MyHeroAssociation

by PhineasFlash25

After a Mysterious-Cube falls from the sky, Class-1A finds themselves transported to a strange alternate-universe, and until they can return home to stop All-For-One and Shigaraki, they must train under the Class-S Heroes of this Other-World, and grow strong enough to win the Final-War that awaits them... (An Alternate Take on Lumpeistbark3's CYA: What Defines A Hero Series)

4. Chapter-3: A Moral Dilemma

My Hero Association Chapter-3

Month 1: Week 1:

A Moral Dilemma

---

Virtual-Combat-Simulation Training: Genos, Bakugo, Todoroki, Kuseno

As the Class woke up for their day, and followed the routine of meeting in the common-area and eating breakfast, an Association agent had arrived to advise Bakugo and Todoroki, that their mentor Demon-Cyborg had already arrived to pick them up and begin their training for the day.

"We've barely even finished breakfast," Todoroki responded. "He sure doesn't waste time."

"Tell the damn Toaster we'll be down once we're finished here!" Bakugo said.

Once they were done eating, Bakugo and Todoroki traveled down to the Association HQ's garage and met back up with Genos. Today, he took them straight to Doctor Kuseno's lab, this time not bothering to blindfold them or knock them unconscious.

"Does this mean you trust us now?" Todoroki asked.

"Enough." Was all Genos said. Once they arrived at the lab, Genos began to describe what he had learned and deduced by fighting their old adversaries in the Virtual-Combat-Simulator.

"Practically all of the enemies that you have faced back on your world rely mostly on their mutant abilities to fight, and it appears that you do as well. Each power comes with different advantages and disadvantages, and for you two, it is that you are what some may refer to as 'glass-cannons'. Your mutations allow you to unleash powerful range-attacks, and you can use them in a number of useful ways outside of combat as well. However, the rest of your physical-stats are roughly on par with the majority of Class-B Heroes, and so you rely on your mutations to compensate."

Doctor Kuseno spoke up next.

"If you're interested, I have a few cybernetic implants and surgical procedures that would significantly improve your performance. You wouldn't have to become as mechanical as Genos, mind you, but they would certainly make you stronger and tougher."

"Hard pass!" Bakugo said, "I don't need some mushroom-headed geezer to cut me open and stuff me full of robot-parts to get stronger! I just need to train my Quirk some more, that's all!"

"And what if the rest of your body can't keep up with your Quirk?" Genos asked. "What if your explosions become so powerful, that you start injuring yourself every time to use them? My own firepower cannot exceed the durability of my components, and even if it could, would it not be better to enhance all of your capabilities instead of just one?"

Bakugo just grunted, while Todoroki pondered the notion for himself.

Kuseno continued. "Of course, it's entirely up to you. I'm sure there are other ways you can improve your abilities; cybernetics just happen to be what I specialize in."

"In the meantime," Genos said, "You should practice more inside the VCS to sharpen your reflexes, and grow accustomed to a large variety of opponents."

"I call dibs this time, Half-And-Half!" Bakugo shouted, "You and Toaster got it all to yourself yesterday! And I haven't had anything to fight since coming to this place!"

"You fought me, and you lost." Genos countered.

"DAMN IT! Nobody asked you!"

Bakugo put on the VCS Headset and selected the first opponent on the database. The simulation took place in what appeared to be the Abandoned-Zone in City-Z, and the opponent was a monster listed as "Mosquito-Girl". She had insectoid wings and claws, and a sadistic grin as she rushed in towards Bakugo, but he was fast enough to dodge, and then counter with one of his explosions. The battle lasted for about 5 minutes, and Bakugo seemed to have the Mosquito-Girl on the defensive. But that all changed when a gigantic swarm of mosquitos came, with blood stolen from countless people and animals, and transferred the blood into their queen, causing her coloration to change from white to hot-pink, and also significantly increasing her strength and speed. Bakugo was then impaled by the monster's spear-like proboscis, but he was too stubborn to call it quits yet. In fact, this was what he wanted, for the mosquito to stab him with her proboscis so she'd be in point-blank range and unable to fly away in time. He grabbed her head with both hands, and unleashed a gigantic explosion, blasting her head to bits. Then the two of them plummeted down to the ground, and the simulation ended as a draw.

"Not half-bad," Genos commented, "It would seem that you are around the same level that I was at when I first met Master Saitama. Now let's see how you fare against Armored-Gorilla."

Moving on to the next opponent, Bakugo found that this one's strengths and weaknesses were almost an inversion of the Mosquito-Girl's. Armored-Gorilla was incredibly strong and durable, but was sorely lacking in speed and agility, and thus couldn't land a single hit on Bakugo. At the same time though, Bakugo's explosions weren't able to break through the cybernetic-ape's metallic-shell. Their battle dragged on for over 30 minutes, until Bakugo started to run out of explosive-sweat, and used both his gauntlets at once in a final-effort to blast through the mechanized-monster's armor.

"DOUBLE EXPLOSIVE-CANNON!"

The resulting detonation was enormous, obliterating dozens of blocks of the Abandoned-Zone, and while it did successfully break through the armor, the beast inside was left with only some burns and bruises, and otherwise still able to fight. Bakugo tried to punch at the exposed gap he made to damage his adversary more, but he was tired and slowing down, and the Armored-Gorilla beat him with one gigantic punch to the chest.

"DAMN IT!" Bakugo yelled as the simulation ended. "I was finally getting to 'em!"

"If it is any consolation," Genos said, "Back when I fought him in real-life, my Incineration-Cannons were struggling to break through his armor as well. I instead defeated him by ripping his cybernetic arms and legs off, thus immobilizing him and rendering him incapable of fighting any longer."

"And I defeated him by freezing him in ice." Todoroki added.

"DON'T PATRONIZE ME!" Bakugo shouted, and switched to the next fighter from Genos' memories.

Its name was Carnage-Kabuto, and it was an enormous humanoid stag-beetle with an ugly brown exoskeleton, and obnoxiously cocky attitude. The monster blurred out of Bakugo's line of sight, and the next thing he knew, his head was ripped off of his body, and the simulation ended.

Bakugo let out a massive stream of curses and obscenities. It took everything in his power not to take out his frustrations on Kuseno's lab.

"Screw this! I'm going out to find something REAL to blow-up!"

"That is an excellent idea," said Genos, "Training in the VCS can improve battle-reflexes and provide insight on your current capabilities and previous battles, but it will not physically improve your abilities, so it is important to still get real-world experience if you are to grow. Upgrading your gauntlets and gaining proficiency in other weapons may also..."

But Bakugo was already storming out of the lab, completely ignoring the Cyborg.

"We should probably follow him," said Todoroki. "Make sure he doesn't get into trouble."

Genos nodded, and they both ran to catch up with him, leaving Kuseno to work on his latest modifications to Genos' cybernetic arsenal. As they went, Todoroki asked Genos a few questions.

"That Carnage-Kabuto guy, not even you were able to beat him in the Simulator yesterday. How did you survive when you fought him in real-life?"

"Kabuto defeated me, but Master Saitama stepped in before he had a chance to finish me off."

"And he actually beat him?"

"Effortlessly."

Shoto remained silent for a long time after that. The more Genos talked about him, the more he wanted to see Saitama in action, just so he could understand where The Cyborg was coming from...

---

We Can Only Evolve Through Experimentation, Part-2: Drive-Knight, Yaoyorozu, Kaminari

Kaminari and Yaoyorozu were both guided back down into Drive-Knight's lab. Having seen everything once before allowed the two to walk with more confidence. This time however, they were led to a different room from the 'horror-zoo', as Kaminari called it, that contained different beings in cages/exhibits. They found themselves in a large chamber, with two areas separated by a large wall. One contained a machine that looked similar to a sci-fi generator, with two of its antennae pointed down towards a single spot. Drive-Knight stopped in front of said room and turned to the two teens.

"I would like to begin experimenting with your Quirks and skills. This machine here currently contains 800-million volts of electricity. On command, it will shoot out those bolts of electricity towards the area designated. I want you to absorb said electricity and release it back out. It will then be reabsorbed by the generators on the walls, and feed back into the machine in a continuous loop. Any questions?" Drive-Knight explained pointing towards a number of the tech found in the one room before looking towards Kaminari expectantly.

"My only concern is for the safety of this test." Yaoyorozu asked in Kaminari's place.

"I assure you that the machine is safe, all he would have to do to stop the cycle is to yell the word "stop" and the machine would turn off." He demonstrated by going inside the room and stepping into the designated area and starting the machine. A bolt of electricity hit him, and seemingly was absorbed by his cybernetic body. He then began to be shot multiple times by the bolts of electricity, before saying stop after being hit by a total of 10-million volts. He walked out of the room and gestured for Kaminari to go in, the boy shot one glance at his classmate and then with a nod went into the chamber as Drive-Knight closed the door behind him, going to the designated spot where he waited for the machine to begin.

"I will begin on 3-million volts every second, given your limit of 300-million volts. If my theory is wrong, and discharging doesn't improve your time, it will take you 1 minute and 40 seconds to overload." Drive-Knight said mechanically.

With that, he started the machine up. Kaminari raised his finger into the air, preparing for the voltage to rain down. He absorbed the first burst and quickly attempted to discharge the energy before the second volley came, being able to discharge most before the second volley came. He absorbed it as well and repeated this process for the full 1 minute and 40 seconds, and to Yaoyorozu's surprise, the Cyborg's theory was correct. He lasted a bit longer before his body started to vibrate, his hands and his thumbs started to move into the same comical position that they normally did when his brain was fried. The machine immediately halted as the last shot rained down. Kaminari had lasted a total of 2 minutes and 50 seconds, 70 seconds more than he would have normally, meaning that he had absorbed around 210-million more volts than normal.

"Interesting." was the only thing Drive-Knight said.

"It looks like you were right. He did last longer using this method than just absorbing things outright." Yaoyorozu noted.

"With that I had little doubt. If his brain was like a capacitor, only being able to absorb so much before overloading, then it would stand to reason that releasing energy would drain the capacitor, and thus leave room to spare for more energy."

"Although, it could have worked like a mental overload instead. The dual action of absorbing and discharging, might've drained his mental-capacity faster than normal." Yaoyorozu mentioned earning a stare from the Cyborg's singular red eye.

"A fair observation, it is fortunate that it was the latter, then. But that is not what I find interesting, what I find interesting is his overloaded state. Why does he choose to get into that pose and perform that action?" he questioned the girl.

"I don't know, and I doubt that even he knows." Yaoyorozu said with a shrug, only getting a hum in reply from the Cyborg.

"Is he cognitive enough to understand speech?" Drive-Knight asked.

"Not really, no." Yaoyorozu said, shaking her head.

"I see. I will leave a bot in his care to explain his next instructions once he regains enough cognitive function to continue. You on the other hand can follow me."

Drive-Knight began to walk towards a room right next door to the one Kaminari was in. It was a clear white room, empty of everything but the two of them inside. He asked her to take a distance of 30 meters before finally stopping and facing him again.

"Your power is vastly intriguing to me. I would like a demonstration if you would."

Obliging, Yaoyorozu created a simple metal Bo-Staff, materializing out of her hand.

"Interesting. Given that you created a staff first, I assume that is your preferred method of combat? Although the materials you used are quite brittle."

Yaoyorozu scoffed at the remark about the 'brittleness' of her weapon. It was made of pure tungsten!

"I wouldn't call this brittle, but yes, in terms of close-quarters combat I would mostly rely on the staff and shield." she said confidently. The staff that she held was then suddenly cut in half to her shock. She looked back at Drive-Knight, who held up his right index-finger.

"I destroyed that staff with one finger. I would wager that it is probably of weaker material than that bulletproof plexiglass there. What other weapons do you use for combat? For long-range engagements, for instance."

Yaoyorozu was still blown-away at the revelation that he broke her staff; she didn't even see him move. And did he really believe that the lab's plexiglass could be stronger than pure tungsten? Gathering herself, she replied.

"Well, for longer range engagements I can create this cement-gun, and for my ultimate attack..." beside her, a large cannon manifested.

"That's all?" Drive-Knight thought. "May I see the strength of your cannon? I would assume the ammunition you have makes it stronger than its antique-looking status would imply." Drive-Knight said curiously.

"Are you…. asking me to shoot you with the cannon?" Yaoyorozu asked worriedly.

"There is no cause for concern, I doubt that you would be able to hurt me, let alone kill me."

"Ok, if you say so." she agreed, still having doubts about it. She got behind the cannon and created a traditional shot for ammunition. She lined up the shot and fired. To her surprise, she was sure that Drive-Knight stepped forwards into the cannon-shot, hitting him dead in the center. Panicked, she started to run through the dust to see if he was alright, only to find Drive-Knight standing there unfazed. Yaoyorozu stopped in front of the Cyborg, and to her surprise he didn't have a single scratch on his entire body. " What's he made of?" she wondered.

"I am… slightly disappointed in your current arsenal and toolkit. However, I think I see what the problem might be. According to your file from the Association, you need to know the basic chemical and mechanical structure of an object in order to create it. So, the more technologically-advanced an item is, the more difficult it might be for you to learn and memorize the composition of said item."

"Yes, that has been the biggest problem I've faced with using my Quirk," Yaoyorozu confirmed. "I've done my best to memorize as many things as I can, but it's... it's a lot."

"I may have a solution to that. Among other things, I have developed cybernetic cerebral-implants, which can significantly improve cognitive-functioning. Reaction-speed, memory-storage and quality, your ability to process data and perform mathematical equations, all of this would be increased roughly a thousandfold. It would essentially be a cybernetic hard-drive surgically-installed into your brain. The ones that I currently possess can contain roughly 850-gigabytes of data and specs on hundreds of different weapons and tools, which would allow you to overcome the need to organically memorize it yourself."

"Whoa, so he could just stick some cyborg parts in your brain and give you superhuman-memory?!" Kaminari said in response. "That sounds awesome!"

Yaoyorozu was a lot less enthusiastic, however. "It sounds kind of dangerous, though. Surgically planting a hard-drive in my brain? How safe is it?

"Compared to the cybernetics I've installed upon myself, it's actually quite simple and foolproof." Drive-Knight reassured her.

"Hmmm..." Yaoyorozu thought about it, and it made plenty of sense. Drive-Knight appeared to be more machine than man at this point, and the same went for that other Class-S Hero that Todoroki and Bakugo were studying under. If cybernetics could be that advanced, then something like planting a hard-drive in her brain to improve her memory and processing-speed should be easy.

"I'll consider it, then." She said finally.

"Excellent," Drive-Knight replied, "In the meantime, we could practice your staff-fighting." This made Yaoyorozu raise her head to meet the Cyborg in the eye.

"Have you practiced with the Bo-Staff before?"

"No, but I have accumulated the knowledge I have found on techniques and forms that exist online in order to train you." Suddenly, between them a small circle platform opened, and from outside the hole raised two Bo-Staffs, made of some lightweight metal. She took one as Drive-Knight took another, she got into a stance as Drive-Knight mirrored hers and they began.

---

A Last Resort: Bang, Midoriya, Ojiro, Charanko

Ojiro was surprised that the traditional opening to Bang's training was a 20-kilometer run around the mountain that his dojo rested atop. He was far less surprised though at how Midoriya was holding up with it. From the moment they started running, he and Bang were simply gone from sight. He might have thought the two were actually racing to see who finished first. Ojiro, however, was struggling after the first kilometer, but at least he was ahead of Bang's supposed 'top-student' Charanko, who was struggling even harder than he was. He slowed down a bit to conserve his stamina, and to ask his fellow student a question.

"Is this something new he's doing? I would have thought being a long-time pupil, that you would be used to this by now if this was a regular occurrence."

"It… was… but not after… what happened. We… would mostly just practice forms instead of the full shebang, you know?" Charanko said, gasping as he continued to run.

Ojiro nodded in understanding, and continued to run next to his fellow disciple. Soon they both felt drafts of wind pass by both of them, which he could only assume were Bang and Midoriya overlapping them again as they ran past. They finally completed their first lap around the place, only to see Bang and Midoriya waiting by the stairs for the two of them, having already completed all 10 of theirs. Bang halted them before they passed for their second lap.

"There has been a slight change of plans. Instead of the usual practice today, Midoriya says that he wants to go out into the city, as he can sense people in danger. Despite my best efforts to assure him that other heroes can take care of it, he insists on going, and I shall accompany him. Charanko, I will leave Ojiro in your care for now. Go over the forms, even some light sparring if you're up for it."

"Yes sir, Master Bang!" Charanko replied but Ojiro's face was mixed.

"Can't I come along with you guys?" he asked, confused.

"We won't be gone long; I can assure you. You're more compatible with my fighting-style than your friend here, so I would like for you to practice as much as possible to master it."

Ojiro simply nodded his head, but still seeing the discouraged face on the boy, Bang continued.

"Don't worry now, You will be able to get out there soon enough." he patted the boy's shoulder as he and Midoriya prepared to leave, disappearing from sight again. Ojiro was about to continue his run, before noticing Charanko slowly going up the stairs.

"Aren't you going to continue the run? We're only a tenth of the way done."

"What?! You seriously want to keep running? Bang's gone, there's no point in continuing, let's just say that we finished when he gets back." Charanko casually replied.

"That wouldn't help us improve though. I didn't think laziness was one of Bang's teachings. I would have expected more from his top-student." Ojiro said mockingly.

"HEY! Don't disrespect Bang! He never slouches when it comes to his training!" Charanko said, turning back around and facing Ojiro, a defensive edge in his voice.

"Really? Well, then I guess your lack of discipline and work-ethic can only speak to his lack of teaching-skills." Ojiro shot back. This angered Charanko even more.

"This is your last warning, stop disrespecting him!" Charanko said menacingly, as he got into a fighting-stance.

"You first," Ojiro replied. "You're disrespecting him by choosing to slack-off when he's not looking."

With that, Ojiro took off to continue his run, and after taking a few seconds to consider his words, Charanko followed behind him.

Midoriya and Bang launched off from his dojo towards the innermost center towards the city. Bang allowed Midoriya to lead the way, just to test out how his DangerSense worked. Midoriya was being guided by his DangerSense, using the buildings to jump from rooftop to rooftop, and his speed and momentum to continue forwards with Bang close behind. Midoriya sensed a hostile presence nearby, and as he adjusted his course to follow it, alarms started blaring.

"Warning! Warning! A Monster of Threat-Level: Tiger has been sighted. All civilians please evacuate to the designated safe-areas or evacuation-shelters!"

The monster was already in battle with a hero wielding a gigantic sledgehammer. The monster was an amalgamation that had a lion's head with sharp jaws, a big chest, and bigger arms with a centaur-like lower body, but leonine rather than equine. The hero attempted to swing his hammer at the creature's head, but it was completely blocked by its massive arm and hand. It launched a punch with the other hand, sending the hero flying back into a wall, throwing the weapon behind him, and charging at the hero, preparing to bite his neck. Midoriya sprang into action, using his BlackWhips to wrap around the creature's legs and launch a kick into the creature's side, causing it to fly in the other direction, hitting and denting a brick-wall. It shook and rose to its feet, ready to attack again, but before it could, it sensed that something was next to it. Turning and seeing an old man, it thought of using him as a hostage, before suddenly losing sight of him, and feeling pain all over its body, and then shortly after, nothing at all.

Midoriya rushed over to the hero with the sledgehammer, and asked if he was ok.

"Yeah, I'm fine," The hammer-wielding hero told him, "I'm Sledge, Class-C Rank-29. And you?"

"I'm Izuku Midoriya, but my friends just call me Deku." Midoriya replied, still not wanting to use the nickname that the Association gave him. After helping Sledge to his feet, he let the hero walk off after handing him back his weapon with his BlackWhip. Then he turned his attention back towards Bang and the villain that was down next to him. He approached slowly at first, but after realizing that the creature didn't move, didn't even breathe, he began to run towards it, quickly taking a look and checking for any signs of life and finding… none. Bang just killed it.

"Why?" was all Midoriya could say.

"Hmm? What was that, my boy?" Bang said with such ease, like he didn't know anything was wrong.

"Why did you kill it?" Midoriya looked from the creature to Bang. "You have more than enough strength to just knock it unconscious, but you took its life. Why?"

"Well, we are heroes, is this not our purpose? To eliminate threats to humanity?" Bang asked confusedly.

"Well, yeah, but... I always believed that... Killing should be a last resort, not a first." Midoriya said, his voice getting lower and lower as he spoke, thinking of what Iida said. Hearing it was one thing, but actually seeing it was another. The creature's bones were completely shattered. It probably had numerous lacerations and internal-hemorrhaging, and would've died very quickly.

Bang came over to Midoriya, and gently put his hand on his shoulder.

"Please try to understand, Midoriya, we don't just call them monsters because of how they look. By all accounts, that's what they are. They have no sense of morals. They will often terrorize and kill for no reason at all, and I myself have never seen an example of one being redeemed. But if you wish to spare some, we can. The Association does arrest monsters that can be captured, and there are a few among them that have been trying to develop a cure for Monsterization, so capturing them is certainly an option. It's just not a very popular one anymore..." Bang said.

"I'm... I'm sorry if I sound naïve. It's just that... If there's any chance that they can be saved too, if there's any chance at all... Then I want to try." Midoriya told him.

"Very well. From henceforth, I will only knock the monsters unconscious." Bang promised, moving his hand over his heart.

"Thank you." Midoriya said, forcing a smile.

They both headed off through the city again, using Midoriya's DangerSense to locate emergencies and monsters that they would take care of. Due to the no-killing rule that Bang swore to, they would have to wait for the Association to arrive and pick up the unconscious monsters. Bang eventually said that it was enough for the day, and Midoriya agreed, no longer sensing any danger with his ability, and they both traveled back to the dojo, where they found Ojiro standing over Charanko, who was lying on the ground gasping for air.

"Oh, I see that you two have been sparring in our absence." Bang said nonchalantly as he and Midoriya entered the dojo.

"Yeah, right after we finished our run..." Ojiro replied, somewhat winded. While Charanko was nowhere near his master's level in the Fist of Flowing-Water Crushing-Rock, he was further along at it than Ojiro was with only a single day of training, and Ojiro tried to only use techniques and forms from that style against him in their duel. He also avoided using his Tail as much as possible, all of which had made the fight a lot harder for him. Despite that, though, he still managed to beat Charanko in the end.

"Damn it, even the newbies wipe the floor with me..." Charanko lamented, lying beaten on the mat.

"Ojiro may have defeated you this time, Charanko, but the only one who can permanently defeat you is yourself." Bang instructed.

Upon hearing his master's words, Charanko got back up, congratulating Ojiro on his victory before taking a seat.

---

The Reptile and the Amphibian: Asui

Earlier that day, as Asui was exiting the common-area with everyone else, she was also approached by one of the Association agents, the one with round silver glasses who spoke with Shinsou.

"Tsuyu Asui, aka Froppy, we have a special assignment for you, if you don't mind."

Asui cast a glance back at her classmates, who merely shrugged their shoulders. After some thought, she agreed, and followed him to their destination, getting into an elevator leading deep down into the Association HQ's sublevels.

"May I ask what you need me for? Asui asked directly.

"Well, as you may have come to know, in this world, we have dangerous creatures that are generally called monsters, or mysterious-beings, though there are technically two different kinds. Originally, we assumed them only to be strange abominations, wild beasts that existed long before humanity settled into power, but now it has become increasingly clear as we learn more about them, that humans as well can transform into these type of beings under certain circumstances."

The elevator stopped and the agent began to lead the way again. They walked down a hallway that appeared to be some kind of high-tech cell-block.

"What would those circumstances be?" Asui asked.

"A number of different things; anger, revenge, ugliness, dissatisfaction with their normal lives, or obsession over an object or idea. 11 days ago, we apprehended a monster that called himself Tongue-Stretcher. Apparently he was once a regular young man named Jordan, but transformed into a lizard-monster due to his obsession with reptiles."

Asui was dumbstruck. In this world, a person could physically change and mutate into a lizard-monster, just by being super-obsessed with lizards? It was such a cartoonishly absurd idea that she half-expected the agent to laugh and say he was just kidding, but he never did.

They stopped in front of a glass window for one of the cells. It held some rocks and grass around on a hard metal floor, similar to an exhibit from a zoo's reptile-house, and inside was the lizard-monster in question. He had curly black hair with a green letterman's jacket on, a white t-shirt underneath, and blue jeans. He was distinctly chameleon-like, green, and with a long tail behind him.

"Ok, but what do you want me to do?" Asui asked.

"We would like for you to talk to him. There are members of the Association that are attempting to rehabilitate, and/or develop cures for those who have monsterized, but so far it's been unsuccessful. They're hoping that you and your friends could be the breakthrough they've been looking for."

"I see." Asui said, as she took another glance at the lizardman through the glass.

"Just so you know, frogs are amphibians, not reptiles, so if that's why you're asking for my help specifically, It might not be close enough for him to care to listen to me."

"I admit, it's a longshot," The spectacled agent said, "But we figured it was worth a try."

"What would happen to him if he refuses to cooperate? Will you kill him?"

"We're not sure yet, but I promise we will intervene if he tries to harm you."

Asui thought about his response. It wasn't a yes or no answer, but it implied that they didn't have any qualms about killing him if it ever came to that. She decided that she should at least try and reason with him, just in case it was still possible.

"Okay then, I'll talk to him." Froppy said with a determined nod. Before she was escorted away, she was handed a device with a big-red-button on it, which would send a signal to them if things had gotten out of hand. She was directed inside the cell, and the door behind her was locked. She turned to face the Lizardman inside the exhibit, who locked its eyes on her.

"What is this, my offering? Did the Association hear about my totally epic battle with King? I would've preferred someone a bit older, but I'll accept nonetheless." The Lizardman said with a creepy smile.

"King?" Asui's eyes widened; the name sounded familiar. Wasn't that Shinsou's current mentor? He said that King was the strongest Class-S around, so if this monster was able to fight him and survive, then he must be incredibly str-

"Correction, while it's true that Tongue-Stretcher did encounter King, he immediately surrendered upon meeting him and was arrested shortly after. He is a relatively weak monster, only Threat-Level: Wolf." the spectacled agent said over the intercom. Asui sighed in relief.

"Tch, well what do you want?" The Lizardman said, his entire tone deflating after his act was blown.

"I just wanted to talk." Asui said honestly.

"Talk?! Why would I want to talk to any of you? I'm different now! I'm better than all of those normal people, why should I submit to them? They are beneath me! And so are you!" he immediately launched his tongue at her, causing Asui to jump up and stick to the ceiling upside-down, looking down at the Lizardman, who stared up in shock.

"You're... You're a Lizard too?!"

"Frog, actually, but not too far off." Asui corrected.

"But why?! Why are you siding with those lowly humans?!"

"Jordan," Asui said, using the Lizardman's original name. "Just because you've got lizard-powers now, that doesn't give you the right to hurt people. They matter just as much as you do."

Jordan the Lizardman wasn't swayed. "Is that supposed to change my mind? You're still mostly human, you can still pass off as human! But me? Who would accept me?! I'm a freak now!"

He chuckled to himself. "No! Even back when I was still human, I was considered a freak! I was just 'The Weird Lizard-Guy!' Girls would ignore me, guys would bully me, and all I ever wanted was to show them that lizards are cool and interesting! But I was always bullied and ridiculed for it! But now that I've become a Lizard myself, I will show them the True-Power of Lizards! I'll Show Them All!"

He launched his tongue out at her again, which she dodged and then activated her camouflage, sneaking around to a different corner of the cell. She wanted to tell him that it was ok to be different, but she wasn't really sure if that was the case here. This wasn't the same world she knew; Quirks didn't exist here, and Jordan's reptilian nature was the result of this "Monsterization", which sounded completely different from how Quirks operate. Still, if the Hero-Association was able to accept her and her classmates, maybe there was still hope for him.

"If you just want to show people how cool lizards are, there's a much better way to do it," Asui said. "Use your powers to help people instead of hurting them! You're never going to gain their respect by acting like a monster!"

"So what? You want me to act like a hero? Is that what you think you are?!" Jordan laughed. He then launched his chameleon-like tongue out towards the direction of Asui's voice, but before he could hit her, he was wrapped-up by Asui's own tongue.

"I'm trying be a hero at least." she managed to get out. "Don't you think it'd be better for everyone, including yourself, if you tried using your powers for good, instead of revenge?"

Suddenly, Asui felt a sharp, stabbing sensation coming from her tongue, and in a trigger-haired reaction, she released Jordan from her grasp. It was only then that she realized what had happened.

"Did you seriously just bite me?!" She asked him. Jordan's own tongue was retracted back into his mouth, and Asui's tongue now had distinct bite-marks on it, and was already bleeding. Jordan smiled, revealing the sharp teeth he used to inflict that injury.

"Tasty..." was all that he said, sending a repulsive chill down Asui's spine.

"That's it," she thought to herself, "I've had enough of this lunatic for one day," She jumped up and clung to the ceiling, then came down with a drop-kick using both feet. Rather than block or evade, however, Jordan leaped up and tried to get another bite out of Asui.

But Asui was expecting that.

Jordan sank his teeth into Asui's left leg, and their momentum sent them tumbling backwards until they hit one of the cell walls. But as soon as Jordan bit into Asui's flesh, his body immediately clammed-up, and he ended up lying on his back unable to move his body, only his eyes as he followed the girl that stood above him.

"Y'know, some species of frog can secrete a paralyzing toxin from their skin... For this exact reason." She told him before turning around and heading towards the exit. Her left leg was reeling in pain from the bite-mark Jordan left, but thankfully it was only a minor flesh-wound. Just as she was about to leave the cell, She looked back at Jordan, still motionless on the ground.

"I'm disappointed in you, Jordan. You complain about how poorly people had treated you, and you think of yourself as just a victim of bullying and discrimination, but then you go and behave like a wild animal, a monster even. Unless you change that way of thinking and start taking some responsibility, you're gonna spend the rest of your life in this cell, and you'll have nobody to blame but yourself."

After she finished talking to him and left the cell, Asui was greeted by the spectacled agent.

"We already have a medical team ready to treat those wounds." He informed her, and lead her to the two doctors in question, with paramedical tools and a gurney already set up for her. Her wounds were quickly stitched-up and the pain relieved with anesthetics.

"Gee, you sure do plan ahead, Mister..."

"Jinzuren," the glasses-wearing agent said, extending his right hand out. "My name's Jinzuren, and I work directly under Sitch. He's trusted me with attending to you and your friends. If you have any questions, requests, or need to contact Sitch for some reason, you can always come to me."

Asui shook his extended hand. "Thanks, I'll be sure to remember that."

"So, you didn't use the red-button." Jinzuren noted.

"No. Like you said, he was a very weak monster. Besides, I still think he can change, and I would like to give him a chance to." Jinzuren nodded.

"Well, you are free for the remainder of the day. You may do as you wish. And to thank you for your assistance, here you go." He handed her a group-coupon to a restaurant for her whole class, as well as his own business card with his phone-number and email.

"Thank you very much. If we're done here, I think I'll just go back to my room and do some reading." Jinzuren simply nodded, escorting her back to the main elevator. Shortly after Asui went back up, someone else came down. The elevator doors opened to reveal Sitch.

"The results?"

"Somewhat positive, the monster was far more willing to talk with her, but he was still emotionally unstable, and ended up reacting violently."

"They fought?"

"Yes, the girl disabled him using some sort of paralyzing mucus from her skin. She spoke to him some more once he was disabled, but only time will tell if it had any effect on the monster."

"Keep me posted on his condition."

"Will do, Sir."

---

Different World, Different Rules: TankTop-Philosopher, Shoji

Shoji was taken back to the TankToppers' Headquarters, which he came to realize was basically an enormous gym, although it did have the TankToppers army-branding on it, designating it as theirs. Before they entered the facility, TankTop-Master, and a number of other TankToppers began to emerge from the building, including a young-woman in her early 20's, and an older man with glasses and a large book in his hands. Both of them were wearing tanktops.

"Good, you're here. You'll be going on patrol today, along with the other TankToppers. You will be partnered up with TankGirl and TankTop-Philosopher. Everyone usually patrols in two-man teams, but you'll be the exception for now." TankTop-Master explained.

Shoji nodded, and with that a number of TankToppers left the gym behind, wishing each other good luck and getting into separate vehicles. Noticing the questioning look on his face, TankGirl spoke.

"The TankToppers are a continent-wide organization, so while our main base of operations is here, we still lend aid to all cities across the continent."

"Impressive." Shoji said.

"It's mostly just a way for the TankToppers to show off to the citizens around them." TankTop-Philosopher said as he walked up beside them, reading a large, fancy-looking book. TankGirl immediately snapped at him.

"Should you really be saying that to our newest member? Don't you want him to have a good impression of us?"

"I see no point in lying to the boy, or to myself about how the TankToppers operate. I have seen that you have concerns for those involved as well." he said without looking up at the girl, who only sighed in defeat.

"It's not that they aren't good guys, but their ego does tend to get ahead of them from time to time. But they are fearless and would jump into battle at the slightest chance, even if they are outmatched." she said confidently, looking at Shoji.

"Whether that be from chivalry and courage, or stupidity and arrogance, is up for great debate." TankTop-Philosopher added.

"Would you just be quiet, already!" TankGirl said, getting annoyed.

Hoping to change the topic and alleviate tension, Shoji decided to speak up.

"So where are we going for patrol today?" TankGirl turned around to reply.

"We're most going to stay in this city for the day. As for route, we don't have a specific path we follow, we just explore the city until we find trouble to solve, or hear the alarms blaring."

As they began to patrol, Shoji took in the surroundings of the city, analyzing what was familiar and what was different about this world. He occasionally caught glances from civilians he passed. He guessed the reason things didn't escalate any further was due to the two TankToppers around him. TankTop-Philosopher must have also seen some of the stares he got, because he then spoke from behind him.

"Please don't be discouraged by them, they're just not used to seeing a unique individual such as yourself. As long as you're with us, everything should be fine."

Shoji nodded his head and was about to speak when suddenly alarms were raised. A voice was heard over an intercom.

"Warning! Warning! A monster has appeared in Central-Avenue. The Threat-Level is Wolf, with a possible escalation to Tiger. Please remain calm and avoid the area if possible."

Shoji looked around as the announcement played out. At first it seemed the crowds of people were about to panic, but upon hearing the monster was classified as a Threat-Level Wolf, everyone seemed to settle down and carry on as usual. Shoji found that interesting, and guessed that either Wolf-Level Threats weren't taken very seriously, or the distance from wherever that was to their current location was too far away to get worked up over.

"Only a Wolf-Level, huh? Well, we should still get over there, just to be sure." TankGirl said while performing some stretching exercises.

"From here, it should take us around 10 minutes to get there if we run." TankTop-Philosopher said.

"Well, there goes that theory of distance." Shoji thought, and thus concluded that a Wolf-Level Threat must be very low.

Once they were ready, they all ran towards the scene of the attack. To Shoji's surprise he quickly lost sight of TankGirl, but kept up just fine with TankTop-Philosopher, and just as he predicted the two of them got there in roughly 10 minutes. They arrived to see TankGirl just sitting down on a police car drinking a protein shake, staring disbelieving at the two new arrivals.

"What the hell took you both so long, are those books you keep reading slow you down?" TankGirl teased.

"I said it would take us 10 minutes. If we both left at full speed, it would leave Shoji alone, causing unnecessary complications." TankTop-Philosopher said casually.

"How the hell did you know how fast the kid was? Wait, don't tell me it was the book?" she said with an unconvinced look, only receiving a cheeky nod in return. Shoji was more worried about the threat that they were there for.

"What about this Wolf-Level Threat? Why are we just sitting here and not trying to deal with the situation?" he exclaimed seriously.

"It's not our fault really, it's these people." she said, kicking the car she was sitting on.

"The Police won't let you help? Why not?" Shoji was perplexed.

"The Police and the Hero-Association have something of a rivalry going on," TankTop-Philosopher explained. "You see, ever since the Association was founded, The Police have been losing funding, public-support, and numerous personnel. There's been a lot of debate as to who should have jurisdiction over what. As a result, we are not allowed to interfere with each other's affairs, and must wait until all of their forces are defeated before entering." He then sat down on the police car as well, opening the book and reading its blank contents.

Shoji couldn't believe what he was hearing. The heroes and police were against each other? Shouldn't public safety come first above all else? He looked over at the two heroes, then looked at the police behind them. They had blocked off the street with their cars and were currently engaged with a humanoid-octopus creature. It had an octopus' head and a mostly human-shaped body, with a pinkish pigmentation, and 6 tentacles coming out from his sides.

"Another multi-armed octopus-guy. What are the odds?" Shoji thought to himself.

The last officer was just getting thrown towards the cars they were standing by when he finally leapt into action, catching the officer in his elongated arm before placing him gently on the ground. Shoji then walked out into the middle of the street to face the creature. Seeing Shoji jump onto the scene, TankGirl was about to join him, before a hand grabbed her shoulder and held her in place.

"Let the new recruit handle this." TankTop-Philosopher stated.

"Are you the next challenger? You stand before the great Octo-Man!" the creature shouted proudly, much to Shoji's disbelief at such a lazy name.

"How about you just calm down and come in quietly? You've caused enough trouble for one day." Shoji said, trying to reason with the creature first before fighting.

"Hah, you think you can stop me with such idle talk?! The power of the octopus is mine to control, and I shall do as I please with it!" he said as he launched three tentacles at Shoji, who countered by extending out three arms of his own, catching each one and holding them in place.

"OH! You're challenging me to an octo-off? Bring it on then!" the Octo-Man said, launching his other three tentacles, which Shoji countered the same way. But then without warning, the creature shot a spray of ink out of its deformed mouth, which got in Shoji's eyes, causing him to cry out in agony.

"I am the Octopus-King, you should never have challenged me in my..." he stopped as he suddenly saw two eyestalks sprout from the shoulders of the hero. Shoji also grew a couple more limbs that caught the punches the villain threw his way, and returned with a barrage of his own, catching the villain off-guard. He successfully landed multiple punches over the villain's body before finishing with a flurry of 12 punches to the villain's face that sent him flying several meters back, knocking him out.

"Woohoo! You go, New-Kid! You sure showed him!" He heard TankGirl shout from behind him. He turned his additional eyes to view her while he was still cleaning the gunk from his face. He was about to say something, when suddenly one of the police officers spoke up.

"Wait, hold on! I'm so confused. Who is this guy, and why does he have multiple arms just like the monster he beat?" Several of the other officers stared at Shoji, concern growing on their faces. Some of them even had their hands hovering over their guns, as if half-expecting the stranger to attack them next. Thankfully for Shoji, TankTop-Philosopher stepped in to ease their worries.

"Relax, Officer, he's with us, the Hero-Association and the TankToppers' newest recruit, TentaCole!" he announced. He then threw his book past Shoji, who's eyes followed its trajectory, and to his shock, it was thrown at the Octo-Man. The creature was getting back up, only to have his head completely crushed from the force of TankTop-Philosopher's throw, making his body fall loosely to the ground. Shoji finally cleared the ink from his face, and stared at the lifeless body. TankTop-Philosopher retrieved his book from the caved-in skull.

"You did well, but you have to make sure you finish off your opponent before turning your attention away." he said in a polite, teacherly manner, seemingly unfazed that he just killed a sentient-being. TankGirl came up behind him and clasped his shoulder, before moving forward.

"Still, you sure showed him who's the real octopus-king around here! On to the next scene!" she said, as she and TankTop-Philosopher resumed their patrol. Taking one last look at the body before following behind them, Shoji thought about what he just witnessed.

"Different World, Different Rules indeed."

---

Weapons Training: Child-Emperor, Ashido, Jiro

When Jiro and Ashido both walked into Child-Emperor's laboratory, they were greeted by one of his robots that guided them towards where they assumed Child-Emperor himself was located. The robot took extra precaution to walk next to Ashido, just in case the excitable girl tried to run off at the slightest thing that catches her fancy. They soon spotted the hero, who was in front of a large testing-area that looked like a prop city-street. Ashido saw her equipment from yesterday on a table next to the kid and immediately ran towards it. The robot was about to stop her but was halted by Child-Emperor. She immediately grabbed the gloves and rubbed them against her cheek.

"OH, I missed these things... so much!"

"It's only been a day." Child-Emperor said dryly.

"You don't get it; this is my first real tech-support item. I'm actually able to use it! The Support-Course students back home tried making something, but my Acid was always too strong for the materials they used."

"ASHIDO!" Jirou exclaimed worriedly, giving her friend a shushing look.

Covering her mouth, Ashido looked just like a deer caught in headlights. Turning from her friend back to the child-hero, who didn't look the least bit shocked or curious about what she just said.

"You don't have to be so secretive around me, I partially helped build the Hero-Associations' firewalls, and I left myself some backdoors just in case things like this happened. I know you and your friends aren't from around here." Child-Emperor said.

"So, does that mean you know how we got here?" Jiro questioned.

"That part I don't know, you guys were only logged in as an "anomaly". Any further information must be stored on physical files rather than digital. Sitch does that at times. But if you could tell me, that would be great." Child-Emperor said with a smile.

"We…can't." Ashido said solemnly, rubbing her shoulder.

"Yeah, sorry, but they made us swear that we keep it secret from everyone, and honestly we still don't understand most of it ourselves." Jiro added.

"I figured. Well today, you'll be doing combat-training against a few robots, to gather more data and calibrations for your equipment. I implemented some of the suggestions you made the other day into the new designs." Child-Emperor said, turning to look at the equipment table.

"Ohhhh, REALLY?!" Ashido said in shock as she put on the new gloves. Instead of being completely black metal gloves like before, they were now fingerless with a similar color-scheme as her costume, and metal caps on each knuckle of her finger.

"OMG! They're great!" she said enthusiastically as she stretched out her hands to examine the new gloves, testing out how they looked and felt.

Jiro tried on her new set of bracelets, watching as the tech morphed and expanded to cover her hands, wrists, and forearms. There was also a new set of boots for her, made from the same tech.

"Oh? You asked for something new?" Ashido was intrigued by her friend's new addition.

"Yeah, I wanted a better way for me to switch from using my upper amplifiers to the lower ones, without having to remove my EarJacks." Jiro replied.

"Right, I managed to fulfill that request. These boots and gauntlets can now wirelessly transfer the sonic-energy back and forth." Child-Emperor explained. Jiro nodded.

"What improvements did you get?" Jiro asked Ashido.

"Well, nothing major like you, just some cosmetic upgrades and the ability to use my regular moves again." Upon seeing the confused look Jiro gave her, Ashido elaborated.

"Well, before I couldn't use anything but those high-powered shots from before, but now I can use my standard moves as well. Right?" she asked, turning her attention to Child-Emperor.

"Correct. You can still use your normal moves, and the gloves still keep a similar functionality as before. The acid is stored inside the metal containers above the knuckles. They deliver the high pressurized shots and can double as physical enhancement of your punches. However, they contain less acid than the previous model, so you may need to reload more often."

With all that said, the child-hero asked them to go into the prop city-street, and wait for his signal to begin. Their goal was to defeat all the enemies in the trial. They both did some stretching exercises first, and then a loud siren went off, which they guessed was the signal. Jiro immediately sent one of her jacks into the nearest wall, and heard the whirring and buzzing of machinery. She deduced their opponents were around 4-meters away, just around the corner.

She informed Ashido, and they devised a plan. They launched their attack simultaneously, jumping out from their cover to ambush the enemy bots. Ashido was the first to attack, using pressurized acid-shots from her right hand, hitting and melting two robots that were shaped like overgrown bees. Jiro focused on the ground units, a combination of animal and humanoid robots charging forwards. She tried out her HeartBeat-Distortion attack, shaking the ground and sending multiple robots up into the air from the rising earth. She and Ashido then used them as target practice from long-range. Jiro's HeartBeat-Surround evolved to form a narrower soundwave path that could pierce targets, quickly cleaning up the remaining robots. The two continued on with the trial, sometimes setting up and luring them into traps with Ashido's acid, using her Maximum-Viscosity, while Jiro used her sonic-blasts to finish them off.

Soon enough, the trial concluded. As they both went back towards the starting area, they had confident smiles on their faces, and expressed the same sentiment to Child-Emperor.

"They're perfect!" they said almost in unison. Then Ashido started to go the extra mile, picking up and hugging the child-hero, but was stopped by his robot arms from his bag.

---

Just Suck It Up!: Tatsumaki, Uraraka

Uraraka was still training with Tatsumaki in the empty wasteland between cities, dodging rocks being thrown at her, while returning fire with her own, but all that ended up accomplishing was for Tatsumaki to send it back at her even faster. She struggled to keep her balance, dealing with the nausea, and occasionally repressing the feeling of vomit coming up her throat. Tatsumaki wasn't totally heartless in her training, however. Every time that Uraraka would stumble, or was not able to dodge in time, the Esper would suddenly slow the rock down so that the blow, while still hitting like a punch to the face, wouldn't leave Uraraka concussed or with any broken bones. And yet, it was clear that she wasn't going to be too lenient with her, still roughing her up quite a bit.

Uraraka spent nearly an hour going through the cycle of attack and evasion, until one time that she went to dodge, she wasn't keeping proper track of her surroundings, and tripped over some spare rubble around her. The fall caused her nausea to grow even worse, but she managed to hold back the bile in her throat and get down on all fours, still trying to avoid the incoming rocks. She wasn't quite fast enough, however, and ended up getting pelted by several stones.

The momentum was enough to flip her onto her side, and the area hit caused her to gasp and spew all the contents she was trying to repress. Thankfully for her, Tatsumaki's telekinesis was extremely versatile; she was able to essentially atomize all the bile that would have ended up on her face and in her hair, causing it to completely vanish as it left her mouth. She was so precise in fact, that she didn't even have the bad breath that came from puking, which saved her the trouble of bringing breath-mints and mouthwash along with her for training.

The minor comfort of that fact was sharply contrasted by the pain and soreness in her ribs from the blow she had just received. Clutching at the area, she looked up into the sky, and there was Tatsumaki, condescendingly peering down at her.

"In battle, a hero should always keep an eye on their surroundings! Especially one as weak as you!" she yelled down at Uraraka.

"Yeah, I know I'm weak, thanks for reminding me... For like the third time in the last hour alone..." Uraraka thought to herself.

"What was That?!" Tatsumaki yelled, picking up some nearby rocks and raising them threateningly at the girl on the ground.

"N-Nothing! Nothing!" she said panicking, raising her hand and trying to stand back up.

That was another terrible aspect of training under Tatsumaki; apparently, she also had the power to read minds. And she didn't like people talking back, or even thinking back at her.

As Uraraka finally got back on her feet, she suddenly found herself being lifted off and flying away, carried again by Tatsumaki's power.

"Where are we going?" she asked as she was flying through the air with Tatsumaki. The heroine spun around, standing in a relaxed pose while she flew, almost as if she were standing still and their destination was traveling to her instead.

"Training is one thing, but you need actual combat-experience, fighting real enemies. Besides, I'm getting bored anyways just throwing rocks around." Tatsumaki said with a sly grin, turning back around and beginning to fly faster. The two heroines touched-down in City-L. The monster alarms were already blaring, announcing multiple monster-attacks. One of them was Threat-Level: Demon, two more were Threat-Level: Wolf, and one was Threat-Level: Tiger.

"I'll take care of the Demon; you deal with the small fries." Tatsumaki said as she flew away towards the direction of large billowing smoke in the distance. Uraraka was surprised that she would just leave her there all by herself. She then yelped as the heavy boulders from their training landed next to her. She thought about where she would find these "small fries" she was talking about, then heard someone's screaming coming from behind her. She turned around to find the source of the scream. It was a large humanoid creature resembling a goldfish, and it was closing in on a defenseless woman and her child.

Uraraka levitated the rocks next to her and threw one at the fishman, knocking the attacker off its feet and into the nearby wall. Uraraka immediately went to check if the woman and child were ok, and after thanking her, they ran for the closest evac-shelter. The fishman shook itself off from its impact and glared at Uraraka. It made some sort of noise, but it was unrecognizable to her, then it charged directly at her. She threw even more stones at the creature, and it managed to dodge two of them, but was hit by two others in the chest and face. Uraraka than released her Quirk on the two that connected, and the rocks inflicted even more damage on the fishman as they knocked it back and caused it to collapse. The maneuver seemed to have pinned the creature to the ground, immobilized by the weight of the two large stones resting on top of it. Uraraka smiled, realizing that this was the first villain she ever beat by herself in a one-on-one fight.

A flicker from the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she quickly jumped out of the way, as another villain arrived. This one was a fishman as well, but it had sharp finlike blades coming out of its back and forearms. Its body was covered in blue scales, and it had a nose resembling that of a swordfish. it charged at her with a battle cry. Uraraka used her last two rocks to try and block its attack, but it crashed through both of them, barely inconvenienced.

It tried to stab her with its long, sharp nose, but relying on her GunHead Martial-Arts, Uraraka sidestepped the blade while drawing closer to the fishman. She tagged it with her Quirk and then judo-flipped it, sending it spiraling through the air. The fishman quickly recovered, though, and stabbed its hands into the ground to regain traction, and launched itself back at her. Uraraka ducked under the attack and used all her strength to launch the villain in the air with an uppercut. Still under the effects of Zero-Gravity, the fishman kept flying upwards, but its momentum was suddenly stopped by something shooting through the air to catch it and land back on the ground.

The new arrival stepped up to face her; another fishman, larger and stronger than either of the previous two, standing over 8-feet tall and resembling a humanoid hammerhead-shark.

"So, you're the one that's been giving my comrades a hard time, eh?" the fishman said.

"Who are you guys?! And why are you attacking these people?!" Uraraka asked.

"Who are we? We are the future! Humans and Sea-Folk have combined to create the new rulers of the Earth! We call ourselves The New Sea-Folk!" the creature boldly shouted, brandishing its claws towards Uraraka.

"Join us! All you have to do is eat the remains of the Sea-Folk, and you too will take on the next evolution of humanity! Refuse and you will die, just like the rest of these pathetic primates!"

Uraraka was steadily backing up as the hammerhead-shark monster approached her, trying to get towards her supply of larger boulders that she left in the park. She wasn't sure what the creature was even talking about, but she knew it couldn't be good.

"I refuse."

"So be it, then."

A concentrated blast of pressurized water shot out of its mouth, and Uraraka rolled out of the way just in time. She began to sprint towards the boulders, and using her Quirk on the 3 heavy objects and hooking them to her grapple-lines, she turned back around to face the sharkman.

She recoiled slightly, as the sharkman had already caught up to her. She had planned to use the boulders like wrecking-balls to knock it out quickly, but before Uraraka could launch her attack, the sharkman grabbed and crushed the boulders in its bare hands, then swatted Uraraka like a fly, sending her flying to the side and fumbling across the ground until she came to a halt.

Uraraka clutched at her shoulder where the monster hit her, and willed herself not to scream in pain. She slowly got back on her feet, though her entire body felt bruised and fatigued. She hadn't been beaten this badly since her fight with Bakugo in the Sports-Festival. But this wasn't a harmless competition with built-in safety-nets, this was a real, life-or-death battle, and she was losing.

The hammerhead-shark quickly closed the distance between them and tried kneecapping her in the gut, just barely missing as she narrowly dodged the attack. Uraraka planned to use her Quirk to throw it off-balance and take control, but the shark grabbed her hand that was reaching out to touch him, and swung her around before throwing her away, her back then hitting a nearby telephone-pole, sending a shock up her spine.

"Don't you see how futile it is to face me?!" the sharkman shouted at her.

Uraraka, with all the strength she had left, stood back up, only to be knocked down again by another pressurized blast of water from the creature's mouth. She fell on her back, and the pain she felt upon hitting the telephone-pole came back twice as strong. Rolling over to alleviate the agony, Uraraka summoned everything she had into getting up and continuing the fight. Her muscles ached, and she managed to push herself just a couple of inches off the ground... before finally collapsing.

"Is this it?" Uraraka thought to herself.

"Is this... how I die..."

The sharkman laughed, sauntering over to the girl with a sadistic grin. It kicked her in the side, rolling her over and making her lie on her back again, looking up at her tormentor. But as it was reaching down to grab her by the throat, Uraraka spotted someone else watching from higher above...

"Well, I guess that's your limit huh?" Tatsumaki mumbled under her breath, as she was mostly watching Uraraka fight the entire time, having easily killed the Demon-Level monster in 1 second, and returned to spectate the young girl from high in the air.

"Tatsu... maki..." Uraraka said, too exhausted to raise her voice above a whisper.

"You've done enough.'' Tatsumaki said to Uraraka. She snapped her fingers, and all Uraraka saw next was a swirling tornado of blood, then there was nothing. The hammerhead-shark creature was completely gone from sight.

"Now stay still while I heal you," The Esper said, hovering down and landing gently onto the ground. She raised her hand out and touched Uraraka's beaten body, and suddenly her wounds started healing at an accelerated rate.

"You have... healing powers too?" Uraraka asked in both confusion and astonishment, still trying to process what happened to the shark. In response, Tatsumaki simply gave an annoyed "Hmmph!".

It suddenly occurred to Uraraka that this was the first time she ever saw Tatsumaki touch the ground since meeting her. Until now, she was always flying and levitating herself, hovering above those around her and looking down on them with disdain.

Once she was fully healed, Uraraka stood up, looking for where the shark went, or signs of the other two fishmen she fought, only to see nothing. Her mind thought back on Tatsumaki's powers and what she can do with them...

"But that's impossible, right? She wouldn't just..."

"Hey, are you spacing out again? What did I tell you about being mindful of your surroundings? Hey! Are you listening?!" the Esper nagged as she hovered in front of Uraraka.

"What... what did you do to them?" Uraraka's voice was small and timid.

"They're all dead of course. Why would you even ask such a..."

Her sentence was cut short as she looked at the girl.

"Oh no, don't tell me... You don't like killing? That's literally all there is to being a hero! We protect the weak by getting rid of all these damn pests! If you can't even handle that, you should really go looking for a different line of work." she said bluntly.

Uraraka was shocked to hear such little sympathy come from Tatsumaki, like she didn't care at all that she just extinguished a life forever, without a second thought, and with such ease. She wanted to argue or debate, but she was just so tired and confused, her head swirling with emotions.

"Just Suck It Up! Okay?!" Tatsumaki shouted at her. Uraraka held her head down, and just barely managed to respond.

"Ok..."

---

The Scandal: SweetMask, Aoyama

Aoyama was currently in one of the Association HQ's training-rooms with SweetMask. The hero was teaching him standard fighting-techniques on how to properly throw punches and kicks, and thankfully his demonstrations were done not on him, but on a punching-bag. Aoyama made note that the punches SweetMask performed were all fierce attacks that would require him to throw his entire body-weight into each blow, increasing the damage the receiver would be dealt. The leg strikes he tried to teach him were even more frightening, aiming to strike the opponent in the joints and ligaments, and thus inflicting the maximum amount of injury without needing to exert oneself any more than necessary.

He was forced to do countless reps of the same strike over and over again until SweetMask deemed the strike sufficient. Not being used to fighting hand-to-hand, Aoyama constantly struggled to live up to SweetMask's high expectations, making him strike the punching-bag countless times, even as his hands began to blister, or perform kicks until his legs began to cramp up. Even when SweetMask had to step out to go to one of his many appointments, he would constantly keep an eye on him with the cameras in the room. If Aoyama tried to slack off even once, SweetMask would know, and he'd make sure to discipline the boy accordingly.

After returning from one of his meetings, SweetMask gave his student only 5-minutes of rest, before hauling him back to his feet and demanding that he continue even more with his repetitions.

"Monsieur SweetMask, I have a question," Aoyama hesitantly spoke up. "Why exactly are you having me learn hand-to-hand combat? My Quirk is far more suited to long-range attacks, rather than close-quarters. Would it not be better for me to train my marksmanship skills?"

"A valid point," SweetMask conceded. "Improving your accuracy with your Quirk is important, and we will get to that later. However, it is precisely because you thrive at long-range that learning hand-to-hand techniques is equally important. In the real world, you simply cannot expect your enemies to fight on your terms, nor will you always have the luxury of attacking from a distance. If you only work to improve the skills you already have, that will make you all the more useless when a completely different skill is required."

After a few more minutes of repetitions, multiple Association agents came in, carrying large rectangular objects. Upon closer examination, Aoyama realized that they were mirrors. The agents began to set the mirrors up all around the room. Some were full-body sized, others were only handheld, and every other size in-between.

"Who told you that you can stop?" SweetMask scolded him. Aoyama panicked, realizing he had stopped his repetitions to observe what the agents were doing. He hurried back towards the punching-bag, continuing with his reps as they set up the multitude of mirrors. Once they were finished, the agents all left the room.

"That's enough reps for one day," SweetMask said. "Now we will start training your Quirk."

Aoyama ceased his assault on the punching-bag, gasping for breath.

"Come on, we don't have all day. I have another meeting in a couple hours, and I need to prepare." SweetMask said, pointing to the spot he wanted Aoyama to stand.

Aoyama complied, heading over to the center of the room, facing the hero and waiting to be addressed.

"I've been thinking about your ability. You call it a laser, so does that mean it has similar properties?" he inquired looking at his reflection in the mirror.

"Um... I assume so. I know that it holds some light properties because one of my classmates can bend light and she was able to redirect it." Aoyama replied nervously.

"Good enough. I want you to fire your Quirk at that mirror in front of us."

Not questioning his mentor for even a second, Aoyama did as he was told and fired his Navel-Laser. The mirror was completely destroyed and shattered to the ground. He immediately felt a pain in the back of his head.

"Idiot! Not at Full-Power!" SweetMask reprimanded.

Simply nodding his head, Aoyama aimed at another mirror and, now understanding what the hero was getting at, shot a more low-powered beam at it, and it successfully reflected off and hit somewhere behind him.

"Good, good. It was just as I thought. When fired at lower-levels of force, your Navel-Laser can bounce off reflective-surfaces just like other lasers do," SweetMask said in thought. "With enough practice, this could greatly expand your angles of attack, and make it more difficult for your enemies to dodge or evade."

Aoyama was at a loss for words. This would open up plenty of opportunities to him, and allow him to change the direction of his beam if necessary.

"However, there is one other thing that must be addressed..." SweetMask said.

"There is? What is it?" Aoyama asked nervously.

"Why must you always make those ridiculous poses when you fire your Laser?!" SweetMask shouted with anger.

Aoyama wilted. "My poses..."

"Each and every time that you fire, you look like you're performing a pelvic-thrust! Not only is it disgusting, but it also makes your attacks obvious and clearly telegraphed to your opponents!"

Aoyama was speechless. He had no idea...

"I hate seeing talent wasted, and if you are going to be seen next to me, then I would prefer it if you have at least some skill, as well as class. First, you will practice until you can quickly fire your Laser without advertising it, and then you will add reflections to your training-reps. For every mirror you break, you will run for at least 1-kilometer. Understood?"

Aoyama gulped, and then nodded his head in understanding.

He spent the rest of the day trying to unlearn his eccentric habit of thrusting his belly outward when using his Quirk, and to fire it off quickly without giving off any tells. Old habits die hard, so it was no easy task. All the while, he was simultaneously trying to get his Laser to reflect off multiple mirrors.

SweetMask was currently monitoring Aoyama's progress, when someone abruptly burst into the room. It was one of the Association agents. He held a tablet in his hands and handed it to SweetMask. Judging by the slight glare on his face, Aoyama figured that it must've been bad news. He thanked the agent for showing him this and dismissed him.

After the agent left, SweetMask sat down, angrily mumbling something under his breath as he continued to look at the tablet in his hands. He was so engrossed that he didn't even realize that Aoyama had walked over to see what was on the tablet. It was a news-report of something that happened earlier that day. The headline read; Hero-Association Using Monsters?! As he scanned the details, he noticed a picture attached to the article that showed a guy and girl in tanktops, next to…

Aoyama gasped, which finally shook SweetMask from his musings.

"Who told you that you could stop?" he berated, but Aoyama ignored him.

"I... That guy's not a monster at all! He's, my friend!" Aoyama exclaimed; he suddenly was hoisted in the air by SweetMask.

"Explain." He ordered him.

"Remember when I said that my classmates all had different powers and abilities? Some of them are mutations that affect their appearances. That one there in the picture is Shoji. He can create different appendages with his Dupli-Arms." he said, holding his hands in front of his face. SweetMask released Aoyama from his grip, facepalming himself while looking upwards.

"And the Class-S Heroes had been assigned to them, explaining why he's with the TankToppers. Does one of them have a bird-head, and is another one completely invisible?"

"Yes, Tokoyami and Hagakure."

"Ok, so those pictures were true, but the narrative, not so much. The Media will do what they always do. But that's fine, we can still get ahead of this." SweetMask started pacing.

"Since your friends were assigned to the Class-S Heroes, is it safe to assume that one of them is training under King?" Aoyama nodded his head in reply.

"Good, King is a tricky person to get a hold of, but your friend's tutelage under him simplifies things. We need to set the story straight and explain you all. If we can get King to agree to a live interview, I'm sure his word and mine could sway public-opinion, and avoid mass-panic."

"Ye... Yes, Sir!" Aoyama was so anxious that he saluted the hero.

"Your training is not done, get back to it." He pointed back to the center of the ring and Aoyama quickly obliged, hoping that Shinsou could get King to agree as quickly as possible.

---

Fun and Games: King, Shinsou

Shinsou's second day with King was almost exactly the same as his first, the main difference being that the bald-headed hero Saitama didn't come to visit. King spent most of the day playing videogames on his console, and invited Shinsou to join him.

"What about my training?" Shinsou asked.

"Before the Battle of the Fist, Comes the Battle of the Mind," King said with his signature stern expression, the seriousness of his tone concealing the fact he just quoted a movie he saw as a kid. "And you'd be surprised at how much strategy goes into playing some of these games."

Shinsou couldn't tell if King was being serious, or if this was just an excuse to continue with his gaming, but he wasn't about to question him about it.

The game in question was an RPG series, and after creating his own character, Shinsou joined King on one of the missions he was doing with his character. King instructed him on all the mechanics, and the two of them started fighting their way through one of the many dungeons in the game.

Because his character was brand-new and hadn't had time to level-up or improve his skills, Shinsou couldn't do much in a straight fight against the enemies they were facing, and spent most of the time evading and luring enemies into position for an ambush. In contrast, King's character had seemingly maxed-out stats and was able to casually eliminate every opponent they encountered, sometimes wiping out entire waves of enemies in a single move.

"Damn, King, you're really good at this game. Do you play a lot?" Shinsou asked curiously.

"Yeah, you could say something like that." King replied, not wanting to reveal how much time he spent on this game, and on videogames in general.

"Still, I don't know how I feel about just being bait all the time, why can't we go back and just fight enemies on my level instead?"

"No, it's fine," said King. "You still need to do at least some damage to the enemies, so that you can get some of the EXP from when I defeat them. Just look at how much you're improving from this. You've already leveled-up 12 times from just one mission."

Shinsou couldn't argue with that. It kinda felt like cheating, but the results spoke for themselves. He only wished he could level-up like this in real life.

After another hour of gaming, Shinsou finally decided to speak his mind.

"Aren't you going to go out on patrol today?" Shinsou asked.

"No, uh, not today." King said.

"Really, why not?"

King sighed, pausing the game and setting down his controller.

"Honestly kid, I've just never really wanted to be a hero, everyone just expects me to be one. I'm not very good at social interactions, and every time I step outside the house, I'm either mobbed by fans, or met with some crazy monster. It just gets tiring after a while." King said solemnly.

Shinsou already knew that King was reclusive and didn't care about the fame that comes with being a hero, but he didn't realize just how reluctant he was to be a hero at all.

"Besides," King continued. "There isn't much need to patrol anyway. I don't have to go looking for trouble. Trouble always finds me." He said this with a hint of grief and exhaustion.

After removing the disc for the previous game and placing it back in the case, King pulled out a new game and inserted it into the console. This one was a 2D fighting game.

"Wanna practice with me on this one? There's a big tournament happening next week, actually. You should try joining."

"Why? There's no way I can get good enough at that game in barely a week of practice, no matter how good of a teacher you are."

"Even if you're not good with a controller, there's an alternative method where you can use VR to control the character." King replied.

"Whoa, that sounds pretty cool." Shinsou said.

"Yeah, it's really good, as long as the machine can read your movements, that is. Something too fast or too complex would probably end up breaking it." he said nonchalantly.

"Oh, so you're gonna enter using the controller, then?" Shinsou asked.

"Yup, no point in moving away from the basics. So, you wanna try?" King said, offering the teen a controller.

"Sure." Shinsou agreed, accepting the controller from him. He was still on the fence about King's training methods, but decided to at least give it a chance.

---

Deliberations: Class-1A

Just like before, the Class met up in the common-room to discuss the day's events. The discussion was mostly headed by Yaoyorozu this time in place of Iida, due to him being gone for the month. Everyone broke off into groups to talk amongst those who they were closest to. Midoriya noticed that Uraraka was more distant recently in the conversation, not wanting to talk about her day with the Number-2-Heroine much, while everyone else spoke more freely about their experiences.

Most of the discussion revolved around the different training-methods and ideas given to them by their respective mentors. Todoroki and Bakugo were the first to talk.

"Demon-Cyborg has a Virtual-Combat-Simulator," Bakugo explained. "And he's been having us fight different monsters he encountered in the past. Plus, he downloaded some of our memories into the machine, so we could do VR battles against some of our opponents from back home."

"I wish you could've seen it," Todoroki added. "Demon-Cyborg ran simulations to see how he would fare against the villains in our world, and he defeated almost all of them. He defeated both Chimera and Nine from the Nabu Island incident, plus most of the High-End Nomu, and even beat my dad, but only by outlasting him. He's a cyborg, so he's got more stamina."

The Class was awestruck by their story. Todoroki described the various monsters they fought in the VCS, and how Carnage-Kabuto in particular was simply too powerful, even for their mentor to beat.

"Whatever it was, it was incredibly strong, Bakugo and I couldn't last any more than 5 seconds. Demon-Cyborg only did slightly better, lasting around a minute." Todoroki said, remembering how quickly and brutally they were slain.

"Whoa, seriously? It's hard to think anyone could beat either of you that quickly." Kirishima said.

"Demon-Cyborg said that anyone below Class-A would be a waste of time to even try fighting that thing. You guys probably wouldn't even last one second." Bakugo remarked.

"I believe it," Midoriya chimed in. "For whatever reason, this world seems to have way more powerful guys than most of the heroes and villains back home."

"Well, what about you Tsu? I heard from the rest that you were taken somewhere by yourself. What did they have you do?" Hagakure asked the frog-girl.

"They…they had me talk to one of their captive monsters."

This gained the attention of the Class almost immediately. She explained what they told her about Monsterization in this world, and how they wanted to see if she could reason with the prisoner, and get him to cooperate with their efforts to rehabilitate him, since she had vaguely-similar abilities.

"I don't know if I got through to him or not, but I did convince the Association agents not to have him executed just yet. Hopefully he listened. Ribbit."

The information was hard to take in for a lot of the Class. There were humans that could transform into violent monsters if they simply felt something strong enough? This alternate world was throwing something crazier and crazier at them every day. Midoriya noticed that upon hearing Tsu's story, Uraraka seemed to deflate even more. He did too, and was curious if it was for the same reason.

"Uraraka, did you have an encounter with any monsters today?" Midoriya asked, shocking the girl back into the conversation, with everyone looking at her.

"Yeah, I did..." she quietly answered, absently replaying the events in her mind.

"Did your hero kill the monster?"

"Monsters. There were three of them..."

Uraraka curled up as she said this, hugging her legs and closing her eyes tightly. She was still shaken up by the ordeal, and remembering it made her even more nauseous than she already was from all her training.

"The same thing happened with me and Bang earlier today." Midoriya replied.

"It happened with me as well. During patrol, I encountered a monster that I defeated, but then it was killed by one of the TankToppers. Iida was right. The heroes in this world seem to have no problem with just killing their problems away." Shoji added.

The atmosphere became quiet as they let that fact sink in. There was a hesitancy to continue the conversation. Finally, Midoriya stood up to address the entire Class.

"That may be how they do things, but that doesn't mean we have to do it. We should avoid killing whenever we can. Besides, going off of what Asui just said about the Association, they don't mind capturing monsters instead of killing them, so that's what we'll do."

Midoriya looked to Uraraka. His brief speech seemed to have bettered her mood, nodding in agreement. With that out of the way, the Class continued to talk about their day, before they started turning in for the night.

Aoyama held Shinsou back for a moment to talk to him privately, garnering suspicion from the brainwashing teen, as the two of them never really interacted before, or have anything in common from the few conversations he overheard involving him.

"You're training under King, correct?" Aoyama started.

"Yeah. Why do you ask?" Shinsou wondered aloud.

"Well, I'm training under SweetMask, and he was wondering if you could get him to agree to an interview sometime next week."

Shinsou sat and thought about it. He remembered what the internet said about King and what he said about himself, and became skeptical.

"I don't think King wants to do interviews anytime soon, he's kind of a shut-in." Shinsou replied, rubbing the back of his head. But he stepped back at the seriousness of Aoyama's reply.

"You must convince him; it is of the utmost importance that he agrees to the interview." he began to scroll on his phone as Shinsou responded.

"What do you mean? What's so important about an interview?"

"This!" he said, showing him on his phone the police report from earlier that day. Shinsou read it and saw the picture, quickly realizing what was going on.

"They're already confusing some of us for monsters because of our Quirks, and you've heard what they do to monsters in this world. But with SweetMask and King's help, we can hopefully reassure the public and set the record straight. Otherwise, it'll just cause more problems." He explained.

Shinsou sighed. "Yeah, sure, I'll talk to King about it. Leave it to me."

"Thanks!" With that, Shinsou headed off to sleep.

Meanwhile, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu were having a conversation of their own. Todoroki was about to turn in for night along with the others, but the Acting Class-President stopped him.

"Todoroki, there's something I need your second opinion on." Yaoyorozu said.

"Really? What is it?"

"Something Drive-Knight suggested to me earlier today. If it works, it could be a real game-changer for me, but I wanted to ask what you thought about it first."

Todoroki thought for a moment before responding.

"Sure. There's something I've been needing to talk about, too."

They both went out to the balcony, where they had a view of the wasteland that laid beyond the Association's Fortress-City. Leaning back on the balcony rails, Yaoyorozu began to explain herself.

"Drive-Knight thinks that I've been wasting my Quirk's potential... And I think he's right. My Creation Quirk allows me to make all sorts of tools and weapons, but so far everything I've made is extremely low-tech. Ancient, even. If I could memorize the composition of more advanced weapons and tools, then I could be a lot more help."

She told Todoroki about the cerebral-implants Drive-Knight recommended, and how they'd allow her to do exactly that. Still, she was hesitant to undergo any kind of brain-surgery, especially performed by a complete stranger like Drive-Knight.

"Even if I could trust him, it just sounds incredibly dangerous, sticking a hard-drive in my brain..."

"Funny," Todoroki said, "Demon-Cyborg and his doctor suggested something very similar to me and Bakugo today. They offered to install cybernetics that could improve our physical-strength and durability to match our Quirks."

"Well, both of our mentors are cyborgs, so I guess it makes sense they'd have the same idea." Yaoyorozu thought out loud.

"Bakugo wants nothing to do with it, and I'm still on the fence about it myself, but as long as it doesn't make us any less human, and it really does make us stronger, I might be willing to try it."

"I see..." Yaoyorozu pondered his words. That was what really worried her, she realized. This world, and the supposed heroes that protect it, they were all so cold-blooded it seemed. As much as she wanted to grow stronger, to be prepared for when they return home... She didn't want to become a ruthless killer in the process.

"I think I'll hold off on Drive-Knight's suggestion for now." She decided.

"Same here," Todoroki agreed. "I want to see how far I can go with my own power before resorting to any kind of surgical procedures. Still, from what Dr. Kuseno told me, the implants can still be removed at any time, or switched out with updated versions, so I wouldn't have to worry about it being a permanent change at least, or worry about it capping my potential."

Todoroki gave a big sigh.

"There's something else that's really been bothering me, though."

"What is it?" Yaoyorozu asked.

"I've just been thinking about my family, and everything that was going on in our world before we ended up here. My father is already in big trouble for what he did to Toya... to Dabi, and if the media finds out about him losing me, let alone our entire Class disappearing, it'll just put even more pressure on him, and any remaining heroes back home."

Yaoyorozu was stunned. Until now, she had been so lost in all the happenings of this world, she almost completely forgot about their own.

"I... I'm sure your family's going to be alright, Todoroki." She weakly stated, but immediately wished that she hadn't.

"NO, they're NOT, NONE of them are!" Todoroki shouted, in a sudden burst of anger and frustration. "Don't you get it?! Every second we spend here, the worse things will keep getting back home! Dabi is still out there, and so is Shigaraki and All-For-One! Without us, and especially without Midoriya, our entire world is doomed!"

Yaoyorozu knew he was right. It scared her to think what must be happening while they were gone. It terrified her to think of what her family must be going through.

"My parents, Natsu and Fuyumi, for all I know, they might already be dead." Todoroki said.

"But we DON'T know!" Yaoyorozu shouted. "Which means there's still hope! I'm scared too, Todoroki, but worrying about them won't help us! Even without Midoriya, I'm sure that everyone back home will hold the line for us until we make it back."

"And what if we never do make it back?" Todoroki questioned. "How do you know it's even possible for us to return home?"

"I... I don't, but I have faith that we can figure something out. We just... we just need to be patient, and don't do anything rash until we've exhausted every other option. We may not be able to help everyone back home, but at least we can take care of each other while we're here." she insisted.

Todoroki's near-permanent frown softened just a bit.

"You're right. We'll just do whatever we can to keep each other safe until we can go back."

After that long and difficult conversation, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu were tired and ready for bed. They both said goodnight to each other, and headed to their rooms. But try as he might, Todoroki just couldn't fall sleep. Every time he went to sleep, ever since the war in Jaku, he would have terrible nightmares about Dabi.