Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was another lovely day in the great school of UA. The sun was shining, birds were singing, Bakugo was cursing up a storm. So far, relatively normal right up to the moment that Aizawa said “We will be working in teams today. Go change and meet me in the Downtown District.”

They had all changed into their hero costumes (granted some had gotten an upgrade) and made their way to the training ground no one wanted to mention. Many eyes had been casted to Bakugo, who was looking at the approaching city with a look no one was able to figure out. It had been a few weeks since the Civil War and it had put a new form of strain on the class. Mainly on Bakugo since he was the Paragon of the Heroes. They all stood there in front of the main entrance to the fake city, frowning at the sounds of vehicles moving and just basic activity. Aizawa gave them all a dead eyed look that most knew was faked. The Pro sighed.

“Today’s activity is about teamwork. To a degree.”

The students frowned and sent each other looks. Iida of course raised his hand. “Sensei! What is the activity?”

The man sighed and spoke up. “You will be in teams of four today. And I am using that lightly. It will be three against one. One of you will be pitted against the other three. The single person’s objective is to escape. The three others must work together to capture the final member.”

That made the class look over at one stiff Bakugo. No one wanted to work on a team with him since the failure of the War. Aizawa knew this and continued on. “I’ve already broke down the teams and who will be playing mouse. The mouse will have a three minute head start into the building. Each group will be placed in a building at random. The heroes must keep the property damage to a minimum. There are civil-bots wandering around to help give you an idea on how real this could get. You cannot run away from the building during the three minutes. You must enter the building and then you can make an escape.”

Bakugo clenched his hands into fists and ignored the whispers that were now running rampant through his classmates mouths. Thankfully all whispers and gossip was halted by a stern look from their sleep deprived teacher. He continued on. “The teams will be as followed and no,” here he shot a glare to one Mineta, “you cannot trade teams.”

While people were not a fan of Bakugo, it was still agreed Mineta was not a person anyone of the class liked.

Aizawa coughed and listed the teams as well as who would be the “target”.

“Kirishima, Tokoyami and Koda vs Tsuyu.
Bakugo, Uraraka and Mineta vs Shoji.
Ojiro, Denki and Aoyama vs Ashido.
Hagakure, Todoroki and Iida vs Yao-Momo.
Sero, Sato and Jiro vs Midoriya.”

He watched as they all moved to their teams and even then had a small space between their target. The man cracked his neck, rolling it to the sides as he spoke once more. “You will all be doing this exercise at the same time so we will have cameras active at all times including ones we will be giving you to wear on your costumes.”

They all nodded and let their teacher send them off to their buildings….

~~~

Uraraka closed her eyes to try to fight off the headache that was trying to form behind her right eyeball. Bakugo was walking next to her and they were slowly approaching the building Shoji had vanished into three minutes prior. Behind them, Mineta was whining about how he didn’t get to chase after Momo. While granted, Uraraka would love to NOT be working with Bakugo, she would definitely love to work with him than the pervert that she KNEW was staring at her ass. At least the Lord Explosion Murder boy could be professional (and a small side of her wondered if he was even attracted to girls. Let alone sex. She was so putting him down as asexual in the betting pool) and NOT want her to feel like choking out a man in the span of three seconds of him speaking.

Right now though, she was focusing on how she was going to win this when Bakugo spoke in a normal tone of voice. “Uraraka, set up a perimeter. We will wait outside as you try and find him. It’s an apartment building with only 5 floors so there shouldn’t be many places he can hide.”

That surprised the girl. The Bakugo of before would have charged straight in. He sent her a look with his red eyes. “You fought him in the War right? You have the most experience with him in combat.”

Well shooketh be Uraraka. Seemed Bakugo was smarter than he appeared. Mineta pouted behind them. “So what do we do then?”

Uraraka could see that the other teen was trying not to lose his cool. An amazing feat since this was Bakugo. He turned to the purple haired teen and gave him a look. “We wait. This guy is big and knows how we all fight. We can’t just rush in there without knowing where he is. He might try to make a run for it and then we would be nowhere with sticks up our asses.”

Uraraka pressed her hand to her chest in pure surprise with a hint of awe. Seriously, was this the same Bakugo?? Uraraka nodded to him. “I’ll check it out. Our comms are on. I will let you know if I see him.”

The ash blond nodded and barely managed to not punt Mineta across the alley that they were in. Mineta had a faint drool line on his face at the sight of Uraraka pushing herself off the ground using her Quirk and launching herself to the apartment. They waited for a few minutes and Mineta actually jumped when the gravity girl went, “I found him. Fifth floor. Third apartment. He is facing the road.”

Bakugo had to frown and look at the building. They were currently caddy corner to the apartment and he could see the girl floating above the street. He responded back with, “Alright. Stay put there. Keep an eye on him. I am going to head in and try to get him to jump out at you. Grape Fucker, you stay on the ground level in case he gets away from me.”

Mineta squawked while Uraraka managed to not laugh. Seriously, Bakugo was rather creative in the name calling department. The living bomb entered the building and looked up. It was a basic design. No elevators, only stairs. A square of just emptiness took up the center of the room with each apartment floor being a decent size. The boy clicked his tongue and slowly made his way up each flight of stairs, keeping an eye out for any form of traps. What? He learned from the insanity that was the War. He made his way up and stopped in front of the apartment door that his target was hiding in. Bakugo clicked on his comm link to the others. “Uravity, what’s he doing?”

“He is just….standing there. He is facing the door so he is going to be expecting you Bakugo. Be careful. He is strong by himself. Those arms of his make him even more dangerous.”

Bakugo nodded and went, “Heard. Just keep an eye out.”

With that he aimed his palm to the door and blasted it off in a way that turned it into a weapon. It flew through the air only to be backhanded by Shoji Mezo. The 6’4 teen popped his neck and took three steps forward. Bakugo only managed to take one for the larger guy apparently had nicked a fucking cinderblock on his way into the room which he used to slam into Bakugo’s chest with a deep roar. He flew backwards from the force, slamming through the cheap railing that made it so people wouldn’t fall to their death. Bakugo hit the other railing on the other side and barely managed to grab it. The explosion master felt his chest creak in a way he hadn’t felt before, which meant he more than likely had a broken rib or perhaps even just cracked. He looked up to see the six armed teen come running out of the apartment, grab part of the railing Bakugo had sailed through and use to grapple himself down a floor.

Bakugo quickly turned on the comm as Shoji kicked the door to an apartment open. “URARAKA HE IS COMING OUT! FRONT OF THE BUILDING!”

Outside, Uraraka just managed to press her fingers together to release her quirk on herself when one of the windows on the fourth floor shattered outwards. She began to fall, moving to try to intercept him when he ran out into the street, faster than she remembered him ever being. Uraraka cried out “WATCH OUT!” as a civil-bot on a motorcycle came towards him. What he did next would forever be one of the coolest (if not most hottest things that Uraraka has ever seen) Shoji moved, grabbing the handle with one hand. He used another to shove the bot off and twisted the motorcycle in the air, lifting off the ground for a good second. He slung his leg over it in mid air, twisting the vehicle so it was now facing the opposite direction it had been going in. With a screech of rubber, Shoji hit the ground running so to speak. He drove off with a roar of the engine, letting the trio of heroes stand there. Uraraka looked up to see Bakugo hanging out of the broken window with a blank look. Coming out of the first floor was Mineta, who just said “Uh, did we know he could drive?”

~~~~

Koda, Kirishima and Tokoyami looked up at the lone warehouse that Tsuyu was currently hiding in. Tokoyami chuckled darkly, before lolling his head to look at Koda. “So our objective is to capture Tsuyu huh?”

Kirishima watched as Koda seemed to change in front of him. He was no longer this meek looking boy. He brought his head up and instead of slouching in to look smaller, Koda leaned back to let his shoulders fall. Tokoyami also seemed to change. He shifted his stance and hunched forward a bit. The bird looking teen looked back at the Hard Boy 1. “Kirishima, just follow our lead okay?” he turned to the soft speaking other. “Animal, if you would be so kind as to kill the lights?”

Koda chuckled, a deep roll that made Kirishima question his sexuality for a hot second. “Why it would be my pleasure Nightmare.”

The red haired teen watched with awe as Koda crouched down and spoke to a squirrel. Tokoyami calmly went up to the door and cocked his head to the side. Kirishima saw as soon as the power went off, Tokoyami used Dark Shadow to rip the door open. The three of them entered the pitch black warehouse and Kirishima watched as the other two calmly walk in. They made their way deeper into the building. It wasn’t hard to find her, for she was in one of the main halls. Her headlamps were lit up and she took a fighting stance. Koda stood off to one side and Tokoyami the other. Kirishima stood in front of her and hardened. “Give it up Froppy!”

She frowned, “Sorry kero, but I am going to pass this test.”

Tokoyami shifted and the next thing Kirishima knew, Dark Shadow had come out and grabbed him. In the next second, he was being thrown across the floor. He barely managed to keep his quirk active as he flew across the room towards Tsuyu. The frog like girl jumped out of the way and her eyes widened at the sight of Dark Shadow rushing towards her, a fist cocked back. Tsuyu scowled and lashed out with her tongue to slap the fist away as she jumped away once more. Only when she landed, a large hand slammed into the back of her head surprising her as the fingers gripped the back of her skull. A hand grabbed her right arm and twisted it back, causing her to cry out in pain.

She looked over her shoulder to see Koda staring at her with a blank look on his face. She heard the faint click of the restraints the “heroes” were given for the exercise and then a weight settled over her wrist.

A small “kero” came from her as she realized she lost…..

~~~

Todoroki glared at the office building in front of him. His group’s target was Yao-Momo. Which mean that this just got a whole lot more complicated. Standing next to him was Iida, who was also looking at the plain looking building. “She is inside, waiting for us.”

On the speedster’s other side was Hagakure, her floating gloves gripping Iida’s arm. “Well, it is rude to keep a lady waiting.”

Both boys sent each other looks and sighed. “We need to be careful.” Todoroki said, sending another glare to the building.

Iida let out a groan. “No doubt she has set up traps already.”

Hagakure seemed to shift, the boys believing she tilted her head. “She had three minutes, what could she have done in that time?”

That made the three of them stop and give the building a leery look. They had learned from their time in the War. And apparently, so did Momo….

~~~

Momo, no, Forgery made her way through the building, running up the stairwell. Coming out of her hand was a thin wire that she had connected to a tiny paint bomb at a random spot on the wall. She had quickly made that and was working on setting up traps as she went. Never before had she been more thankful for Me-Hacker teaching her the chemical makeup of the goo guns. It was quite fun for her to make the blasting cap and mini bomb from her palm. She looped the wire around the stairwell railing and ran up another flight. She popped out another one from her left forearm and attached the wire to that. She set it up by the door to the office floor, rigging the door to hell and back. Forgery rushed into the office floor, ignoring the civil-bots doing their work.

The girl ran towards the back corner, where two large windows connect to form the corner. She passed a fire alarm and pulled the switch, letting it screech out and begin raining inside. While granted, not the best idea with someone who could control ice it did help form a deterrent for an idea. What with the two other teammates being a speedster (who could slip on the ice and hurt not only himself but his fellow heroes) and an invisible girl who had to run around naked (she could easily get hypothermia or frostbite if he wasn’t careful), Todoroki had to be careful. The civil-bots quickly left, some glitching out from the water falling from the ceiling. Mom quickly tied her hair up into a bun and ripped down some of the cubicles. She didn’t have a lot of time left so she wanted to make sure she got the maximum chance. With quick movements, she formed a blockade and from her clavicle a small handgun. She tilted her head to the side and she pulled out a small gun magazine filled with the paint bullets. Momo didn’t even bat an eye as she clicked the pieces together and slipped the weapon on a pouch on her hip. She touched her tight and pulled out a belt of bullets that she wrapped around her hips twice.

The girl looked up when she heard over the fire alarm a muffled explosion. Seemed the hero team was finally making their way inside and got caught. Forgery pressed her back to one of the windows, pressing her hand flat against the glass and let a small device form from her palm once more. It sucked itself to the window and began to beep, one that no one would be able to hear over the fire alarm. A grin slid across the girl’s face and she moved to get behind more of her blockade. Seems the party was coming to her…

~~~

Hagakure grunted as she tried to peel herself off the wall. The three of them had entered the building at the main stairwell’s exit only to have set off a trap. Todoroki and Iida managed to get out of the range but Hagakure didn’t. The invisible girl heaved only to let out a sigh. Both boys gave her a look, clearly trying to focus on where her face should be. The paint was, well, accentuating her features and if it was a different scenario, she would be rolling on the floor with laughter right now. Instead, she sent them both a glare. “I’m fine! Go! Just be careful!”

Granted she had to yell over the fire alarm but both boys nodded. They made their way up the stairs, triggering the traps Momo had laid out. Looking up, Iida called out, “The traps stop at the third level!”

Todoroki answered back, “Then she has to be there! Come on!”

They made their way up at a slightly faster pace and barely managed to escape more than three paint blasts.With a swift kick, Iida opened the door. The two of them ignored it as it hit the ground with a thud and carefully entered the office floor. It did not take long for them to see the blockade in the corner. They stepped lightly, ignoring the water raining down on them. Momo fired off a few shots from her hand gun, making them separate and look at each other. Todoroki help up his right hand, aiming at the blockade. Momo stepped out before he could, the look on the girl’s face was enough to give him pause.

“Yaoyorozu-san! Stand down! And you won’t be hurt!” Iida yelled, making her eyes flick to him for a second.

The grin she sent to Todoroki made the both of the boys stop in their tracks. “I have to decline Iida-san. Today,” here her grin transformed into a slightly feral smile, “Today I win.”

Iida frowned and noticed a small device on the window behind her. He never had been one for cursing but he decided to take a page out of Bakugo’s book. “SHIT!”

Behind her, the window formed cracks and shattered to pieces. Iida activated his quirk, rushing towards her. Momo turned on her heel as soon as she heard the window crack and jumped out the window. Her aim was to the small tree out front that decorated the sidewalk and her aim was true. She left the barest brush of Iida’s fingers against her back but he was too late. He had to grip the window frame or else he fall right behind her. Momo crashed into the tree and she scrambled down, feeling a slight chill. Jumping down to the ground, she barely managed to avoid being captured in a wall of ice. She pulled out her pistol and shot a few rounds at the broken window, making the boys fall back for a moment. It was enough for her to run across the street and grip her stomach.

She heard the heavy clunk of Iida’s costume hitting the ground and she spun once more on her heel, aiming the new gatling gun that she was pulling out of her stomach. Holding it with one hand, she unclipped the bullet belt from her hip and fed it through the machine in her grasp. Iida yelped as he skidded to dodge the now wave of paint coming towards him. A wall of ice shot up, giving him some cover. With her free hand, Momo grasped her pistol and shot at Todoroki. He dove behind the wall of ice, letting it be covered in red.

The two heros looked at each other. “We are going to have to make a plan.” Todoroki said, peeking around the wall only to dive backwards as a bullet nearly took him out.

Iida clicked his tongue. “We are pinned as long as she has that gun in her hands.”

It was Todoroki’s turn to murmur out a curse. While Iida was indeed fast, he couldn’t really turn on a dime and that monster in Momo’s hands seemed to counter that very fucking well. The boys both froze at the sound of a motorcycle engine roaring. They both turned to see Shoji coming up on one, making the both of them blink in surprise. Even more shocking was when the burly teen yelled out, “FORGERY!”

The heroes scrambled up and popped their heads over the wall to see Momo drop the gatling gun, reaching out. Shoji drove past, his arms latching onto Momo’s outstretched hands. She was quickly pulled onto the bike as it sped past. Iida watched as the girl had two arms wrap around her waist as she stood on the back of the bike and fired a few shots towards them. The dove to the side, letting the paint hit where they had been a few seconds earlier. They could only watch in shock as their target rode off. Iida simply stood there and asked, “Do….Do I go after them?”

Coming out of the office was Hagakure. “What did I miss?”

Todoroki simply pressed his face in his hands, wondering when did the exercise go pear shaped….

~~~~

Denki watched as Ojiro fell through the floor with a scowl. Across from him was Mina Ashido, who was standing with a blank look on her face. Aoyama was kicking a piece of debris to the huge hole in the floor. “Mon ami, must we do this Drug Runner.”

Ashido cackled. “It’s not my fault love. They started this.” The grin that was now on her face sent shivers down Denki’s spine. She pressed a hand to the window next to her and Denki couldn’t help but watch with wide eyes as it melted.

Ashido gave a soft smile, “I will see you on the other side Sparkle.”

Denki jumped across the hole as Ojiro jumped back out. Ashido fell out of the window. Denki rushed to see her slide her way down the building using her acid. She hit the ground running and the electricity user sighed. “Well that sucked.”

Next to him, Ojiro gave him a look, “Did you know that your electricity could make her acid fucking burn?”

Denki grumbled as Aoyama laughed….

~~~~

Sero sat next to Sato, the two of them feeling sore. Mostly from having to pull themselves out of a car but that's besides the point. The two boys looked over to where Jiro was standing, well standing was a word that was the best fit. She was trapped against a lamp post thanks to Sero’s tape. Sero had a great idea. Use Jiro and Sato to distort and weaken Midoriya only to have it be backfired. Midoriya had grabbed the tape that Sero had launched at him in an attempt to capture him and used it to wrap Jiro to the lamp post. Sato, on the other hand, had been in the middle of a sugar rush when Sero had been thrown into him. The two had crashed into a car and by the time they managed to fish themselves out, Midoriya was gone.

Sero sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “Well, that sucked.”

Jiro scoffed from her position. “No shit.”

The team of heroes sat there right up until Sato went, “Aizawa is going to be making us do drills after this, isn’t he?”

That elicited groans from his teammates…

~~~

The students were all back in their classroom, watching their teacher with various looks of apprehension. The man was rubbing his eyes. “Only one team of heroes managed to catch their target. We are going to discuss why.”

His red eyes glared at them, making them all flinch in some way. He pointed to Tokoyami. “Explain what your target did wrong.”

The avian teen stood quickly, “She didn’t even try to escape.”

That made them all look at him, “What do you mean?” asked Ojiro.

A deep sigh came from the back, making them all look at Shoji. The large teen spoke, “Her objective was to escape. Not fight the heroes. That’s where she failed. She did right by going in the building but she put herself in a corner mainly for not scouting for a better exit. It also became a trap for herself when she didn’t actively flee when the power was cut.”

He leaned back in his seat, folding two of his arms over his chest. The class still continued to stare at him so he spoke on. “On top of that, she failed to realize her objective. Tell me,” here he leaned forward a bit, “what do you think of when you hear escape?”

The class grew quiet and looked to their friends. It was a few seconds but one Bakugo Katsuki broke the silence. “Fighting. You gotta fight to escape.”

“Not necessarily.” said a new voice.

All of the students turned to look at Midoriya Izuku. He was leaning back in his seat and had a look in his eye that made all the “villains” sit up straight. Bakugo scowled. “The fuck are you talking about?”

Izuku sent him a look. “What I am talking about Katsuki is that as soon as the power went down, Tsuyu should have found an exit or some form of light coming in to help fight off Dark Shadow. Give her an advantage.”

Momo piped up behind him, “The only reason I fought back was to keep them at bay while I escaped.”

Shoji tilted his head to her, “Same.”

Izuku raised an eyebrow. Ashido waved her arm up, “I made sure I had a clear path for my objective.”

Bakugo frowned at that word. He replayed the conversation in his head and his frown deepened. They had all said objective. Bakugo checked back in as Kirishima began to talk. “So what, the targets didn’t even need to fight?”

Shoji looked at him. “That’s exactly what he is saying. It is what we are all saying. None of us really needed to fight unless we were cornered.”

All of the students turned to look at Aizawa who nodded. “They are right. Your goal as the target was to escape without getting caught.”

The class fell silent and all looked to each other. The only ones not second guessing themselves were the Hero Class Villains. Seemed their time under their Kingpin had some good and lasting effects. It just brought more evidence to the table on how much of an impact the War truly had on this year’s Hero Class….