A/N: In Rewind, I had the Sports Festival cover three days, with the first two years having split days. With this one, it's going to be different, thanks to a review on Rewind that honestly made sense. Also, as a note for those who are reading multiple stories of mine, here's something about the fanfic trope Waystations of Canon. The way I see it, every change we make has ripple effects, and I write following that idea. For example in this arc: would any of the changes I've made affect the events of the Sports Festival? I honestly can't think of anything outside of staff changes that would, so the events themselves stay the same. How those events play out on the other hand…
The Way of the Bat
Chapter VII
The first day of the Sports Festival dawned, and everyone was hyped up for it. In order to give the professional heroes and the families of students the chance to catch everything, the Festival was held over three days, with each year taking one day as a test of their stamina. Class A had gathered together to prepare for the first round when Shoto stepped up. Everyone tensed up, fearing a declaration of war like Shinso or Class B had already delivered. "Midoriya, I'll see you at the top," the bi-colored boy said with a smile.
"I'll see you there, Shoto," Izuku responded with a smile. Class A stared at the greenette in confusion. How did he expect to make it to the top without his toys?
The Festival started with Mic introducing the different classes, spending most of the time on the Hero Courses. (Which was to be expected, as the Sports Festival was mostly for the Hero and Business Courses. Most who joined the Business Course had no interest in being heroes and used the time to practice their own skills as vendors and planning out marketing for the Hero students. Only a handful of General Studies students were ever interested in using the Sports Festival like Shinso was.) Everyone was shocked to discover that Midnight was playing host for their class though, as she tended to be left with the third years. Her first job was calling forward the student for the pledge, and this year it happened to be "Midoriya Izuku!"
The entirety of the competitors stared in shock, that is except for Shoto, who gave him a thumb's up. By this point, all of UA had learned who the quirkless hero student was, though none could really believe it, and the idea that he had gotten the top score on the entrance exam? Inconceivable! "Today, I'm going to turn your world upside down. It's time to show you what we quirkless are capable of if given the opportunity. Prepare yourselves," Izuku said with a grin. The adults stared at him in confusion, while the students all glared at him, intent on taking him down.
"Well, with that interesting pledge, let's get started!" Mic called out. "Are you read, my vampiric friend?"
"I'm ready to see Class B knock those upstarts from A down a peg or twelve!" Vlad King responded enthusiastically. Many of the students and audience groaned when they heard that, knowing that there was no chance of an unbiased commentary.
The obstacle course race started less than five minutes later. "And we're off to a racing start! What should we be paying attention to in the early stages of the game?" Mic asked.
"That's easy: the door, a natural chokepoint for our students. Any student with a quirk that has an area of effect can easily get an early lead, while the rest will be pushing and shoving each other in an attempt to make it out." Sure enough, a wave of ice came out the front, with Todoroki Shoto leading the pack. Unfortunately for Vlad though, none of the pack were his B students.
The students raced to catch up to Todoroki, only for them to run into the first obstacle. "We're in for a treat here! A test of strength and cunning: the Robo Inferno!"
Todoroki froze two of the giant zero pointers while they were off balance, then things got weird. To everyone's shock, the three pointer attacked several of the other robots, while another zero pointer blew up from the inside. "What the hell is happening?" Vlad demanded.
"One of Class-A's most surprising students, we saw him do the same thing in the entrance exam! Perhaps Principal Nezu would like to say a word?"
"I thought I patched the holes in my network that the original hack revealed, but it appears that I was wrong."
"No, you did, I just left backdoors behind," Izuku announced over the loudspeakers. "I also left some firewalls of my own to help out. Don't worry, none of them affect your backdoors." By this point, the rest of the robots had been destroyed, and to Vlad's disappointment, the biggest showing B had was Tetsu getting buried under a zero pointer. Soon they arrived at the next challenge: a canyon with a series of hoodoos connected by ropes. Shoto sailed across the ropes with his ice, while others hesitated for a moment. Izuku smiled before leaping off one of the cliffs, firing off a grapple hook and swinging through the canyons, laughing the whole time.
"Wait, that can't be legal, can it?" Vlad demanded. "Midnight, the heroes aren't allowed to use support equipment, right?"
Midnight groaned before answering. "Yes they are, if they submit the paperwork, and Midoriya submitted the paperwork for his equipment. All the paperwork for all the equipment." Midnight groaned again before continuing. "I lost count as to how many pieces of equipment he put in requests for, but everything is permitted, and worse, he gave specific, detailed historical examples as to why he'd need each and every piece!"
"I can't believe that any heroics student would put in that much work," Vlad stated.
"Oh you don't, do you?" Midnight asked. "I thought you might say that," she said with a pure evil smirk on her face. "How'd you like to see all of Midoriya's paperwork that I had to approve?"
"Sure, why not? How bad can it be?" Vlad replied. Midnight just kept smiling as she pushed a button. That button was linked to a teleportation system invented by David Shield specifically to help move paperwork around. Suddenly, the receiving teleporter that had been placed in their box started rumbling. Vlad and Mic leaned over, utterly confused, when an absolute flood of paper came rushing out, knocking them out of their chairs. The pair tried to get up, but the flood of paper just kept coming and coming and coming, until the box was so full that the pressure shattered the glass, causing the forms to fall on the audience.
Shoto stopped just before the minefield to watch the chaos before asking "Did you have to go that far, Robin?"
Izuku smiled before answering. "No, but it was fun seeing Midnight's reaction. Besides, I wanted to see if she noticed how many of them were requests for the same thing."
"WHAT?!" Midnight yelled out.
"I honestly didn't think she'd hear that," Izuku stated as he finished preparing his boots. With that, he activated the jets and flew off, easily passing the minefield and his best friend in the process. The second Shoto heard the boots, he immediately used his ice to speed himself up, but even with that, he still came in second, though only half a second behind Izuku.
"Come on, that can't be allowed!" Vlad insisted, having finally recovered from the flood.
"Unfortunately, it was," Midnight said. "That's one I definitely remember signing off on the first day." With that said, she stalked down to Izuku, grabbed him by the neck, started shaking him and demanded "DID YOU HAVE TO DO THAT?! DO YOU KNOW HOW PAINFUL IT WAS TO SIGN OFF FOR EVERYTHING YOU SENT IN, JUST SO YOU COULD HAVE A LITTLE AMUSEMENT?! I SHOULD STRANGLE YOU RIGHT NOW, if only you weren't so damned impressive."
Izuku rubbed his neck before turning to Shoto and Bakugou. "And you wonder why I'm scared of women. I swear, they're all crazy psychopaths just waiting to unleash their fury on the rest of us."
"I HEARD THAT!" Midnight yelled. "And thank you for the compliment."
As the remaining students came in, Mic joked "So much for Class B's takeover. Your entire class ended up in the second half of the racers."
Vlad smiled. "Oh yeah, it's all coming together. Are you ready Midnight?"
"Now, the first game for the first years is over, thank God! Now, let's take a quick look at the standings." Everyone looked up, as the jumbotrons revealed the 42 people moving on: the entirety of Class B, Class A with the exception of Mineta, two General Studies students and one Support. The Support girl had tons of equipment with her, one of the General Studies students was the guy who confronted them, and the third had moth wings and antennae. Well, this would make for an interesting matchup. "Now prepare yourselves … for this!" And thus the next event was revealed to be a cavalry battle, a common game in Japan. The difference was that each team member was worth points, and the total point value would end up on a headband they would wear, with the goal being to collect as many points as possible. "I am so pleased you came in first, Midoriya Izuku."
"Do I even want to know why?" he asked in return.
"Not at all! You see, last place starts with 5 points, and each rank gains five points. But first place gets ten million points!"
"Sadist," Izuku said in response. Now he was wishing he hadn't made that pledge! If he'd played like a Bat, he would be safely in the middle of the pack, and Shoto would be in first! But no, he had to show off, and now basically everyone would be gunning for him! A school-level example of how hard life could be as the number one hero. The real question was who would be willing to ally with him?
"Can I join your team?" a girl asked. Izuku was curious, so he turned to face her. She was the General Studies student, and she had white hair and moth wings that, looking closer, seemed vaguely familiar. "I know that as a mutant-type I don't have much chance as a hero, but I still want to be one."
"Says who? I'm willing to have you join. Just one question: can you do anything besides fly?"
I'm also telepathic, and I can shed scales that reflect attacks and can hypnotize enemies. Given enough time to charge, I can also fire energy blasts from my antennae. Oh, and I haven't introduced myself, have I? My name's Fukunaga Masami.
"Welcome to the team, Fukunaga," Izuku said, offering his hand. Uraraka was next to join, which only left one hole in the team: a member good on defense.
"Team up with me, person in first place!" came the cry from the Support student. Then she saw who it was. "Oh, it's you, never mind."
"What's her problem?" Fukunaga asked.
"Oh, she doesn't like that I get my tech from an official company," Izuku explained. "She wants to show off her own tech and get scouted as soon as possible, and since I have my own tech, she can't use me to promote her own." With that, he went to Tokoyami and invited him to his team. "Here, I even have a cape for Dark Shadow to regenerate in if necessary."
"How did you know of his weakness?" Tokoyami asked.
"Please, Dark Shadow makes it too obvious. Goku could have figured it out, it's that obvious. Really, you should have picked a better name for your quirk."
"Hey, I like my name!" an unexpected voice called out. Izuku stared at the quirk in shock. Did it just … speak? "I don't care how obvious my name is, I don't want it changed!"
"Umm, Tokoyami? Is your quirk … sentient?"
"Indeed he is. I'm surprised you never noticed before."
"Honestly, I just assumed you could control him with your thoughts," Izuku admitted. "Right, so here's the idea: Uraraka will use her quirk on myself and Tokoyami, allowing Fukunaga to fly us around and escape when necessary. Tokoyami and Dark Shadow, you're on defense with Fukunaga, I'll trust both of you to deal with what you can handle. I'm on offense and taking points, but if you see an opportunity Dark Shadow, go ahead and take it." Soon after, Izuku was given the headband for his team, and he slipped one of his toys on top of the point value, smirking as he did so.
Soon, the call was made and everyone got in position, and the second that Present Mic called start, almost everyone charged at Izuku's team. "Now, let's fly!"
"Ha! Looks like Class A's quirkless boy is running from a fight. This is the time for Class B to show what they're made of!" Vlad called out. However, just as he said that, Teams Rin and Kendo both lost their headbands to … a pair of grapple hooks? "Now what's going on? Who'd the other grapple hook belong to?" Vlad demanded.
"Thanks for the help, Yaoyorozu. I was worried I didn't give you enough time to study the plans," Shoto said.
"Actually, I memorized a few grapple guns already, I just needed to find the difference in the plans you gave me and the ones I already knew. Where'd it come from?" she asked.
"Where do you think?" the dual-haired boy asked with a smile. Then he noticed that Monoma was deliberately provoking Bakugou. "They're next, let's hit them while they're distracted by Bakugou."
"But what about Midoriya?" Iida asked.
"I'm certain he'll make it into the next round, so we'll ignore him and focus on the others. Let's make sure Monoma doesn't pass."
Izuku had the same plan, but he was convinced that dear Kacchan would deal with the arrogant idiot. As such, he used his grapple gun to steal a spare headband off of Tetsutetsu, then he turned them around so the points were no longer visible.
"Bam! Bang! Swoosh!" Instantly, Izuku's team was cut off from everyone else by enormous stone words. The group turned to see Nirengeki, Yui, Bondo and Fukidashi standing before them.
"Do we fly?" Fukunaga asked. Personally, she wasn't interested in running, she wanted to fight, to see what these would-be heroes were made of, and how she stacked up to them.
"I believe we could take them," Tokoyami stated. However, just then a second team dropped out of the sky, and to their shock, the three A students recognized the entire team: Ojiro and Aoyama from their own class supported by, ironically, the support student Hatsume and led by Shinso, both of whom had grudges against Izuku. More interesting was the fact that Shinso had several headbands around his neck. "This just became a little more difficult."
"We can take them!" Uraraka stated confidently.
"This is going to be fun," Izuku said with a grin. With that he pulled a few toys and prepared for the fight.
"Look at that! Fukidashi has trapped Midoriya with his quirk! That's the power of Class B for you!"
"Vlad, you do remember that Fukunaga can fly, right? They're not exactly trapped there," Mic mentioned. "I'm more curious about what Shinso's planning, and what's going to happen between the trio. But we'll come back to them. Let's look at how the other teams are doing." When they did, Vlad fainted, his chair collapsing with him. "Wow, Class B is doing horribly! They've almost been wiped out by Bakugou and Todoroki alone!" Mic wasn't joking. Altogether, Shoto had gathered up 2,005 points and Bakugou had 1240 points. The only other teams left with points were in the miniature arena. "Well, that's the difference between those willing to settle, and those who aim for the top. Wait, what are Todoroki and Bakugou doing?" The two teams had just stopped, watching the others as they struggled to free themselves from the ice that Shoto had created. "Well, that's no fun. What about Midoriya?"
Mic turned back just in time, as both teams made a go for the ten million, only for Yui to reel back after being electrocuted, while Shinso and Izuku traded headbands. Shinso though was furious when he realized that he'd stolen a headband worth only 70 points. "We're taking him down, NOW!"
"Got it, General Studies!" Hatsume agreed.
Suddenly though, part of one of Fukidashi's stone words collapsed, revealing Bakugou's team charging through. "You're not escaping me, you Class B rejects!"
Right behind him though, Tetsutetsu was also charging through. "You're not getting away from me that easily, Bakugou!" In the chaos that followed, Bakugou grabbed the headband from Nirengeki, Tetsutetsu grabbed a band from Bakugou, and Shinso ended up knocked out from attempting to grab the ten million headband.
"And that's time! In first place, Team Midoriya, who managed to hold on to their ten million the whole game! But what happened to everyone who tried to grab it?"
Midnight groaned. "Unfortunately, another piece of equipment I recognize. In a direct reference to past cavalry battles, he requested a small electrical device that would electrocute someone who tried to take whatever it was attached to."
"Huh, who'd have thought? In second place, it's Team Todoroki, followed by Team Bakugou, and Team Shinso!"
After a break for lunch, Midnight prepared to announce the brackets for the final round, only for Ojiro to voluntarily drop out. "Everyone gave it their all, but I was just someone's puppet. I don't want to advance if I don't even know how I got here. It wouldn't be fair." Much to everyone's shock, Midnight accepted the withdrawal and asked Tetsu's team to name someone as a replacement, and they quickly chose Tetsu himself to fight. With that, the bracket was set.
Midoriya Izuku vs Shinso Hitoshi
Hatsume Mei vs Sero Hanta
Kaminari Denki vs Todoroki Shoto
Aoyama Yuuga vs Ashido Mina
Fukunaga Masami vs Yaoyorozu Momo
Iida Tenya vs Tokoyami Fumikage
Bakugou Katsuki vs Uraraka Ochako
Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu vs Kirishima Eijiro
Derek Powers was starting to get a little mad. Doctor Garaki was absolutely paranoid, as each clue he'd left behind only led to another clue, which was why Powers was in the underground bunker in the ruins of Carthage right now. The good doctor's backup plan had revealed several small nomu factories and one large scale factory, but nothing that could actually replace him. Powers wasn't even sure if he'd find the replacement here or yet another clue, the trail of which had led him through the most stable countries in Asia and Europe before leading him here. Finally though, he found a door that was far more secure than any other he'd found … and produced by MARS Industries? Interesting. Most businesses that Powers had known of had gone extinct by now. Fortunately, the good doctor had provided a code to open the door, and inside there was an old cryogenics tube, though one that had obviously been modified. Garaki had been busy with more than just the nomu.
Powers started deactivating the cryotube, curious to see what, or rather who was inside. As the ice slowly melted, he stared in shock as a familiar smooth mask and helmet was revealed. "I don't believe it, it's you!"
"You freed me? Wait, Derek Powers? I thought I'd have been frozen longer than that."
"You were, it's been over 80 years since we last did business, Commander. However, I have a new proposition for you. You see, I've joined a new organization that could use your mind and strategic genius. It's a whole new world now, and you need friends to help you navigate it."
"Not before you tell me how you survived this long."
Powers smiled. "How well do those nanomites protect you from radiation?"
"They don't, but they do heal its' effects. Why?" Powers removed a glove, revealing his true form beneath. "Ah, you became living radiation. Yes, that would make you hard to kill, wouldn't it? How many metahumans are there now?"
"Numbers come out to 80% of the population, fewer in the older generations, more in the younger. Hero is now a profession, and the Bat's legacy continues."
"I see. Very well, I shall join you, but I shall not serve you. I command!"
"You'll have to take that up with the boss. At the very least, we want your scientific knowledge. Our former chief scientist was arrested about a month ago."
"For now," the masked man replied. Then he tapped out a specific sequence into a computer before sending a message. "This is your Commander, I have returned and I shall be visiting each of you soon. I expect your oath of allegiance to be renewed before then. Cobra!" With that, Cobra Commander walked out of the Carthage bunker with Blight, and entered a new world.