"We should commence with a plan of action." Yaoyorozu declared as Todoroki carried the bomb to the top floor.
"No." He replied.
"NO?!" She was taken aback. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you should leave the building when the setup time runs out."
"Are you out of your mind?" Momo was getting frustrated. "I am not not going to sit still and do nothing!"
"They will never reach the bomb in time." His tone was as apathetic as always. "I'll freeze them before they can reach the 2nd floor."
"You do not give them enough credit!" The girl almost screamed. "They have speed and power and their side. I am not leaving you alone."
"Fine, but I can not guarantee your safety." Shouto didn't even look at her.
"What kind of a hero would say that to his own teammate? Or even a villain?"
"I advise you make something warm. This building will get a lot colder soon."
"Whole building?!"
"Yes."
"Alright, girl, you will have to rely on your brains to hopefully counter their brawn. Holy Diver is strong up close but seemingly can't move far from its user like Dark Shadow. Brando-san will likely try to close the distance or use his firearm. Engine allows Iida-san to move quickly but requires time and space to accelerate. Enclosed areas porbably limit the quirk's usefulness. I could see them defeating Todoroki-san if they work together, but his words mean I would likely injure myself if I stay close to him. God, why couldn't I get someone more cooperative?"
Dual haired teen left the bomb in the central room (without windows) and told his partner to fortify inside it. The girl offered to make a gadget for reckon and he actually agreed for once. She created a flying drone to spy on heroes Tokage style. Then ponytail began making barricades, weapons, warm clothes and a bomb. Without Shouto, she had to put everything in its place by herself. When Momo's 15 minutes of prep were over, he started icing the whole building.
"I am glad to be on the hero side." Tenya claimed. "I couldn't imagine myself breaking the law for any reason."
"You better work on your imagination then. Sooner or later your role will change." Daigo sat on a postal box and swang his legs.
"Both our opponents are recommended students." Tall boy said as he walked back and forth. "We can not underestimate them one bit."
"If we are lucky, they might underestimate us instead." Short boy smiled.
"That is not something we can count on. We need ideas."
"Maybe we can politely ask them stop what they are doing and stand still?"
"Stop joking around, Brando-san. We need to go Plus Ultra to stand a chance here."
"Did we piss off All Might somehow? They guy didn't even flinch when he saw our team compositions."
"Ok, ok. Listen, I did a bit of a background research on our opposition."
"And everyone else for that matter."
"Todoroki is Endeavor's yongest son, making it likely that he has fire as well, especially when you look at his hair and how he melted ice before. Apparently his older brother died in a forest fire many years ago. Combine this fact with a nasty scar on his face and his apparent disdain for Midoroya's fire breath, and I think that he is too afraid to use the hot side of his quirk. I mean, for anything other than thawing. He might be scared of burning to death if my guess is correct, which is good."
"Why would his trauma be good?!" Tall boy was surprised by the audacity.
"Because it means he won't burn US as well." Diver appeared brifely to point at itself. "As long as we don't provoke him too much. Remember, we are playing against a stacked deck. Every bit of help counts, including their implicit weaknesses."
"I should notify Fatgum-sensei about this. Sounds like a genuine problem." Iida made a mental note.
"I...will try to keep that in mind. Next is Yaoyorozu, whose quirk is incredible." Ingenium Jr chopped the air. "We have seen her create a cannon, roller skates, a moped, jaws of life, paraglier, pools that were used as launchers and a doll. "
"We have to just assume she can pull anything out of her ass, he he."
"You should stop using such crass language!"
"And you should get that stick out of your... ample posterior."
"God, why couldn't I get someone more serious?" Boy with glasses complained.
"Let's look try to put ourselves in her shoes. If I were to have Creation on defense, I would likely barricade myself and make a ranged weapon, like a tranquilizer. What about you do?"
"I'd sell dimaonds instead of putting my neck on the line."
"I'd probably be a smart ass and try all sorts of traps to keep things unpredictable: barbed wire, caltrops, gasoline, gas mines etc. Or try something ridiculous like sticking the bomb to a ceiling."
"It would never work."
"The fact you are saying this means it would work on you."
"Okay, I get it." Tenya shook his head in frustration. "Don't rule out trickery. Now, I imagine you know her psycological weakness too?"
"You phrase it like I'm some genius mastermind. I'm just trying to think a bit ahead." The golden quirk manifested with the Thinker pose. "She comes from a rich family, like a very rich one. Her parents own a conglomerate that made the right choices at the dawn of quirk era and amassed a massive fortune."
"How is that relevant to our discussion?"
"I'm trying to put things into perspective. My guess is that she is a nepo baby who hasn't been in action yet, unlike us or Todoroki."
"What do you you mean by action?"
"You and him were trained by your hero parents, right? I have grown up in a bad neighborhood and had to protect myself a few times."
"Why would you engage in fights instead of calling police?" Iida hyperfocused on this topic.
"We can discuss that later, back to Yaoyorozu. She probably puts too much faith in her gizmos. As long as her we can figure what her plan is and counteract, she wouldn't be able to readjust in time."
"Before we start, show me what you have in that utility belt."
"Mostly cowboy stuff..."
Hero team entered the building, and the first thing they noticed was ice spreading out like plague. Iida took his partner and sprinted out before their feet would get stuck to the floor. The whole building was covered in ice shortly afterwards.
"Is that his power?" Brando asked as he looked up.
"It certainly is. Well, we can't let us ourselves get intimidated so easily." He tried to go through the main entrace again but got stopped.
"Wait. Perhaps we should enter the building from an upper window and catch them by surprise? They might not expect it since he can't fly."
"I am not getting thrown like a ball!" Iida waved his hand around.
"Calm down. I'll do it myself and leave you the rope."
Daigo got launched into the air grabbed onto the 3rd floor window. It was frozen shut but Holy Diver forced it open. Lasso was used to let Tenya climb up. While waiting, the sentient quirk noticed a buzzing sound nearby. It was drone! The diver grabbed a throwing knife from Daigo's utility belt and tossed right into the device's center, breaking it instantly.
"So much for surprise." Blue haired boy commented.
"Oh no! Todoroki-san, they found and destroyed my flying eye! Please, intercept them on the third floor." Momo talked to earpiece after losing singal to her mechanical spy.
"I'm on it. Another Ice Coverage is imminent."
"Hurry! I'm running low on lipids, so I can't make more objects." Starving genius hoped he could at least stall them long enough.
The heterochmatic teen figured that they ourtan his ice the first time, but now they would be too high up to do the same thing. He repeated his first move, covering everything in an even thicker layer of ice. The symptoms of hypothermia were getting worse by the second. He had to end them quick. Now Shouto ran to confront his opponents and saw them inside a long corridor. To his displeasure, only Diver's left foot was trapped (the other bent above the floor), while the trembling humans were held in its arms. The quirk broke out of the trap with one quick motion, and its user's left shoe got several cuts in it for some reason. Trembling hands fired a few potshots at Todoroki. He shielded himself with ice and laucnhed a wave of ice, but it got shattered. The frustraition from having his mother's quirk be neutered with brute force hit a little too close to home.
Suddenly, the golden quirk let go of them. Iida took Brando for a piggyback ride and ran forward as fast as he could given the circumstances, while Holy Diver was breaking ice in front of them with a punch barrage. Shouto was prepared and managed to launch a counter attack and stop them when they were 15 meters away. Diver vanished from sight.
"Holy D-d-diver! Come b-back!" Blond's teeth chattered a tune as he said it.
"I'm fucking freezing!"
"You did you best, I suppose, but you won't get very far with your bodies frozen. Be grateful you are both fully clothed."
He moved closer to put them into capture tape and end the exercise early, but Diver swiftly reappared, punched him in the face and swiftly tied up the boy. It happened so fast that its target didn't fight back at all.
"Shouto Todoroki is out! Proceed to the exit." All Might announced through the intercom.
"My p-p-proudest b-b-bluff yet!" Daigo said as attacking team tried to break out of ice.
"What just happened?" The defeated boy was flabbergasted by the experience.
"That was q-q-quick!" Iida was naturally better at percieving high speed actions.
Shouto is out of the picture, but the mission wasn't completed just yet. With a lot of time wasted on ice man and freezing temperature still slowing them down, heroes had no choice but to split and search every floor. Iida would look through 3rd floor and below while Brando would go higher. The cold was so bad that short boy wrapped his poncho and medical mandages from the belt around his head.
Most doors were stuck closed because of ice, so they had to punch and kick to rectify that. Each room was empty, even when looking at ceilings. Finally, Daigo managed to find what he was looking for at the top floor. Behind the door to the central room there was a lot of noise.
"Iida, I t-t-think I found something at the top, central d-door." He radioed his buddy.
"Should I c-c-come to you n-now?"
"This c-c-could be a d-d-distraction. K-k-eep searching at the bot-t-t-om and th-then c-come."
"30 seconds left." Teacher warned everyone.
"SHIT!" Daigo decided to hurry up. He pulled out a stick a dymanite and hoped the lighter would still work.
"So far so good, Momo" The girl talked to herself. "I only need to stall them for half a minute more. My plan will prevent them from reaching the bomb."
She was wearing a full set of winter cloth consisting of parka, sweatpants and winter boots. The doors to her room were reinforced with steel plank barricades. She was standing in center of the room next to her trusty cannon, with a riot shield and beanbag shotgun at her feet. The bomb was to her left.
Her attention snapped to the wall behind her. A golden fist punched a whole right though it, then another large hand immedialtely tossed a primed stick of dynamite near her large weapon. With no time to turn the cannon around, Yaoyorozu picked up her other tools and shielded herself from the blast. Explosive force sent her backwards and broke the big gun without damaging the objectice. Diver made a bigger hole in the wall so his user could squeeze through. The girl tried to shoot him but her shell did no damage against the sentient quirk. The boy "flew" towards the bomb while shooting at her shield to prevent her from peeking. She had no choice but retreat as into the corner. At last, he touched the button.
No announcent.
"W-What?"
He tried to pull his hand away, but the button was too sticky.
"I've been duped!" He freed himself by sacrificing his gauntlet.
His only remainin option was to catch after the girl and tape her. He went for another self launch and blocked the shots coming his way, but halfway through his trajectory the speakers took everyone's attention.
"Time is up! Villain team wins."
Brando landed face first at Yaoyorozu's feet.
"Are you okay?" She dropped her weapons to check on him.
"A few m-more seconds and I w-would have won." He pushed the girl away to hug the heater placed behind her.
"What a d-d-disgrace!" Iida shouted from outside the room. "We were that close to v-v-victory!"
The real bomb was hidden in another room obstructed by large crates. Turns out, Momo's original plan was to make several fake bombs, but she already spent a lot of fuel and time to keep herself warm, create tools and put things in their place. Genius had to instead pretend to protect one false bomb and hope for the best. Boys went to Recovery so she could treat frostbite and blunt trauma, meaning the girl went back to the observation room alone.
"Must every exericise end with bloodshed?" Ibara asked no one in particular. "This match was even worse than the last one."
"Why would you say that?" Camie was clearly pumped up by what she saw. "We've just seen four hotties clash! That's so lit!"
"I BELIEVE now is the time for post match evalutations." All Might wanted to prevent another squabble.
"Me, please!" Monoma insisted. "The heroes put T in the team by sticking together until they've taken out the villain heavy hitter and split after confirming the numbers advantage. Defenders, on the other hand, played very selfishly. Todoroki froze the whole building twice without care for his teammate and Yaoyorozu did very little to help him either. Despite their loss, heroes deserve all the credit."
"I'd like to explain myself." Momo's eye twitched. "Todoroki-san refused to cooperate despite my attempts. He only agreed to receive info from my drone, but Brando-san destoryed it right before they entered through the window. Given the situation, I believe I did my best."
"Your plan relied too much on luck though. It looked like Daigo was seconds away from capturing you. If he ran a bit faster he would have won. Or if Iida-kun went upwards instead. He managed to cover 3 floors and the basement by the time his partner barely searched one floor and a half." Kendou showed each number with her fingers.
"You are criticizing Yaoyorozu-san too much." Midoriya spoke up. "She isn't omnipotent, no one is. It's true that her plan relied on chance, but at the end of the day, she did a good job with tools at hand and deserves the MVP status."
Raven ponytail blushed at such praise.
"I'd say Brando's mind deserves recognition as well." Romero argued. "He managed to flank through the window, spot and get rid of the rust bucket, beat Todorki with help and almost catch Yaoyorozu."
"There is one weird thing about him." Setsuna put her finger on her chin. "Holy Diver made a hole and threw the dynamite instantly with precision. He didn't even peek through the hole first."
"Perhaps he possesses perception beyond this world's traditional barriers?" Tokoyami suggested philosophically.
"What if he can see through walls?" Dark Shadow explained.
"It was probably just a fluke."
"Guys, are we not going to mention how Todoroki casually froze the whole building twice?" Uraraka scracthed her head.
"What good was it if he lost anyway? Heroes don't lose!" Bakugou answered her.
"Two-Face has so much power and yet he still lost to weaker opponents! This won't repeat with me. I'll crush Deku and Round Face without Copy Paste!"
"After considering everyone's input, I am declaring Yaoyorozu-shojo as our second MVP."
"Thank you, sensei!"
"Teams E and F are next!"
Author's note: I find it kind of strange that in canon students short ranged quirks (Kendou, Ojiro, Kirishima) don't have anything for range, not even a sling shot.
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