Chapter Text
“I think this is a personal victory, outlasting One For All in the exam.”
“We didn’t outlast him! Kacchan was taken out by All Might!”
“Still, it’s further evidence All For One is the greatest quirk out there.”
“I thought you said you were going to leave so I could finish the exam!?”
“And I would if you were doing something important and not just jumping from building to building!”
Izuku growled as his feet landed on an apartment building and he took off running, a moment later teleporting to the next building. Mina was gathering the groups together to prepare for their final assault while Izuku met the command team who were creating a makeshift prison.
He landed down to street level where Yaoyorozu and Yoarashi were hauling the defeated teachers and heroes into a makeshift cell the creation user had presumably made. All Might was looking particularly proud of himself and Yoarashi squeezed him between Burnin and Present Mic.
“Is that everyone?” Izuku asked as Yaoyorozu secured the cell.
“Yes, it’s wired to blow up if they try to escape.” She explained and Hawk’s face paled.
“These kids are insane…”
“We’ve got it from here boss!” A robot painted like a police officer said to Izuku with a salute.
“Right,” Izuku said and turned to Yoarashi and Yaoyorozu, “We’ve got about 30 minutes left. I know reinforcements are on their way but we should still assault their HQ in case they have back up plans.”
“You won’t get a word out of us heroes!”
“All Might… Indoor voice… Please…” Midnight said as she rubbed a large bruise on her head.
“Mina will start the attack to keep them occupied, I’m just hoping that…”
“Loki!” Came a voice that originated from thin air.
“Invisible Girl,” Izuku responded as a camera floated into his face.
“I managed to get a good layout of the HQ,” She said and started to flick through the pictures she had managed to take, “They’ve blocked off or destroyed most of the hallways and have barricaded themselves in the central chamber.”
“They’re forcing us into a fight,” Izuku said with a frown, “The only way to hit them is a direct attack.”
“What about the VIP?” Yaoyorozu asked.
“Oh yeah,” Hagakure said and flicked through some more pictures, “I think they’re using one of the civilian staff members, I’ve seen her around. She looks pretty badly beaten up although most of it is clearly fake makeup.” She said and showed Izuku the picture.
“Mom!?”
Sure enough the picture showed his mother, loosely tied to a wooden chair while chatting and smiling with Nedzu who guarded her.
“That’s crossing a damn line and you know it!”
“That’s your mother!?” Yoarashi gasped.
Yaoyorozu frowned as she looked over Izuku’s shoulder at the image, “She hasn’t been tied up very well… And she doesn’t look too afraid considering…”
“They’re targeting you,” Deku said, appearing in front of Izuku for the first time since the exam started, “They’re trying to break you. They’re afraid of you.”
Izuku stared at the picture of his mother, something deep in the back of his mind told him it was all fake, that his mother was just playing the part. But that logic was driven out by the primal rage he was feeling at the image that made his mother look beaten.
“They’re mocking you. They’re taking advantage of you. They know you can’t lash out. They know they can push you around. They think you’re pathetic. Show them. Show them how strong we really are. Show them why they should fear us.”
Izuku was blinded by thoughts of his mother as he turned from Hagakure to the captured heroes. He stalked up to the bars and grabbed Present Mic by the front of his shirt.
Mic smirked as he was hauled up to the bars, “Hey hero, I guess-”
“Shut the fuck up!”
“Loki!” Yaoyorozu gasped, outraged at Izuku’s language.
Mic lost his smirk at Izuku’s feral look and All Might raised an eyebrow in the background.
“What did you do to my mother!?” Izuku demanded.
“I think you mean the Mayor,” Mic said with a chuckle, “And I’m not-”
Izuku slammed Mics head against the bars, “I’m talking about my mother.”
“Midoriya!” Yoarashi cried and grabbed Izuku’s shoulder but he was shrugged off.
“Listen kid,” Mic said though his act seemed to be slipping slightly, “I ain’t gonna tell you anything!”
“Oh yes he will!”
Izuku wasn’t entirely sure what happened next, it was like he briefly lost control of his quirk except at the same time he was sucked away from his body and into darkness. He landed with a thud, staring up at a dark sky pierced by stars and strands of multi-coloured lights. Pushing himself up on his elbows it looked like he was floating through the place on a large chunk of rock.
As he got to his feet Izuku realized he wasn’t alone, on the other side of the rock he witnessed one of the most brutal fights he’d ever seen. Although calling it a fight was a stretch. It was more watching Deku beat Present Mic up with no remorse as the latter didn’t even fight back.
“What the hell are you doing!?” Izuku hissed as he came to his senses and ran over to Deku.
Deku looked at him with a bored expression as he threw Present Mic to the ground, “It’s called an interrogation.”
“You’re beating Present Mic senseless!” Izuku cried and looked down, the hero was bloody and beaten with swollen injuries and ruined clothes.
“Relax,” Deku said with a wave of his hand, “This isn’t him, it’s his quirk.”
“You still can’t just attack him like that!”
“And why the hell not!” Deku shouted, turning to Izuku with a scowl, “They have our mother!”
“It… It’s not real…” Izuku said, though it sounded weak.
“And if it was Izuku!? Would you sit there feeling all woozy at the idea of beating information out of someone!? Or would you do everything in power to save her!?”
“What the hell do you want from me!?” Izuku cried, his mind starting to break.
“I want you to stop wasting our potential!” Deku said, “I want to bask in our power, to embrace a feeling of superiority!”
As Deku spoke he raised his arm and pain shot through Izuku before his own arm was raised in sync with Deku.
“I want you to let go! To finally realize who we are!”
Deku forced Izuku to reach down and strangle Present Mic’s quirk, to choke the life out of him as his grip tightened.
“I know you want this! I know you want to prove yourself! So stop holding us back!”
Izuku panicked as he felt his hand get tighter, the quirk’s eyes were so lifelike as they looked up at him, begging him to stop, “No… I don’t… This isn’t…”
“Do it Izuku!”
“Izuku!”
“IZUKU STOP!”
Izuku suddenly felt like he was being ripped out of an ice cold bath. He gasped for breath as the sun beat down on him and the blue sky returned. He slowly became aware of his surroundings again. He was laying face down in the road, All Might standing over him and pinning him down with a fearful expression.
Slowly turning his head he could see Present Mic, unconscious and pale, laying not far from him as Midnight and Burnin checked the teacher for injuries. Yoarashi and Yaoyorozu stood back, fearful looks on their faces, he assumed Hagakure matched as the camera lay dropped on the ground, smashed.
“Izuku,” All Might said, getting his attention again, “Can you hear me?”
“What happened?”
“We were hoping you could tell us,” Yaoyorozu said as she took a calming breath and stepped forward, “It looked like you were interrogating Present Mic and then… you both went still. Then Mic started screaming in pain though we couldn’t see you doing anything. We tried to pry you off him but it was only when All Might pinned you down it stopped.”
Izuku winced as All Might helped him to his feet, “Is he ok?”
“He’s fine kid,” Burnin said with a sigh of relief, “Looks like you took his quirk, he just had a tougher time than most with it. We’ll get him to Recovery Girl.”
All Might nodded as Midnight and Burnin hauled Present Mic onto a trolley, “Perhaps you should sit out for the rest of the exam Young Midoriya.”
“No, I’m fine, we’re nearly finished anyway.”
“Are you sure? There’ll be no-”
“I said I’m fine,” Izuku snapped before turning back to the other teachers, “Now before we leave I need something from all of you.”
“You sure this is all going to work?”
Aizawa looked up from his papers with a raised eyebrow. The meeting had finished not long ago with everyone agreeing on his and Yagi’s plan for 1A. Only himself and Present Mic remained in the room.
“What do you mean?” Aizawa asked as his friend stared down at the notes he had made.
“Look, you know I’m not one for all this quirkist bullshit. But even you can’t deny Midoriya’s quirk is a scary concept for everyone, not least a bunch of teenagers. Even with all this well thought out decision making and planning, what makes you think anything will change?” Mic asked, looking up at Aizawa with scepticism.
Aizawa paused before answering, “I’ll admit I thought the same at the start of the year. I figured that I’d never get the whole class on board so I’d focus on keeping the peace between everyone.”
“So what changed?”
“I saw it.” Aizawa said with a small smile.
Mic frowned, “Saw what?”
“I saw the same thing that everybody else who supports Midoriya saw. The thing that links all his closest friends and allies together. From All Might to Endeavor to his classmates. I saw him fight.”
Mic’s frown deepened, “We’ve all seen him fight. Hell, all of Japan saw the sports festival.”
Aizawa shook his head, “No. You’ve seen him fight in class. You’ve seen him fight for himself. What only a handful of people have seen is when he fights for others.”
Bullets, bombs and missiles crashed down into the earth. The sky was filled with projectiles being launched from either end. The villains had turned the town centre into a well fortified base of operations, it was surrounded by a wall of robots and Ectoplasm clones, all equipped with weapons ranging from pistols to missile launchers.
Class A was currently spread between cover, burnt out cars, crumpled walls and even craters were being used by the students as they fought to gain ground towards the wall of enemies.
“Can’t Stop Twinkling cover Red Riot and Tailman! We need to get our close combat fighters up the road!” Mina cried over the sound of gunfire, it turned out she wasn’t half bad at this whole leadership thing.
Ayoama nodded from the car he was crouched behind and let out a beam of blue energy that ripped through several robots pinning the other two students down. With a brief reprise from the onslaught Ojiro and Eijiro ran forward, moving towards their enemy.
Mina watched them through the bullet holes in the car she was behind with Kyouka. She reached down onto her utility belt and grabbed what looked like a grenade. Holding it tightly in her hand she activated her quirk as acid all but poured out of her finger tips.
A few moments later she pulled the pin on the grenade and threw it into the group of robots. There was a loud bang as her acid spewed everywhere from the centre, chunks of it landed on the robots and their metal sizzled as it melted through.
Kyouka blinked as she watched the destruction before turning to Mina, “Acid grenades?”
Mina looked up at her and winked as she filled another one, “You’re not the only one with fancy tech.”
She threw another grenade into the mix and made another dent in the villain's defensive line.
As they battled an Ectoplasm clone suddenly appeared around the car she and Kyouka were behind, “Shit! Earphone Jack, look out!”
Kyouka turned to face the clone but she was going too slow and knew it as the clone raised its gun. A moment later however it’s head exploded and it turned to mist.
Yaoyorozu appeared in the street, skidding behind the same car as Mina and Kyouka. Mina looked at her and her jaw dropped.
“Creati… Is that a shotgun?”
“Yes it is,” Yaoyorozu confirmed as she ducked out from the car and let off two rounds, easily hitting two robots directly in the head.
“But what if you hit a teacher!?”
“Then they can dodge.”
Kyouka and Mina looked at each other, wondering what exactly had happened to Yaoyorozu.
“Wait. If you’re here then where’s-”
The sounds of battle were deafened out by the sheer noise that came from above them. Everyone was blinded as a huge beam of red energy slammed down into the ground. It was so bright and hot Mina had to duck down and cover her eyes. The beam tore through the front line of the villains, melting entire robots as Ectoplasm clones fell one after the other. The ground beneath them bubbled from the heat and cracked outwards like a spiderweb.
All it took was a few moments for the entire outer defences of the HQ to be demolished, all that was left was a hot crater of molten metal and rock.
Then Izuku landed down in the middle of the class.
“Holy shit…” Mina whispered.
He’d clearly taken some quirks to use in the battle, huge red wings sprung from his back. Except unlike Hawks his wings were burning with green flame and shone brightly while his eyes glowed red. His hair had streaks of white in and Mina could feel the waves of power flowing off him.
“Report!” Izuku said and his voice reverberated down the street.
The class scrambled forward towards their leader like a switch had been flicked. Nobody was questioning Izuku’s authority after that display.
“Everybody is ready for the assault,” Mina said as Yoayorozu stood next to her, “We’re down Hachiman and Velocity but nobody else has taken any serious injuries. We should be at full strength if you want to make our way into the HQ.”
Izuku frowned as Yaoyorozu sighed, “It’s not that simple, Hagakure was able to scout it out, they’ve barricaded themselves inside the central chamber. The only way we’re taking them out is a full blown frontal assault.”
“What about the VIP?” Todoroki asked.
“It’s my mother,” Izuku let out with a growl and a few people took a step back.
“Something about all that still doesn’t add up,” Yaoyorozu muttered to herself.
“Well we can’t just charge in and expect a victory,” Shoji said, “The teachers all know our quirks, no doubt they’ve got counters to all of them.”
Something in Izuku’s eye lit up as he turned to look at the floating gloves of Hagakure, “They do know our quirks… I have an idea.”
“I must say Aizawa I’m rather impressed by how closely events have followed your predictions.” Nedzu said as he gazed at several monitors showing the students progress.
Aizawa grunted in response, “It hasn’t gone perfectly, Bakugou and Iida are out, Midoriya’s control continues to slip and if you ask me All Might gave up far too soon.”
“But wasn’t he just supposed to fight until Yoarashi and Todoroki got past their differences? It appears to me they did that.”
“An excellent point Ms Midoriya!” Nedzu chirped and glanced back at their VIP.
Inko was currently sitting between the two teachers, loosely tied up with some half assed makeup on. The three of them were placed at the top of a grand staircase, monitoring everything while the rest of the teaching staff along with Gran Torino and Rock Lock stood on the floor, awaiting for the inevitable assault from the students.
“Are we certain they’ll try to attack?” Nedzu asked.
“It’s their best option,” Aizawa explained, “The rest of the town is secured and reinforcements are on the way. If they can take us down here then it’s a complete victory. If they fail the reinforcements will arrive anyway, it's a no lose situation.”
“Still, I’m curious to see their attack plan. They should know they can’t win in a basic stand up confrontation.”
“And they don’t appear to have worked out our trick with the VIP yet.” Aizawa said and looked back at Inko who chuckled slightly.
As they pondered their plan there was a commotion from one of the doors and a young girl tumbled through. Aizawa didn’t recognise her from any of the UA students, she had shoulder length blonde hair with a slight green shade coming through and tears in her eyes. She was dressed in the uniform of a nearby high school that sat on the edge of UA’s grounds.
“E-Excuse me,” She sniffled as she staggered forward, “I-I was trying to take a shortcut home and got lost.”
“You ok Miss?” Torino said as he hobbled forward to her.
“Oh dear,” Nedzu said with a frown, “It appears another local student has wandered onto the grounds, I’ll have to review security again.”
It wasn’t unheard of, at least once a year or so a local student from another school would accidently make into UA’s land, it was normally caused by a small breach in security. It was a simple enough solution though, a teacher would escort the student off campus and the breach would be secured. It had never happened during an exam however.
As Torino walked over to the girl Aizawa frowned, he knew that voice. It almost sounded like-
“TORINO IT’S A TRAP!”
But it was too late, the girl grabbed Torino’s elbow and smirked. A moment later her body lit up with electricity and thousands of volts ran through Gran Torino’s body. He staggered back as his cane clattered to the ground and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
Before anyone could react the walls on either side of the room exploded and students poured through.
“Form a line around the VIP!” Cementoss yelled as Yoarashi charged at him, “You won’t get past me Galeforce!”
He slammed his hands into the ground and a solid wall rose between him and the student. Aizawa had watched this before, Yoarashi always struggled to make his winds powerful enough to counter Cementoss.
Except Yoarashi didn’t use wind, instead his body hardened and solidified as he smashed through the wall using Kirishima’s quirk. Cementoss stepped back in surprise and was only able to raise his hands to block Yoarashi’s punch with moments to spare. He skidded back against the floor and Yorashi pursued the attack.
Elsewhere Ectoplasm was trying to counter a combined assault from a teleporting Ojiro and a Kirishima who’s side lit up with flames.
Aizawa immediately jumped down into the fight below, “They’ve swapped quirks!”
He needn’t have cried out though, by this point everyone had figured out what had happened. Izuku has clearly randomized everyone’s quirks, meaning it was impossible to predict what you were fighting. On the one hand Aizawa appreciated the tactic, on the other it was a bitch to fight against.
He landed into the middle of the chaos as his scarf unwrapped. His target was easy, Todoroki was off to the side, letting out blasts of heat vision to aid his classmates. Aizawa focused his quirk and the beams were cut off as Todoroki found himself wrapped in the scarf. Aizawa flung him through the air and into Kirishima, the pair slamming back into a wall.
It was his sixth sense that felt something coming towards him and he naturally rolled to the side. A pink feather missed him by millimeters as he got back to his feet. Uraraka flew past him, two pink wings stretched out of her back. Another feather shot past him and hit an Ectoplasm clone, causing it to start floating in the air.
With a curse Aizawa gave chase, using his scarf to swing and launch himself through the air. But Uraraka was being smart, she kept up a constant barrage of feathers, causing Aizawa to dodge in a way that broke his line of sight every time he tried to activate his quirk. The pair left a pile of floating rubble behind them as the battle continued below.
As Aizawa and Uraraka flew above the crowds Mina ran up to Rock Lock with a frown, “Oi! What are you doing here!?”
Rock Lock saw her and smirked, “Thought it sounded fun Pinky!”
He tapped chunks of rubble at his feet, locking them in place as Mina moved into attack. The hero braced himself but his eyes widened in surprise when two swords tore out of her arms. Mina started to swing and lunge at Rock Lock who used chunks of metal and pipes to block her.
She swung an arm out and Rock Lock held a pipe in place in the air, causing Mina to clash with it. Her arm jolted and she had to duck under the pipe to get to him. Rock Lock used the advantage to hit her with a punch from above right in the back of her head.
Mina staggered forward, dazed as she clumsily swung her arm out. Rock Lock huffed at the attack.
“That was a poor attack, you really think you could beat me with it!?”
“Nah,” Mina said as she wiped blood from her mouth, “I’m just a distraction.”
Above Rock Lock, Tsu appeared in the air, leaping down to his side and opening her mouth.
“RibbeeeEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEET!”
Present Mics quirk erupted from her mouth and Rock Lock was thrown back by the soundwaves. He stumbled back, trying to remain upright. But the moment Tsu cut off the quirk Kyouka leaped onto his back, her jacks wrapping around his throat.
She reached into her belt and pulled out a few sugar cubes, popping them in her mouth. Her muscles instantly expanded and grew in size as she wrapped her arms and legs around Rock Lock, holding him in place as she choked him out.
Up above Uraraka finally crashed down, having been caught by Aizawa’s quirk. She rolled around on the floor, her wings flapping wildly as she tried to use them. But Aizawa was too fast and as he landed he wrapped his scarf around her wings and yanked her towards him. He swung his knee out and Uraraka was hit directly in the stomach, causing her to cough and splutter.
As Uraraka fell to the ground fell to ground Sero charged forward, propelled by winds shooting out behind him. But Aizawa easily cut them off, he didn’t even need to use his scarf to leap through the air and land on Sero’s back, forcing him down.
Just because they’d swapped quirks didn’t mean Aizawa didn’t know his class. This was further proven when he redirected Tsu’s kick to his face to hit Mina in the back.
He was just about to turn and aid his fellow teachers when he was surrounded by pink mist. He didn’t hesitate to wrap a section of his scarf around his mouth as he kept an ear out.
He ducked to the side as a spear pierced through the mist, Yaoyorozu appearing a second later wielding said spear as pink mist poured from her skin.
“I’ve trained with Midnight for decades Creati, her gas has next to no effect on me.” Aizawa said as he used his scarf to rip the spear from his students hands.
“You misunderstand sensei, this isn’t to knock you out.” She said and stepped back, disappearing from his view.
Aizawa swore under his breath, hidden in the mist he couldn’t break Yaoyorozu’s quirk with his own. Which meant for the next few minutes Aizawa was fighting all kinds of weapons that appeared through the mist. For each spear he threw away from her he had to dodge a sword and for each sword he dodged a knife was thrown at him.
Aizawa ducked underneath a sword swung at him. Yaoyorozu’s momentum carried her arm forward and he grabbed her wrist, twisting it until the sword fell from her grasp. Using his own weight he turned her around and kicked her feet out from under her, causing her to fall painfully to the ground.
He rose back up off the ground just in time to see Ojiro’s tale appear through the mist and slam right into his face. His nose exploded as blood spewed down his outfit and he was thrown through the air. Even as he lay there he couldn’t help but smirk slightly. Damn these kids were good.
On top of the staircase Nedzu was seated behind a makeshift sniper rifle. It was loaded with rubber bullets but even they still packed a punch. Something poor Kaminari found out as he was hit right between the eyes.
“An ingenious plan,” Nedzu muttered to himself as he let off another few shots, forcing Hagakure to take cover, “I’d say we’ve all but lost this battle.”
As he hummed to himself he felt his fur stand on end, indicating a threat. But as he glanced around he and Inko remained alone up here. Unless-
Nedzu moved with only a moment to spare as an explosion ripped through his perch. Fire scorched his fur and he slammed back against the wall. Before he could do anything else he found himself pinned with a green fire blade against his neck as Izuku materialized in front of him.
“Don’t try it,” Izuku growled out and despite himself Nedzu felt his fur bristle the way it did when faced with a predator, “I’m taking your hostage back.”
Nedzu smirked, “Hostage? What hostage?”
There was a bang from behind him and Izuku felt something impact his head. He dropped the principal and turned with wide eyes to face his mother. She was smiling sheepishly and holding a literal smoking gun.
“Sorry dear,” She said and shot him again in the chest, causing him to stagger back and fall back against the wall in shock, “But you should have realized this whole plan was my idea.”
“Damn,”
Deku said as the buzzer for the end of the exam rang out,
“That’s cold.”