front, as well as the blond power-copier, both blew out, hard, both of our attacks hitting invisible walls. We approached them, and the blonde, smirking, made a come-hither gesture, only for the headband around Mei's head to pull itself off, caught by her hand, as she shot the shield again in annoyance, only this time it wasn't there, the power copier ducking as the beam almost hit him.
But that's the other girl's power! I thought, recognizing the Quirk as belonging to Big-Hand's team, then realized what'd happened. Oh, he's pulled from a lot of people, hasn't he? I realized. However his power worked, though, he couldn't keep two Quirks at once, and, focused on our charging team, didn't see the tongue which shot out, slamming him in the back of the head, and pulled back, taking his headband with it.
"I should've known you class 1-A students would need to team up against -" the copier started to yell towards Shoji, glancing towards us and waving a hand, a wave of water coming out of nowhere and surging in our direction as his team started to turn away from us, running. He was interrupted, mid-taunt, as he was hit in the back of the head, again, this time by Mei, even as I pulled our group away from the surge of water before it could hit us, letting the two teams battle it out over the headband.
However, the reprieve was short-lived as the beast-man, having managed to pull himself free from the foam, though it stuck to him in large clumps, roared, coming after us once more. Momo made a quick shield that Mei grabbed, deflecting Yuga's beam, as the other team neared. Grabbing a banana-bomb from my own bandolier, I primed it with my left hand, letting my legs turn to normal as, clutched in an electrical limb, I planted my feet and punched him with it. Growling he tried to bat away the blow.
Perfect.
Letting the device go off in my hand, the beast-man was once more doused with bright-yellow fluid, only instead of a single leg it was now all four limbs. The bestial student's arms and legs splaying out, his riders falling and getting covered in oil as well.
Coming to a stop, we stood as they slid right past us, none able to get any traction whatsoever.
Letting my electrical hand snap back, I could feel my fingers still covered with the stuff, and I reached backwards to Momo requesting, "Neutralizing powder please. Also, anyone know why the other teams have such a hate-on for us? Splodey going against Deku I understand, but not this."
"Neutralized," Momo replied as I looked around, watching as Todoroki managed to freeze Manga-head's team to the floor, and while no-lips had already freed himself, it'd take another couple minutes before he could get the others out. "And it's because of Mei," she added offhandedly
" Why?" I asked, glancing back to her in disbelief, even as I rubbed my hands together, the blue powder that'd bonded to the oil scraping itself off in long, gross-feeling strands.
"It's," Yaoyorozu hesitated. "It's because you put a Support student as the rider. It suggests you don't have confidence in our ability to fight."
I looked at big-hand's team, trying to get back into formation while managing their two bonded teammates, then at the beastman, yelling in frustrated rage as he tried, and failed, to stand, then back to her.
"I didn't say it was accurate," the creationist amended. "Note that it's students who weren't at the USJ that are going after us. But that's the message you sent. I thought that was on purpose."
"He did it because Hatsume's the better choice for defending, and you had these harnesses so your hands would be free," Mina noted. "Didn't you?" I just nodded. "Thought so. Now, oh damn, incoming!"
Glancing over, I saw Todoroki's team was now making their way towards us, frost already covering the boy's arm, but there was fire in his eyes as he approached. Metaphorical fire, to be specific.
Looking around, Bakugo and Deku were still going at it to our right and, yes, there was another rainbow, which made the explosion teen reflexively break off his chase with a disgusted look, giving Midoriya time to escape. The power copier was still chasing Shoji behind us and Ibara's vine-platform waited to our left, ready to strike, tendrils at the ready. Where was. . . there. Shinso waited at the edge of the Arena, with two headbands.
"Todoroki, do we need to do this?" I called over to Endeavor's son, glancing up at the scoreboard. Our totals hadn't changed at all. "We're both getting in, there's no need to fight." More quietly, I murmured "Mei, Concert if he attacks, Momo, smokescreen, and Mina, get us the fuck out of here."
The other girls all agreed, as Todoroki's team hesitated, pull apart girl glancing up at the screen. "Blondie's right," she said. "Do we need to? We could-"
" We need to," Shoto stated with cold anger, glaring at me. "Unless you want to give me a headband, and admit you have no chance against me."
On one hand, we could and still be over the thousand-point threshold. On the other, he was being a dick. "Girls?" I asked, wanting their opinion.
"That hardly seems to follow the spirit of the exercise, but you've shown how you feel about that," Yaoyorozu noted, with more than a little annoyance, but she had still agreed to be on my team.
Mei's "I want to try out my babies!" was echoed with Mina's "We can take him."
Looking at Todoroki, I shrugged. "You heard the ladies. Walk away, or fight."
His hand starting to wisp with cold, the thermokinetic sneered, "That's what I th-"
Only to be cut off as Mei shot him in the arm with the kinetic beam pistol, throwing his aim off and sending ice off to the side. Dropping the gun into my backpack, she grunted as she lifted out a much heavier piece of kit. "Ya might want to cover your ears!" she warned, levelling the sonic cannon, resting the damn thing on top of my head.
Three metallic thunks dropped behind me, and multicolored smoke started to pour up from around us, even as I felt something flow around my feet, gripping them and dragging me backwards. I heard the crack of flash-forming ice, and I could barely make out a glacial formation miss us by only a few feet, but Shoto was firing blind.
With Mei's goggles, she wasn't.
Clapping my hands over my ears, a motion the others mirrored, I felt a deep thrum in my bones as the smoke, which poured away from where we started, suddenly parted in a multicolored, open-topped tunnel that extended from us to Todoroki's team, a shield of ice protecting them, which fractured in seconds and pelted the team.
His 'horses' strained, but were shoved backwards as the device slammed wave after wave of force into them, finally throwing them back several dozen feet before the battery emptied itself, his team only staying upright because pull-apart girl was able to keep them stable in mid-air. Todoroki, glaring, shoved a hand forward towards us as the smoke grenades started to hide us from him, and I leapt to the side, Mina helping, Mei's arms in front of us forming a barrier.
It was almost enough, and while we weren't frozen over, Mei's gear was. "Shit," I swore, looking around, seeing how Shoji's team, once more without their headband, started running for us. "Any ideas?"
"Can your arms handle heat?" Momo asked, as I glared at Shoji, mouthing ' really?' The boy didn't reply.
Minetta, however, glared right back, nodded, and mouthed, 'boobs!'
Ah, he must've still been annoyed at my misleading him about Mei. Fair enough.
"They can!" the girl in question replied. "We didn't pack that much thermal weaponry, since today's supposed to be nonlethal. Oh, can you make heavily exothermic substances?"
"I can make thermite," Yayorozu shrugged. "But I was thinking a commercial de-icing solution."
"Mina," I directed, grabbing the flashbang from my bandanna, turning down its yield, and handing it to her. "I need you to put this in their little hidey-hole. Tap the top thrice and toss it."
Hatsume replied to Yaoyorozu, "Make both!"
"Wait, what?" I asked, only half following their conversation, but Momo made what she was asked for, handing the inventrix the extremely destructive charge and a spray bottle.
I wanted to fight myself, do something, but the way we were frozen, my face to the ice, I couldn't, so had to trust my teammates as Mina glanced at her arm-canon, and primed the explosive, only instead of throwing it she pressed it to the nozzle and fired it at the other team early, getting quite a bit of distance.
Above me, Mei did something similar, pulling the pin on the thermite charge and tossing it forward, right above where her tendrils were trapped, a shot of blue containment foam pinning it in place. Given that we'd made managed to make the substance very thermally insulative, so it could be used to prop up burning buildings, that wasn't a bad idea. It'd burn, yes, but the ice would melt first. Spraying the ice around her arms with the solution, the charge ignited, the heat instantly starting to crack the ice.
With Shoji's team, the grenade was almost to them when an enormous, purple-black hand shot forward and closed around the charge. This time, however, it wasn't completely stupid, as Tokoyami's Dark Shadow could regenerate. It was actually stupid, however, on another level, as that was pretty much what I'd wanted. While, enclosed like that, even the lowered power of the explosion could've hurt a normal person, Dark Shadow took it.
What the sentient Quirk couldn't take was the flash.
Shrieking, it pulled back, flailing as it shrunk, unbalancing Shoji as his arms were knocked open wide. Minetta, trying to make the best of it, hurled his balls at us, only to be caught in a spray of acid that knocked them to the side, Asui's tongue, which had shot towards us, pulling back to avoid the caustic spray.
Unholstering my own capture pistol, I turned awkwardly, firing off a few shots in their direction, missing but forcing Shoji back even as the ice in front of me cracked, freeing us, and we turned around, just in time to see a disembodied hand shoot forward, on a collision course for Mei's neck.
Lashing out with an electrical limb, I grabbed the hand, and felt something bounce off my defenses, even as I shocked the hell out of it. A cry of pain to our left showed the power copier, smooth skin covering his wrist where his hand should be. The hand pulled itself out of my grasp, not that I was really holding it that hard, and flew back to him.
"Ha, you think you've stopped me, but now I've got your Quirk!" the boy bragged, shoving an arm out dramatically. "Now I've got your Quirk!" he repeated, once more with the dramatic hand wave. " Quirk!" he commanded, frustrated, palm barely moving. "Ugh, of course you're one of those. Fine, I don't need your Quirk to ohshit!"
Charging him while he monologued, his team took a step back when they realized what we were doing, the boy in front once more blowing out a shield. Shifting OfA solely into my right arm, however, I shot it forward in a spear of lightning, the near-invisible pane of solid air shattering as I stretched out a electric fingers, reaching for the headband, but grabbing Monoma's shirt instead.
That worked too.
"Jump and shield," I commanded, leaping myself and letting my arm snap back to normal. My hand strained, even with the fraction of All Might's power in it, as I was dragged towards them by my fingertips.
Eyes wide, the power copier's flesh turned to steel as he held his arms up over his face, our entire team slamming into his. Ours stayed one unit, both held together by our harnesses, and also protected by shields, Mina's a splash of weak acid, Momo's a literal kite shield.
Monoma's team wasn't so lucky, scattered like bowling pins, and the power copier, gripping onto his headband like it was his lifeline, was yanked off and dragged on the ground. Refusing to let go as Mei's tendrils held the other end.
"Dude, let go," Mina said, looking down at the guy, almost pityingly.
He just shook his head.
"Mr. Monoma, release the headband," Miss Midnight called out and the boy, slumping in disappointment let it go.
"All right let's- hey! That's not fair!" Mina shouted, and I looked back, to see that the two headbands Mei had worn around her neck had been pulled off, the vine gripping them lifting up.
"Oh come on," I swore, reaching out with a tendril of my own, my electric arm gripping both headbands and the tendril. I remembered this not working in the Anime, but that time she'd been grounded.
Lighting up, I forced the electricity to emerge not from all around me, but from my hand, flowing right up into the floating vine-fortress, which shone with a harsh yellow light, far brighter than it had any right to be, casting sharp shadows as I dumped a third of my reserve into the enemy team.
Tilting and smoking, the entire structure fell to earth, Ibara at the front visibly twitching as her vines went limp. "K-K-Kaminari you B-B-Bastard!" Jiro swore, out of sight, and I smiled, worried for a second that I'd gone too far.
"Here you go Mei- are you kidding me!" I swore as I looked back, and, once again, the headband around her neck had been taken, while the one around her forehead, and under her dreadlocks, remained unmolested.
I could even see it flying away, held in a disembodied hand, but Monoma's team was still reforming, and he was intact. Almost negligently, I shot the power copier with blue foam, Yaoyorozu following my lead and hosing down the rest, taking them out of the fight as the other boy whined that it 'wasn't fair'.
No, the hand returned to the original holder of the Quirk, who collected it, handing it up to Todoroki, who in turn shot me a challenging look. Before I could respond, though, Midoriya landed right in front of me, with a "Help!" as I could hear the explosions of Bakugo approaching.
Turning my back on Todoroki, I aimed upwards, and fired, the others following suit, filling the air with acid, and goo, Mei quickly grabbing the beam pistol and trying that as well.
Bakugo dodged it all.
Damn if he isn't skilled, I thought, as he yelled in rage, having to pull back or else hit the ground, Sero's tape reeling him back to safety.
"So, fancy meeting you here," I grinned at the green haired boy. "Had a nice walk?"
"A bit busier than I would've liked," he smiled back. "Um, do you mind if we stick next to you. I'm good, but. . ."
"I have nothing left in me, so why am I still Bleurgh!" the girl on his back moaned, before looking to the side, rainbow radiance shining from around the pair.
I nodded, not commenting on the lightshow, "Fair enough. We've both got enough points to win. Not sure the others will let that go though."
As if in response, Present Mic shouted, " And we've only got two-minutes left. With Team Kaminari going out of their way to eliminate the competition, permanently, we're just down to seven teams. But what's this? Team Asui and team Fukidashi are both just standing around!"
Sure enough, both teams were just standing still, blank expressions on their faces. Shinso must've gotten them, I thought, glancing over to the boy who, on the far end of the arena, was watching me carefully.
"You fucking nerd!" Bakugo yelled, his team running for us, "I'm only gonna need two seconds to take the top spot from you!"
Shoto's team was likewise charging towards us. They had farther to go, but they also had an Iida dragging them forward faster than I could've moved. "Split up or fight together?" I asked Deku, willing to take his lead. I wasn't half bad at tactics, but I knew the kid lived and breathed this stuff.
"I'll take Todoroki, if you can keep Kaa-chan off my back," Izuku directed and I nodded. "Uraraka, just a little more, okay?" he asked kindly, reaching back to pat the girl on her shoulder.
"Don't wanna. Wanna lie down," she groaned, but nevertheless, pressed one hand to Deku, the other to herself, fighting back a moan of nausea.
In a flash, Midoriya was gone, charging Todoroki, and I turned to face the approaching Bakugo. "Get otta my way, Pikachu! I'm going after Deku!" he yelled, already getting ready to blast off once again.
"Didn't realize you were that scared of me," I shot back with a mocking grim. "Hell, you've been avoiding me this entire time, haven't you?" I knew I was taunting the boy, but he really did have me beat when it came to maneuverability right now.
I could practically feel his anger as he glared at me, changing priorities. "Fine, sparkplug. You want to lose that badly, I'm not gonna say no! Close your eyes!"
Kirishima and Sato both did so, looking away, and Bakugo blasted off, not high, but low like a cannonball, straight for us.
Thankfully, we'd planned for this, and I yelled " Now!" to Momo, turning our group around, the girl throwing her hand out, a net shooting from her arm, wide enough to catch him.
He blasted upwards, rising high above us, avoiding the net, as Mei and I, having had time to switch the cartridges in our capture guns, started firing goo up and at him. The red projectiles were dodged, barely, and he sneered, right until he cut it a bit too close, the blast from the goo exploding sending him hurtling away unexpectedly.
"What the hell? Hah, using my explosions against me? Smart." he laughed maliciously, as he righted himself. "But I thought, oh, it's red." He tried again, coming down on us on a collision course, as we fired up at him. It was to no avail, the boy even setting off one of the shots fired at him to propel himself even faster. Grenades of red foam were thrown as well, missing him, the boy dodging around my throw as he dropped down like a living artillery shell.
Mei went to try to catch him with one of her 'arms', but he met it with an explosion, strong enough to push us back, breaking the metal tentacle so it hung limply on the ground, unresponsive. His own attack gave him distance, letting him avoid my lightning limb, but as he tried again, his hand sparked, with no resulting boom, and a strand of white tape caught him, pulling him back to his team.
All around us our missed shots fell, thickly littering the ground with dozens upon dozens of red splotches of foam as his team approached, stopping a dozen feet from the edge of the danger zone, likely thinking it might still be sticky. Good. The area around us was clear, and I checked with Mei, "Charged and ready?"
Behind me, the girl's backpack began to hum, and she replied with an excited, "Yes! All right partner, time to show what this Baby does at Ground Zero!"
"Ground Zer- Denki!?" Mina demanded, eyes wide as she took in the sheer amount of explosive foam around us.
"Bakugo," I called out, getting the teen's attention. "Tell me what you think of this: 'True Art, is an explosion!'"
Charging the pin I'd kept from the last foam grenade with electricity, I tossed it forward, even as the boy's eyes widened and he yelled to his team, " Get back!"
A scintillating shield of energy sprang up around us, eating through my remaining reserves like a starving hog, but I had enough for this.
The pin hit, the spark ignited, and the world exploded around us, the sound waves, a type of energy, dampened by the shield as it held steady for one second, then two, then the flames abated, a thick cloud of smoke obscuring everything as the shield flickered out, no longer needed.
"OH MY GOD! WHAT JUST HAPPENED!? ARE THEY OKAY!?!" Present Mic shouted, and I felt a tinge of guilt at causing him worry, but pressed it down, as Bakugo and Todoroki were already throwing high abilities around, Mei and I had just taken it one step further. Or five.
We'd tested the shield at three times the yield we'd just set off. Yes, under laboratory conditions, but that's why we had a second shield set to activate if it was hit with enough force. It wouldn't do nearly as good a job, but it would keep us intact. Mind you, the dispersal pattern was wide enough that we'd be beaten and battered, maybe a little bloody without anything at all, but it was nothing Recovery Girl couldn't fix with a kiss and fifteen minutes to recover.
A stiff, unnatural wind blew through the stadium, removing the smoke and revealing us to be standing on a circle of unmarked ground, the rubber, and the concrete beneath it, blown away half, maybe a third of a foot down and stained black with soot and ash.
" And Team Kaminari is completely unharmed!" the announcer shouted, as the crowd seemed to lose their minds. " Three, two, one, and the Calvary Battle is over! Thank god, I'm not sure I could handle it getting any more intense!"
"I'm sure you'd find a way," Aizawa commented dryly. "Though it looks like I'll need to give my class a lesson in proportional force."
Glancing over, I saw the area where Deku had faced off against Todoroki was covered in Ice, the boy panting, looking half-frozen, while Midoriya, perched on top of a glacier, just smiled and waved, slipping as the ice broke, but he leapt my way, Uraraka leaving one last rainbow across the battlefield.
Landing just outside of the crater, he gestured to his harness, and I understood. Toggling open my own belts, and helping Mei down, I jogged over. It only took a few seconds to separate the two of them, Ochaco immediately flopping down to lie on the hard rubber floor. "Soooo niiiiiice," she moaned, a bit of prismatic light leaking from her mouth.
Turning to face the screen, I saw that, assuming the same sixteen-man bracket as I remembered, we'd both made it through. Deku and Uraraka had come first, then Todoroki's team, then my own, then Bakugo's, and finally Shinso's, with every other team getting a score of zero.
"Not bad," I congratulated the kid next to me, holding up my fist at chest height. "You really are his successor."
Midoriya glanced at me, startled, then looked back up at the screen, showing how he'd managed to win, despite almost everyone gunning for him. Grinning, he raised his own fist, bumping mine, One for All running through both of us. "Not yet. But one day? Yeah, yeah I will be."
AN: Next Three Chapters up on ! Have a Happy New Year Everyone!