Author's Note: To those of you who may be hesitant at Mineta's inclusion in the story — no, I didn't kill off Iida just so that I could have the little gremlin that is Mineta in the story. His death served a bigger purpose, and it wasn't to have the perv in the class. Izuku said it himself, though, in Chapter 43, so nobody should worry about Mineta.

Izuku soared into the sky, high above the rooftops he'd run along earlier. He rose up and did something he hoped would work. Izuku spread out his arms and legs, making sure he had as much area covered with his body as possible, and started raising the percentage of One for All that was flooding his body. He had been at ten percent the whole time, his safe baseline, but Izuku was planning to use something he'd learned during his internship to signal to the others where he and his team was. During his internship with Aizawa, Izuku had learned that the strange aura of green lightning was indicative of how much One for All he was using, the frequency and intensity of the electric crackling scaling with his percentage. So, if he were to fill his body with one hundred percent of One for All but not use it, Izuku would be able to become a sort of beacon of green light to his other teammates and not break his limbs.

One problem with that arose, however.

"Get the fuck back here!" Gren-Aid screamed.

Gren-Aid was chasing him through the sky. Izuku was starting to get to his chosen height for this stunt, so he'd have to stop moving in just a moment. That would leave him open for an attack from his enemy. That was also a use of one hundred percent; it would keep anyone from making moves on him while he signaled to his team. Izuku thought it was a pretty good plan, but it did have one major downside. It left his other two teammates on the ground able to be officially taken out of the fight, and that couldn't happen. It also allowed the enemy team to just walk away while Izuku's backup traveled. So, he had to quickly get up into the air, flash his lightning so that his team knew exactly where he was, and then go back down.

Izuku felt his percentage increase past what was probably thirty percent. He leveled out in the air, stopping his ascent as he could see the two other groups in his team getting closer in the distance. They were both headed in the right direction, but they would both pass by what was happening in the intersection if they kept going in that exact direction; it was just what Izuku had thought up this plan for. As he felt One for All push past forty five percent, he looked down at Gren-Aid and smiled, by which Izuku of course meant that he pulled out one of the insane grins that Hypnos was becoming famous for.

Gren-Aid's continuous explosions, which allowed him to fly, stuttered at the sight of it. He quickly got back on track, however, increasing his speed slightly as he saw that Izuku was slowing down. Izuku felt One for All go past sixty percent, starting to hurt from the strain of keeping it contained. The lightning flashing around Izuku was now beginning to turn into a strange turquoise color, the strange shift to blue instead of green catching Izuku off guard.

It seemed that the air itself around Izuku was becoming electrified, as one of the crackles of lightning lashed out at Gren-Aid, who had gotten close in the time that Izuku had spent focusing on himself, and struck him in the chest. The blue lightning surged into him and caused Gren-Aid to freeze for a moment, roaring in pain from the blast of energy. Izuku watched on in horror, his wide eyes beginning to water slightly. That wasn't good. He hadn't known that could happen, and this plan wasn't supposed to hurt anyone! This was safe for everyone. How had that even happened, anyway? Izuku had always thought the energy released by Full Cowling was intangible and unable to affect anything, but it seemed that wasn't the case.

For a moment, everything was silent, with Izuku's percentage climbing into the nineties, and Gren-Aid's eyes closing briefly due to the powerful shock. As he fell unconscious, Gren-Aid dropped. Izuku almost dropped down to catch him, but a voice in his ear dissuaded him from that.

" Nexus, is that you in the air ?" Freezerburn asked.

Izuku fumbled in the air, torn between going after Gren-Aid and remaining as a beacon for his teammates. He finally felt One for All max out at one hundred percent, so he elected to remain in the sky. He watched Gren-Aid fall, but switched his comms over to the channel Team Two were using. He went to tell them to catch their ally, but he heard the sounds of Ms. Maker yelling orders. It seemed, from the little Izuku could clearly make out over the overlapping yelling, that they were going to send Uravity up there to negate his gravity and then slowly guide him down. Izuku let out a sigh at that, but the thought that he would've left his classmate to fall just so that he could have a chance at passing this exam did disturb him a little bit.

"Yeah, that's me. I told you to follow the North Star," Izuku said, putting on a smirk for the sake of his teammates.

" Got it. We're en route ," Froppy said.

"Will you all be able to find your way here if I stop lighting the way? It kinda hurts, and I need to rescue our teammates," Izuku asked.

" Go. We'll join you shortly ," Freezerburn said, Froppy voicing their agreement with a hum.

Izuku signed off and looked down at the street as he let go of Float and one hundred percent. He lowered his percentage back to ten, and began building up a Blackwhip Shield as he fell. Izuku saw what was going on down there. Tsukuyomi was still standing, trying his best to escape up to the rooftops so that he could regroup with the team. It was the best course of action, as while Gren-Aid was just touching down on the ground with Uravity, still unconscious by the looks of it, Ms. Appear was still active; she could perform the same feats of light projection as Gren-Aid, possibly more. He was trying to fight off what Gren-Aid had called the Dominoes, which Izuku guessed was the primary combat force of Ms. Maker's team. Hypnos's team, which seemed to be a kind of distraction group, was joining in occasionally, too, but seemed to be gravitating toward the third group that had emerged; one lead by Ms. Maker herself was taking care of Gren-Aid while he was out. Chargebolt and Acid Queen were with her, and Izuku switched his comms back to his own team's channel.

"Tsukuyomi, what's Mineta's status?" Izuku asked.

" Not good. He was spooked by Gren-Aid and is trying to get me to run away. I'm starting to see his point ," Tsukuyomi replied.

"I think running is a good idea for now. I'm about to cause a massive distraction, so when that happens you should get out of here, back the way we came. Backup's on its way," Izuku said, finally falling past the rooftops he'd soared over when he'd launched himself up.

Izuku refocused on his Blackwhip Shields. He began to put all his energy into reinforcing them. This was going to be intense. His own body was naturally reinforced when using One for All, but that didn't mean that he was invulnerable. Nobody was invulnerable, not even Red Riot or, a more relevant example, All Might. He made sure that the Shields would spread in a dome around his body, and Izuku's vision was blocked off as he felt them solidify just a moment before a loud crack and an immense force pushed back on him, letting him know that he hit the ground. The Blackwhip Shields didn't break, but it did cause immense damage to them, so Izuku dissolved them not a second after hitting the ground. He had been held up by the Shields, so when he dismissed them, Izuku fell to the ground. He landed on his feet, luckily. Izuku's arms hurt like hell from absorbing all that force. One for All had helped, but it had still felt like holding up a car without any Quirks. He didn't know if he could catch himself if he fell.

Looking around, Izuku saw that he had landed in roughly the middle of the intersection, which meant that he was stuck between three groups of people that wanted him out of this fight. He and Tsukuyomi shared a look, missed by all of Ms. Maker's team still recovering from the blast of smoke and small debris that Izuku's touchdown had kicked up, which prompted the avian boy to grab Mineta by the hand and use Dark Shadow to begin scaling the walls toward the rooftop where he quickly disappeared to.

Seven of Izuku's enemies stared him down. Gren-Aid was still unconscious, Ms. Maker was checking him, and Chargebolt was on standby, by the looks of it. That meant that he was face to face with Hypnos, an empty space for Ms. Appear, Earphone Jack, Uravity, Red Riot, Tail Flail and Acid Queen, and they were all circling around him like they had before. Izuku stared each and every one of them down, letting them know that he was not going to surrender. Some of them started smiling to themselves, and that was how Izuku knew that this was going to be interesting.

"So …" Izuku began. " … how'd you pull off your little trick? Ms. Appear can't warp foreign light like that," he continued.

Ms. Appear herself became visible, smiling at Izuku like something was funny. Izuku saw the look of glee in her eyes, and wondered if everyone was enjoying this as much as Hypnos and Ms. Appear clearly were. She chuckled, and took a single step closer.

"Wrong. I couldn't warp foreign light, but Hypnos showed me the way," Ms. Appear said, making Izuku look at Hypnos with a questioning frown tugging at his lips.

"See, my Quirk forces you to comply with my orders, but the human body does weird things in order to complete certain tasks. It bypasses natural limits in order to get what it wants. By ordering Ms. Appear to use her Quirk in ways that she couldn't have consciously, she was then able to do those things when she was in the driver's seat," Hypnos explained.

"That sort of Quirk training would take—" Izuku tried.

"Months? Remember our school motto, Nexus. Go beyond, plus ultra style. We've all taken that to heart. Have you?" Uravity said, speaking with her usual cheery tone that was somehow even creepier than Hypnos's intentional villainous monologue.

Izuku ran through his options. He wanted to get rid of Hypnos's mask, as it was too troublesome in team fights for him to keep it. Izuku needed Ms. Maker out of this fight, as she was clearly the mastermind behind their whole team by the way she'd barked orders out during the incident with Gren-Aid, who it seemed was truly out of this fight. So, that was a point for Izuku's team. Good. It had been about ten minutes since the exam started at this point, so he had fifty more to go and only a single team had managed a single point. This was going to be a long hour. Izuku thought that he could use Blackwhip to tie everyone up and then throw them around, but some people were sure to dodge that initial attack. He knew that he could create enough Blackwhips to hold them, but he didn't know if he could make them all strong enough to hold each of his enemies here. It was imperative to eliminate Hypnos, Ms. Maker, Chargebolt and Uravity, as they could take out multiple of Izuku's own team by themselves. Hypnos was a master of goading and diversion, Ms. Maker was only limited by her imagination and whatever was in that book she carried around, Chargebolt could take them all out but incapacitate himself as well, and Uravity only needed to touch someone once and they were screwed. This was not looking good for Izuku.

" Nexus, are you okay ?" Froppy asked through the comms.

"I'm fine," Izuku whispered, trying to keep his mouth from moving too much. He was lucky that he had a habit of mumbling what he was thinking, otherwise he'd have been caught immediately with all those eyes on him.

" Would you like some assistance ?" Tsukuyomi asked.

"If you don't mind," Izuku said, getting one last look at his enemies. This was something that only really happened in movies, or so Izuku thought, so he was going to remember this.

Earphone Jack looked at him with a sort of lazy smile. Izuku noticed that and began to dread what would happen next. He'd totally overlooked her enhanced hearing. He'd been found out! Izuku looked at her with wide, panicked eyes and silently cursed at Aizawa for making this exam the way it was. In fact, he'd been wondering why he'd chosen this format specifically, but that could wait until later. This was happening, and it was happening now by the way Earphone Jack took a deep breath to speak.

"He's communicating with hi—" Earphone Jack began, but was silenced by a strip of white tape that latched onto her face over her mouth.

Her head was knocked back by the impact, but she recovered in time to see a white boot with an orange sole make a kick at her head. Izuku internally cheered for Cellophane's arrival, but instead fired up One for All while everyone was distracted and leapt into the air, passing by a descending Tsukuyomi and Froppy as he did. As he leveled out in the air, Izuku got a good look at all of his teammates leaping into the fray. Battle broke out under him, but Izuku honed in on the trio of Ms. Maker, Chargebolt and the downed Gren-Aid.

Izuku yanked himself toward them using Blackwhip and a pole on the side of the street, and dropped down in front of them with his hands up. The two of them stopped whatever they were doing, which seemed to be checking Gren-Aid for any injuries, and got in front of him. Izuku didn't make any moves to attack or run away, just standing there peacefully.

"I'm not here to fight. Yet, I mean. Of course I'll have to fight you, but I want to know that he's not too hurt before we start that whole mess," Izuku said.

"Well, he'll live. What is it that you did to him?" Ms. Maker asked, conjuring what looked like a bo staff made of metal out of her hands.

"Apparently, the lightning conjured by my Quirk can behave like real lightning. I think it only happens when I get into the higher percentages, but it's something I'll have to look out for once I properly reach those levels," Izuku said, feeling a low rumble of Danger Sense in the back of his mind.

"Interesting. Chargebolt," Ms. Maker said, pointing at Izuku with her staff.

Chargebolt grinned and leapt at him with electrified fists. Izuku moved to dodge to the right, which forced Chargebolt to readjust his trajectory, but then immediately dodged left, making his enemy stumble through the space Izuku would have occupied. Using the momentum his feint supplied him with, Izuku then charged at Ms. Maker. He reached her in an instant, getting a small gasp from Team Two's leader as she brought up her staff to block. Izuku grabbed it with one hand, but it only seemed to dent when he pushed down on it. Seeing this, he ripped it away from her, but Ms. Maker's tight grip on the staff sent her flying with it.

As Ms. Maker landed on her feet in an impressive display of acrobatic skill, Izuku looked over to Chargebolt. He seemed to be gearing up for something, but Izuku didn't know what. He was sticking with hand to hand combat, it seemed, so Izuku felt safe knowing that he was out of arm's reach. Ms. Maker pulled something out of the window in her costume along her torso and fiddled with it before tossing it to Chargebolt, who then fixed it to his wrist in a hurried frenzy. He didn't know what it was, but it probably did something to give Chargebolt ranged attacks. Izuku felt a smirk creep onto his face as Danger Sense whispered in the background of his thoughts.

While Chargebolt got his device working, Izuku went after Ms. Maker. He appeared before her in an instant with One for All, sending a haymaker right at her temple. Hopefully, it would hit her hard enough to put her out of the fight, and if not, it would definitely take her ability to create complex plans if a well timed concussion were to come along and hit her like a train. Izuku felt his fist connect, but saw as a sheet of metal that Ms. Maker conjured up at the last second was dented and twisted by his hit. Izuku pulled his fist back, taking the sheet with it as his fist had embedded itself into the groove he'd made with his punch.

Izuku shook the sheet of metal off of his fist and felt Danger Sense ping something to his left. He looked and saw that Chargebolt was aiming his hand at him and smiling. A click sounded out from Chargebolt, and the device attached to his wrist activated. A small hook was fired out of the contraption, attached to a wire like a grappling hook. Izuku fired off Blackwhip at the hook, catching it about halfway between the two of them and negating whatever it would do. It looked metal, so it was likely meant to hook onto Izuku and conduct Chargebolt's electricity so that he didn't have to risk hurting Ms. Maker with a ranged attack. It was a good plan, and it would be good for Chargebolt to use that in the future as a part of his regular gear, but Danger Sense had caught it too early for it to be useful.

He reeled in Blackwhip, tugging it toward himself for good measure, which lifted Chargebolt off the ground and toward Izuku. As he flew through the air, Chargebolt's skin lit up yellow, and arcs of electricity began to bounce around on his skin. The two were bound to collide if Izuku did nothing, so it was a good secondary plan to have. But, Izuku had precognition, so he was always just one step ahead of everyone else on the battlefield. He ducked out of the way of Chargebolt, which made him fall to the ground and tumble, roughing him up slightly as he scraped across the pavement.

Izuku honed in on Ms. Maker, who was in the middle of making something with her Quirk. Creation was a powerful ability, something that could easily win this whole thing if she made something like a bomb or a few automatic weapons. But, she wouldn't do that because she was too nice. Momo Yaoyorozu could've been a terrifying Villain. Izuku was glad that she was on their side. But, for now, they were enemies, so he had to treat her like he would treat that hypothetical Villain.

He leapt into the air and toward Ms. Maker, readying a kick. This would either work the way he expected it to work or the way he hoped it would, but there was only one way to find out. Izuku reached her in the blink of an eye, thrusting his leg out in a kick that was caught by another thick sheet of metal. Looking closer at Ms. Maker, Izuku could see that her eyes had become just a bit duller and she was sweating. Using the momentum built up by his leap, Izuku twirled in the air and, with a little help from Float, kept moving as his kick rebounding helped him twist in the air.

Izuku ended up upside down behind Ms. Maker, who quickly turned to face him, the metal sheet still half-built and jutting out of her arm. Izuku grabbed onto the deformed sheet and pulled, yanking her with it and sending her tumbling across the street and into a wall, a disturbing crack resonating in Izuku's mind. He'd apologize later. Izuku landed on his feet and watched Ms. Maker for a few moments, seeing her try to stand up but cry out in pain as she held her head and what looked to be the arm that he'd used against her. She wasn't getting back up.

Turning to Chargebolt, Izuku saw that he seemed disturbed by his attack. Izuku powered down and sighed. He didn't want to explain this here, but he could tell that Chargebolt was looking at him like he was the bad guy.

"I know it'll seem kinda weird for me to tell you not to worry about this exam and then come out of the gate with electrocuting Gren-Aid and then hurling Ms. Maker into a brick wall, but that's just what this is. I'm sorry," Izuku said.

In the moment of quiet that followed, a small clicking sound was made by Chargebolt's hook snapping back into place. Danger Sense began to tingle in Izuku's brain, but he didn't need it to know that Chargebolt was going to attack. The blond fired off the hook at Izuku once more, but he simply stepped out of the way and saw it whizz past him. Izuku had an idea at that moment, and fired up One for All again to grab onto the wire and repeat the pulling move he'd done on Chargebolt before, sending the taller boy into the air and flailing toward him.

Izuku commanded Blackwhip to manifest in his free hand, but instead of flowing out, it curled back in on itself. Blackwhip flowed over Izuku's hand, coating his gloved appendage with the smoky substance. The coat stopped halfway up his forearm, but it was enough. It was time to test if Blackwhip was a conductor.

As Chargebolt got within range, Izuku pulled his Dark Gauntlet back and threw an unfocused punch at his classmate. Izuku knew that Chargebolt didn't exactly have the physical constitution to handle a precision shot at ten percent, so he went for a lazier hit so that he didn't get any vital organs when it landed. Chargebolt's body began to glow that same buzzing yellow, and Izuku smirked. He felt the hit connect and stop his enemy in his tracks, but Izuku quickly grabbed Chargebolt by the shirt with his Dark Gauntlet. He waited for a moment, trying to determine if he'd get shocked or not. When the answer seemed to be that he wouldn't get shocked, Izuku smiled that same smile he'd given Gren-Aid.

"Okay, dude! I surrender!" Chargebolt tried, wheezing out the announcement with a shortness of breath that rivaled Izuku's own after a day of training at the beach before UA. He missed those days.

Izuku couldn't be sure that he'd honor that. So, he raised Chargebolt into the air and slammed him back down into the ground, causing a rumble to go through his bones at the impact. Izuku held Chargebolt down for a moment, in case he tried to retaliate, but with his closed eyes and limp limbs, it seemed that he was out. Izuku let One for All leave him as he relaxed for a moment. He stood over Chargebolt's unconscious form and breathed heavily.

He looked over at Gren-Aid, still down from the lightning blast, and smiled brightly.

"Gren-Aid, Ms. Maker and Chargebolt are down, everyone. That's three points for us!" Izuku called out through the comms as he wrapped capture tape around all three of his downed opponents.

Izuku looked down the street, back where he'd come from, and saw that the battle in the intersection was still raging. He couldn't tell who was winning, but he could tell that it was winding down. He heard the shifting of concrete, and looked over to his defeated enemies to see that they were being carted off by trails of animated road. It was probably Cementoss, as all of their teachers were likely overseeing this exam. He'd likely be on standby to take any captured and unconscious students to an infirmary. It was a good idea, and it felt satisfying to see the three of them get carted off because he'd defeated all of them by himself.

" Nexus, we need help! They're starting to overwhelm us ," Froppy yelled through the comms.

He flared up to ten percent with One for All immediately. Izuku leapt into the air and onto one of the roof's railings, moving along the edges of buildings with his speed. He quickly approached the battlefield and paused when he saw what had happened to his team in his absence. Anima was down for the count, being dragged away by Cementoss's Quirk. Izuku could tell that Sugarman was starting to burn out and lose steam. Mineta was already gone, but Izuku couldn't tell if that was because he'd been beaten or because he had run away. Cellophane seemed to have gotten caught by Brainwashing, and was wrapping capture tape around himself.

Izuku spotted Tsukuyomi getting Flashbanged by Ms. Appear, once again invisible, and getting back into a corner. He decided that he'd help there, and leapt off the roof with two streams of Blackwhip trailing behind him. He dropped down behind where the flashes were coming from, and widened his stance considerably, holding his arms out and flicking his Blackwhips behind him.

"Duck!" Izuku yelled, seeing as Dark Shadow forced Tsukuyomi to the ground.

When Tsukuyomi was in the clear, Izuku brought his arms together in a wide arc, making it so that when his Blackwhips trailed behind, they'd also swipe out across practically that whole corner of the intersection. As the Blackwhips swung, they snagged Ms. Appear, the left one wrapping around her invisible form as the light flashing on Dark Shadow disappeared. She wasn't far from Tsukuyomi and Dark Shadow, which told Izuku that she still had to be near the light she warped, but that her range had extended. He'd be happy for her later, though, as now was the time to put her down.

"Sorry about this," Izuku mumbled.

Izuku began to tighten Blackwhip around Ms. Appear's body. He added more Blackwhips onto the one already wrapped around her, and began to twist them in a way that tightened them. After a few moments, the Blackwhips got so tight that they shattered the Invisi-Pad and rendered her costume visible for now. Izuku sighed, releasing Ms. Appear from Blackwhip's hold. It felt bad to destroy it like that, something that meant so much to her and that he had helped build, but that was how this was designed. 'Beat up your friends and feel bad about it' was Izuku's takeaway from this exam.

Ms. Appear seemed to realize that she was visible, and tried to run. Izuku then rushed up to her and shoved her off her feet, sending her through the window that had been broken by Earphone Jack's initial attack. He quickly went inside and checked to see if she was okay, to which he found that she was unconscious, and tied her up with capture tape, which netted Team One another point, totalling four.

When Izuku emerged from the small store, he saw that Cellophane was being dragged out by Cementoss after waking from his Brainwashing, which had forced him to eliminate himself. Sugarman, too, was gone, dragged away in the same fashion as other eliminated examinees. Ms. Appear slid right by Izuku as he assessed the scene, finding that the two teams were still equal in numbers. Six members of Izuku's team, that being Froppy, Freezerburn, Tsukuyomi, Can't Stop Twinkling and Tentacole, remained.

That number went down to five for Izuku's team as Acid Queen was able to dodge as she used parkour to evade Can't Stop Twinkling's Quirk. Acid Queen landed on the ground, the collar of her costume from the intense laser beam attack, Can't Stop Twinkling himself fell to the ground after what Izuku guessed was one too many uses of his Quirk in quick succession. As he was taken out of the equation, Izuku tuned into his team's comms.

"Let's get out of here and rethink our strategy! We've taken heavy losses on both sides," Izuku said, making eye contact with each of his team members from across the battlefield.

Izuku fired up One for All and moved toward the street opposite to where Team Two was grouping up. His team all made it to him, and he took a moment to make sure everyone was okay. Tsukuyomi just seemed tired, Froppy had seemingly taken some hits from the messed up hair they now sported, most of Freezerburn's right half was almost frozen over, the boy shivering intensely, and Tentacole was cut up on almost all of his arms. Izuku himself felt fine, if a little tired from his own fights, but overall he supposed that the team was doing fine.

He looked over at Team Two, which was in a similar situation; Uravity and Hypnos were checking their teammates for injuries. Hypnos walked away slightly from the group and toward Izuku, who did the same. They met in the middle, both tense and wary of the other. Hypnos looked to sport a variety of differently sized cuts and slashes from his adventure through a pane of glass, and Izuku had to stop himself from wincing. The two of them shared in some calming silence for a moment, before Hypnos spoke.

"We're all roughed up, tired and in need of an interlude. How about we go our separate ways, for now ," Hpynos proposed.

"I was thinking the same thing. We have a little over half the time left, so we can easily still come back at each other if we need to, which we will," Izuku said, looking over Hypnos's team.

"Yeah, funny how the whole numbers game works out, huh? Anyway, I guess this is goodbye, for now. Meet back here in fifteen minutes," Hypnos said, turning to walk away.

"Got it. See you soon, Hypnos," Izuku said, before doing the same.

Izuku made his way back to his team, trying to think of new strategies to try based on Hypnos's remaining teammates, as well as his own. This was going to be the hardest part of the exam; getting through it without losing anyone else. Plus ultra, indeed.