In the abandoned lair...

Rena Rouge kneeled down on the floor, looking up at the two thieves. She held one of the paintings in her arms, hearing her Miraculous going off. She had to get out of there and quickly or else she might reveal her secret identity to them. She didn't know what to do to throw them off since she used up her power. They knew who was here, so they would just know that it's another illusion that she made.

She clenched onto her flute, ready to get away with the paintings.

Before she could reach for another one, Bryce swung his gauntlet right at her, causing her to drop one of the paintings. She almost got hit, but luckily got away from him just in time. She really didn't know how to go about this. Her Miraculous was beeping, and she couldn't get into contact with anyone while they were here. This Bryce guy kept coming at her, not giving her any time to think of a plan.

He threw a punch, but she flipped out of the way. She felt the wind pressure coming off of the gauntlet, reminding her of Midoriya's quirk. Something about it made her frustrated that he even hurt her friend back in the alleyway with those things. She tried to get away from him, but he wasn't letting up.

"You think that you can get away with just mere illusions?!" Bryce cried out, "I won't let you get away so easily!"

Rena Rouge stumbled when he almost hit her again. She ended up backing up into the machine, which hurt her side. He came at her with the gauntlet, but she worried that he might damage it. They needed this to figure out what was going on with Class 2-A. She didn't know what it meant, but she couldn't let this thing get destroyed. She instinctively grabbed his arms and pushed him away from the machine as hard as she could. He wasn't expecting that, but she wasn't as strong as him. He gave her a smirk as he pushed her towards the machine.

Rena Rouge kept trying to push him away, but he was pretty stubborn and wouldn't back down. Her Miraculous was beeping again, catching her off guard. She really needed someone to show up right about now.

She needed Carapace.

Bryce's smirk widened, giving her chills as he kept going at her. He noticed her looking at the machine, and he pushed her towards it.

"What is it that you're hiding here, huh?" Bryce asked her, "Ladybug and your little team have been keeping secrets from Paris, haven't they? This machine seems to be important to you."

Rena Rouge's eyes widened as she tried to push him away from it. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, feeling that frustration build up again.

"Ladybug is doing everything she can to protect Paris. You have no idea what she's been through to get here. She would never do anything that would put Paris in harm's way," Rena Rouge growled at him, "Whatever you two are going through, this is not the way to deal with things. Stealing paintings to make some money. There are better things you could be doing with your time. Ladybug and our team are doing whatever it takes to protect everyone, that includes people like you!"

Rena Rouge felt him trying to push back, and he suddenly lunged right for her. Before she knew it, she was hit in the stomach by that gauntlet. The impact caused her to go flying at the machine, which didn't help the surging pain going up and down her body. She fell to the ground, feeling like she got the wind knocked out of her. She heard her Miraculous beeping again, which snapped her out of it.

Rena Rouge couldn't get up as her arms hurt so much from the impact. Whatever that gauntlet stored inside of it, it was enough to knock her down so easily. It felt like she was facing someone with a quirk like Midoriya. Bryce adjusted his gauntlet and looked down at her with such a disgusted smirk.

"We'd love to see who you really are underneath the mask, but we gotta get going," Bryce said to her, "It's been a pleasure meeting you Rena Rouge."

Rena Rouge could barely get up as they both grabbed the paintings. She used the machine to prop herself up, but she felt her vision getting blurry as she faced them. Bryce and Rylee looked back at her as she tried to get ready to fight them off. She couldn't fail her mission, not when Marinette was counting on her.

"N-No. I-I... I won't let you get away with this," Rena Rouge said to them.

Before they could get away, someone came barging their way through the front door. Rena Rouge's eyes widened in shock, seeing the one person she had been waiting for. Carapace stood there along with King Monkey and Pegasus to help her out.

"Stop where you are! You're not going anywhere!" Carapace cried out.

"Carapace...!" Rena Rouge exclaimed with her eyes lit up.

King Monkey and Pegasus stepped up to face the thieves, which made Rylee back up a step. They both knew what kind of powers they had, which just made them hesitate to face them. Even Bryce was a little hesitant to face someone like King Monkey with gauntlets like these. He went for it anyway, being just as stubborn as before.

"Bryce! What the hell are you doing you idiot?!" Rylee cried out.

"Not giving up without a fight, that's what I'm doing!" Bryce cried back as he swung his arm at King Monkey.

King Monkey avoided his punch pretty easily and soon kicked him down to the ground. Bryce stumbled a bit, but went back to face him. Before he could do that, King Monkey activated his power as he held a banana in his hand.

"Eat this!" King Monkey cried out.

He threw the banana squeaker toy, and it ended up hitting his gauntlet dead on. Bryce's eyes widened in shock, and it soon let out a lot of wind pressure. It caused him to be pushed back, and he was soon pushed to the ground. It kept letting out a bunch of wind pressure as he tried to take it off. Once he did however, King Monkey grabbed his wrist.

"Don't make this harder than it needs to be," King Monkey told him.

Pegasus noticed Rylee trying to make a run for it and blocked her way.

"Voyage!" Pegasus called out as he shot out a portal.

Soon enough, he created one to teleport Rylee all the way to the police. Before Rylee knew it, she was pushed into the portal along with the paintings. Bryce's eyes widened in shock, seeing Rylee disappear into the portal like that.

"Don't worry. You're going with her to the police station sooner than you think," King Monkey said to him.

Before Bryce knew it, King Monkey pushed him into the portal before it could close.

Rena Rouge's eyes widened, watching them handle it so well. She noticed the gauntlets on the ground, but could barely move her feet. Her body hurt so much from the surging pain that she felt her knees buckling underneath her. Her Miraculous beeped again and soon ran out of battery. She detransformed into Alya and smiled at Carapace.

"I-I knew that you'd... show up..." Alya said to him.

She felt herself losing her grip onto the machine. Before she could fall to the ground, Carapace caught her in his arms.

"Alya! Are you okay?" Carapace cried out, "I got your call. I would've come sooner if I had known what was going on."

Alya could barely move from the pain and let Carapace help her out. She didn't feel as dizzy as she thought she would. Her vision however was a bit out of it. Something about those gauntlets really threw her off, and she understood why Marinette had such trouble with these thieves.

She looked up at Carapace, feeling so safe around him. His warmth made her feel so relaxed that she didn't want to separate from him.

"Don't worry about it. You came. That's all I care about," Alya said to him, "I don't think I could've handled them without you. Thank you Nino for saving me."

Carapace smiled back, but she could tell that he was worried about her. He hugged her, and she didn't pull away from him. She needed this, especially with the way the fight went down. She couldn't even handle two thieves this time around. She felt like she was a bit rusty ever since Chrysalis was defeated. Then again, it's been pretty quiet these past few months.

Once they stopped hugging, Alya noticed King Monkey picking up the gauntlets. They weren't letting out that weird wind pressure anymore as he held it like it was a spider. Alya could tell that these gauntlets weren't something they would normally go up against. These were clearly inspired by Midoriya's quirk or hero costume.

"How do these common thieves have something as powerful as these gauntlets?" Pegasus asked them.

"Yeah. They look like something that Izuku would wear," King Monkey said back, "How do they even have something like this? Unless they were somehow from their Japan."

Alya's eyes widened in shock, realizing that none of them knew what's been going with the machine or her and Marinette. She didn't know she should explain things here or not. But then she spotted the machine in the corner of her eye. She had to check on it as she spun around and pressed on the screen. It activated with no problem whatsoever. She let out a sigh, feeling like she was actually able to protect something during this mission.

Alya scrolled through the machine, making sure there wasn't anything else that may have popped up. Carapace, King Monkey and Pegasus walked up to her, curious as to what she was doing.

"Alya. What are you doing?" Carapace asked her, "Is there something going on with this machine? I mean, we haven't exactly gone on missions that much lately."

Alya kept pressing buttons and going through files just to make sure everything was in order.

"Just... give me a minute..." Alya said to them, "I need to make sure that nothing is wrong. I can't let this information get out. Not when things were finally starting to settle down."

Alya pulled up a file, and Class 2-A came up. Everyone was there including their quirks, strengths and weaknesses. They all looked at the screen, surprised to see their friends from Japan on this machine. Alya could tell that they weren't expecting any of this, especially since her and Marinette never had the time to explain this to them.

"Alya. What's going on?" Carapace asked her, "Why are our friends from Japan even on this machine in the first place?"

"It's kind of complicated," Alya explained to them, "There's been a weird leak going on with their portal back in Japan. Because it's connected to our internet here and theirs, it somehow connected to the machine as well. Me and Marinette don't know how it happened, but this machine now has information on Class 2-A. All of their quirks, strengths and weaknesses."

Carapace, King Monkey and Pegasus were in complete shock that this was even happening at all. King Monkey looked down at the gauntlets that he held.

"Does this have anything to do with these gauntlets?" King Monkey asked her.

"Fortunately no. It seems that some people around here are taking inspiration from our friends back in Japan," Alya explained to them, "Whatever is going on with this machine, we've been able to keep it under wraps for now. We need to keep it that way."

Pegasus got a closer look at them and looked them over.

"These are really well built considering they're from here and not U.A. Whoever made these knew what they were doing. I'd say these are just as well built as Izuku's gauntlets. Maybe even more complex considering his doesn't need any kind of power to use it," Pegasus explained to them, "Maybe we should tell Izuku about this."

Alya was a little nervous getting them involved. She didn't want anyone to worry about this, especially since the portal was involved somehow.

"Wait a minute. Do they even know about this machine storing information about them?" Carapace asked her.

"They do. We talked to them about it," Alya told them, "It's just... Marinette kind of got hurt from those gauntlets. It's why I was alone dealing with this myself. I don't know if getting them involved will help anything. If they come over here through the portal, we don't know what might happen. Clearly there's something going on with it and this machine. We need to figure this out ourselves for now."

Carapace, King Monkey and Pegasus shared a look that told Alya that they felt bad for leaving Midoriya out of this. Even 2-A not being here to help felt weird at times.

Then there was Adrien and Chloe.

Without them around, it felt a little weird. Like there was a missing puzzle piece to their group.

Alya knew that Marinette took it pretty hard at times, but they were all there for her. She had to head back to check on Marinette soon. But first, she had to double check a few things with the machine. She turned back around to check on it. After going through a few files, she noticed something off about it. For a moment, she thought there was an extra classmate in their class for some reason.

Alya didn't know some of their classmates, but there was someone that stood out amongst the rest of them.

She had long, dark indigo hair and bell blue eyes similar to Marinette. Her hair was pinned back instead of in ponytails, but it really threw her off how similar she looked to her friend. They all spotted this girl she was looking at, and they too seemed surprised.

"Who's this? She was never a part of their class back in Class 1-A," King Monkey told her.

Then Alya realized who she was just based on their reactions.

"This must be Skylar Garnier. She's actually brand new to their class," Alya explained to them, "We just found out recently. I'm just confused as to why she'd be here in this machine. There's even information about her apparently."

Alya pressed on her picture, and a few things popped up about her. Her eyes widened in shock, finally seeing what her quirk was exactly.

"Power Absorption? That sounds pretty specific," Carapace said to them.

"Actually, that sounds pretty powerful if used properly. I bet it's similar to Izuku's. What does it say exactly?" Pegasus asked Alya.

Alya looked at the description, worried at what they might find out.

"It can allow her to absorb energy around anyone that she comes into contact with. She can't really control it very well, but it doesn't effect anyone that much. She can use that energy to power up and use it as a special move," Alya read out loud.

"Wow. That does sound similar to Izuku's quirk," King Monkey said to them.

"Yeah, but he can't take anyone's energy," Pegasus corrected them, "It seems like this Skylar is pretty strong. No wonder she's a part of U.A. now."

Alya looked at the paragraph of information about her and worried about her friends back in Japan. Whoever she was, she wondered if there was something going on with her. Someone just showing up like this out of no where reminded her of Lila. Knowing how things turned out with Lila, she worried that they were going through the same thing. She scrolled through the paragraph, noticing something weird about it.

"Look at her strengths..." Alya said to them, "It says: naturally strong without her quirk. She's even skilled in hand to hand combat fighting. She must've gone through some hero training before even going to U.A."

"Well that makes sense. A hero school like U.A. wouldn't just accept anyone into a school so late in the year. She was probably recommended just like Momo and Shouto," Pegasus explained to her.

Alya felt like she was in a dead end, wondering if she was assuming something that wasn't actually there. She scrolled down some more however, and her eyes widened in shock.

"What? That can't be right," Alya said to them.

"What? What does it say Alya?" Carapace asked her.

Alya looked at it again, but she knew what she was reading.

"Her weaknesses... It says... unknown."

In the shadows...

The doctor couldn't stop smiling, knowing full well what was going on in U.A. He typed on his keyboard, looking around for anything that he might need for his plan to work. He looked at everything he needed to make sure this worked. Something about the email that he got awhile ago felt like something that was important to U.A.

But he could tell that not everyone knew about these Miraculous. Then he knew right away that Class 2-A were the only ones that knew about them. He wasn't surprised by that considering everything that they've been through. He opened up his email and read it over again just to be sure. It seemed like they knew about these Miraculous and were clearly keeping them a secret. They didn't want anyone else to know about them.

He pulled up a picture of some of the classmates, knowing full well that they knew about these Miraculous. He spotted Izuku Midoriya and knew that he was most certainly involved in this. He always was. This kid was always getting in the way of everything that they worked towards. The more he looked at his picture, the more he felt more frustrated.

He had been staring at his picture here and there for a long time, not knowing why he frustrated him so much.

That feeling of familiarity hit him again. Then he remembered telling him that he was quirkless a long time ago. He had done this a bunch of times before, but now that things were starting to come together, he finally remembered him from that hospital. He used to work at a hospital, and he would secretly take powerful or potential quirks from kids that just got theirs.

He definitely remembered him. That kid was frozen stiffen when he told him that he was quirkless. Something about him stood out even more when he looked at his picture. He now had a quirk and didn't understand how he could have one. Not only was it a quirk, but it was more powerful than his original quirk. He'll admit, he was strong.

Something about seeing him after all of these years felt like things were started to come together. If anything, it made things more interesting for him. His smile widened from ear to ear, wondering how he even got a quirk so strong in the first place.

"Izuku Midoriya... huh? This kid... What's so special about him...? He doesn't even have his quirk anymore...? It's these quirks that are fascinating..." The doctor said to himself, "Even his original quirk could've been much stronger than it initially seemed."

The doctor turned around in his seat and got up to walk over to his containers of Nomus. He walked through the hallway of containers, looking at each one. They all fascinated him to no end and soon stopped at a specific container. It had a Nomu in it that had a few quirks attached to it. Some of them were old and some of them were new. He remembered every quirk that each Nomu had. His smile grew, remembering that day when he told Midoriya that he was quirkless.

Something about this Nomu fascinated him even more now. He touched the container, remembering every quirk that this Nomu had.

"I think I'm ready for my next plan soon," The doctor said to it, "I have a specific job for you in mind."

Behind him, there was a container that was empty. Where a Nomu should be sleeping and contained.

Another amazing chapter!

This was a fun one to write! I'm liking where this is heading. I realize that Ember has been pushed back a bit, but I think it will help the story in some way. It's been fun writing Alya and pretty refreshing. I like that things are different when it comes to My Hero Academia's characters and powers. I want that to effect these characters in some way. They usually deal with this sort of thing even before all of this. I thought that it would be interesting to see how they deal with stuff like this.

Also, Skylar caught Alya's interest.

Something's going with the doctor back in Japan...

What's going to happen next??

More to come soon!