32

"And with that looks like the ten million point headband is out of the game!!! " Hizashi's voice echoed over the silent stadium, which immediately exploded into an uproar. "Again, are they even allowed to do that?!"

"Once again, there is no rule against it." Shouta sighed in exhaustion. "Though that will most likely change in future years after this little performance. I had wondered if there was something else fishy going on with that headband when Uraraka didn't deactivate her quirk after Team Shinso gave up the headband. Like most quirks that affect an object, Uraraka's quirk isn't indefinite, so there must have been some reason she chose to keep it active on that particular headband throughout the fight. In this case, the weightlessness of the headband prevented the other teams from realizing that it had been tampered with. In any normal situation, the other teams would have noticed the extra weight from the planted explosives, but apparently Team Shinso is anything but normal."

Midoriya, the problem child, looked up at the announcer booth and gave him a small thumbs up that made Shouta roll his eyes. Of course the kid had known exactly what he was doing by having Uraraka use her quirk on the headband. Shouta didn't even know why he was surprised, considering how often Powerloader complained about Hatsume's propensity for explosions, but for some reason Shouta had assumed that getting the target off their backs and going after the small point values had been the extent of those crazy kids' plan. Apparently he still needed to learn his lesson about not underestimating the support course. 

Or maybe just not underestimating Nedzu's protege.

Hizashi grinned widely and shook his head in disbelief as both of them turned their attention to the teams still on the field. "For those of you still catching up, that insane powerplay has put team Shinso in the lead with almost half the remaining points. Teams Monoma and Tokoyami are next up, followed by team Todoroki. Everybody else has got practically zilch! So much for Team Shinso's plan to not be a target! With almost two minutes left on the clock, how are they going to survive!?!"

They weren't. 

Honestly, if Deku had to resort to dirty tricks like blowing up points to win, he at least should have been smart enough to do it at the last minute so no one had time to recover. But as it was, Deku was an idiot and had the most points on the board, which meant it was time for him to die. 

"Come on, extras." Katsuki growled to his team, which immediately started charging toward Deku along with what looked like every other team on the field, not that that mattered. Deku was his. "I'm gonna kill you Deku!"

Except for the fact that Deku was gone. 

"What's this?!" Mic's voice screamed above the noise of the crowd, who seemed to be eating up the last minute upset. "Team Shinso has taken to the air!!! Are they…"

"Yes, they are allowed to do that." Aizawa sighed. "Honestly, it's probably their only viable strategy, now that everyone is being forced to scramble for last minute points."

Viable strategy?! Yeah right, like he'd let a little thing like gravity keep him from beating Deku to the ground. Katsuki didn't hesitate for a second before blasting off and rocketing toward the damn nerd's team to teach him a lesson about daring to humiliate him!

"Hitoshi!" Deku smirked at him, smirked, as he yelled to that useless gen-ed extra on his team. "Now!"

Suddenly there was a snap and Bakugo was wrapped in metal-like ribbons or something and before he knew it, he was being flung back to earth. 

"And that, folks, is why it pays to have a good relationship with the support course!" Mic yelled. "That's one rockin' support item! Kinda reminds me of yours, Eraser!"

"Bakubro!" Shitty Hair yelled, "Come on Sero! Catch him!"

He was wrapped up for the second time that minute, this time in tape, and pulled back to his team, "That's it. Deku definitely has to die."

"What's going on?" Pony screamed, her voice wavering in barely concealed panic. 

Tokoyami shook his head and his eyes widened as he realized there were two different teams charging straight toward them, "What a mad banquet of darkness…"

"Being edgy isn't helping, dude!" Kamakiri shouted, blades already popping from his skin as he prepared to fight. "What the hell just happened?!"

The last thing that he remembered clearly, they had been engaged in some sort of psychological warfare with Uraraka's team, but then everything went hazy. He had been vaguely aware of a sense of panic when he had lost control of an enraged Dark Shadow, and then seemed to remember going after other teams?

Pony haphazardly shot her horns at the approaching teams, forcing them to dodge and lose valuable time, "How many points do we have?"

"Uh…" Kamakiri glanced up at the board, "I think we're in third place right now? No wonder everyone's coming after us!"

"The purple one brainwashed us!" Dark Shadow yelled, swiping at some vines with his claws. "I'm sorry Fumikage! I tried to save you!"

"All is well, Dark Shadow. The agents of chaos have deigned to leave us enough points to stay in the running." Tokoyami stared down their new opponents. "Our challenge now is to keep them."

"Idiots, all of them." Monoma said haughtily. "We don't even need any more points at this point, unlike those 1A frontrunners."

"Well, yeah…" Tsuburaba said, slightly out of breath. "But now we're the prey, not the hunters."

Kuroiro nodded in agreement, "We can no longer stay in the shadows."

"Well, then…" Monoma smiled and reached out to copy a quirk from one of the 1A students trying to attack them . "I suppose we'll just have to shine, then."

Testsutestsu hardened his body again, his skin glinting in the sunlight as he looked down at him his team, "Everyone good on the plan?"

"God be willing, this will grant us success" Shiozaki nodded soberly.

"What she said." Awase agreed. "But if this doesn't work, we're screwed."

"Alright!" Tetstutetsu grinned. "Charge!"

They lunged forward and Shiozaki used all her vines to restrain Dark Shadow while Honenuki softened the ground underneath Team Tokoyami into a quicksand-like consistency. Their team quickly began sinking and Tetstutetsu did his best to block as many horns and blades as he could with his hardened skin so that Awase could get close enough to Pony to meld her horns to her head. 

"No!" Pony yelled and tried to slap them away, but Tetsutetsu was already reaching toward Tokoyami's headbands. 

"Don't you dare steal Fumikage's points!" Dark Shadow roared and broke through the layer of vines that had been holding him back. 

Tetsutetsu's eyes widened and he was about to retreat and call the whole thing a loss when a laser suddenly shot past them, reflecting blindingly off his hardened skin. Dark Shadow whimpered, shrinking in on himself almost instinctively. It wasn't much of an opening, but that split second was enough for Tetsutetsu to grab some points and run away.

"Seriously, dude?" Tsuburaba sounded distinctly unimpressed. "You really need to work on your aim. That laser didn't even go near the teams we're actually fighting!"

Monoma cradled his stomach and swallowed a mouthful of bile, "Yeah, well, I'd like to see you try to aim a laser from your stomach when it feels like you're about to explode."

"Oui!" The stupid 1A french wannabee winked at them. "My quirk is tres difficult, non? That's why I need this stylish belt!"

"Not the time, Aoyama!" The monkey boy glared at Monoma and tried to grab at his points, but Monoma simply copied Tsuburaba's quirk and made himself a shield of solid air, trapping monkey boy's hand in it for long enough that they could retreat. 

He glanced up at the board as the pain in his stomach finally started to subside. Still in the top three. Not bad for 1B.

Hitoshi panted as he had to use his weapon to rebuff Bakugo again, "Wow, this guy really doesn't know when to give up, does he?"

"That's Bakugo for you." Uraraka looked like she was starting to get nauseous, but she'd assured them at the beginning that while keeping them airborne for that long would be challenging, she'd be able to do it. 

"Yeah, Katsuki's always been like that." Izuku rolled his eyes. "Even though it'd be smarter to go after some of the other teams, he sees my very existence as a personal challenge to his superiority."

"Well, you were making more direct challenges earlier." Mei pointed out. "So, I mean, you can't really say you're surprised."

"Heh…" Izuku chuckled, "I guess that's true, isn't it? Oh, looks like he's getting ready to try again"

"I, uh, I appreciate the whole teamwork aspect, Bakugo, but, uh…" Sero looked at him skeptically. "Are you really sure this is gonna work? Seems kinda crazy..."

"Come on!" Katsuki flexed his hands as Sero loaded the tape balls into them. "I'd like to see Deku resist boiling acid to the face! And with shark-face up there with me to take the brunt of eye-bag's weapon attack, there's nothing those extras will be able to do!"

"I dunno, man…" Kirishima said slowly. "Seems kinda violent."

"I think it's a great plan!" Mina cheered. "And we've got, like, less than a minute, so, uh...blast off you two!"

"I'm sorry, Fumikage." Dark Shadow purred contritely after he finally managed to pry their team from the mud. "We don't have enough points anymore…"

"It's not too late!" Kamakiri pointed out. "What about that one team from your class, the ice one? Think we can take them?"

"Uh…" Fumikage looked at Dark Shadow, who gave him a thumbs up. "They are as powerful as demons, but when one has nothing to lose, they must deal with devils."

Pony looked a little lost, "...is that a yes?"

"Looks like dear old Kacchan is switching things up and bringing a friend." Hitoshi said. "What's the other guy's quirk?"

"Rocks." Izuku answered. "I didn't expect Katsuki to actually work with his teammates, unless of course he just took off without warning and Kirishima just didn't have a chance to let go…"

"No time to second guess things, Izu-kun!" Mei grinned and adjusted her flamethrower. "We've got incoming!"

Hitoshi shot his capture weapon toward Bakugo, but at the last minute, Kirishima let go of Bakugo's ankles and latched onto the capture weapon. He hardened and swung on the ribbon like Tarzan and the sudden unexpected weight made their whole team suddenly lurch toward the ground. By the time that Hitoshi and Uraraka were able to get them back on balance, Katsuki was already in their faces, throwing balls of...was that Sero's tape?

"Mei! Flamethrower!"

"Let us charge into battle!" Fumikage cried. 

The team didn't move, "Um…" 

"Go!!!" Dark Shadow shouted. 

They rushed toward Todoroki's team, who had been using a combination of ice and Iida's engine quirk to stay out of range and keep the points they had collected. Dark Shadow stretched behind them and started wrapping around to force Todoroki's team into a close range battle and keep them from running away. 

"Kaminari!" Todoroki ordered cooly, pulling some sort of sheet over himself. "Attack!"

Sero wrapped a length of tape around Kirishima's waist and pulled him back to the team, "Good work dude."

"Thanks." Kirishima gave a sharp toothed grin. "How's plan B going?"

Mina held out a couple of headbands, "It won't be enough, but I managed to burn a bunch of those crazy vines and Sero used his tape to grab some of the headbands from that metal guy's team while you were gone. Do you think Bakugo'll actually be able to pull this plan off?"

Kirishima shrugged and turned back toward the aerial battle, "Well, I wouldn't underestimate either of them."

Mei blasted the flamethrower at the tape balls right as Katsuki set off an explosion. Some of them vaporized entirely, while the rest splashed a suspicious pink liquid over everyone. 

"Owww!" Uraraka rubbed at her arms frantically. "You filled Sero's tape with Ashido's acid? Really Bakugo?!"

"Fuck that hurts…" Hitoshi grimaced and was busy wiping acid from his face when a hand suddenly emerged from the smoke and snatched away most of their headbands. "Hey!!! Izuku! Bakugo got our points!"

"Shit!" Izuku rushed to tally the points in his head. "How many did he get?"

"More than half!" Hitoshi answered. "Hey Blasty! What do you think you're doing!"

"No time!" Mei messed with something on her tool belt and launched it at Bakugo. "Take this!!!"

Bakugo's eyes widened as he was tangled in one of Mei's capture nets and started to fall. A line of tape reached to grab him and Izuku tugged at Uraraka's sleeve, "We need to remove his gravity! If he gets back to his team with all our points, we won't move on!"

"Extra-Credit-Kun!" Mei yelled. "Full blast on the jetpack! Everyone hold on tight!"

"Ugh!" Hitoshi groaned but had a smile on his face as he adjusted the jetpack controls. "I hate this family!"

"Kamakiri!" Tokoyami cried. "The time is now!"

Kamakiri grinned as he threw a chain of his blades at Kaminari. He wouldn't have normally thought of using his uniform shirt to tie them together, but when Tokoyami said they would need a way to counteract Kaminari's electricity, his first instinct was to create a lightning rod with his blades. Thankfully his aim was true enough that he managed to stab Kaminari in the arm seconds into his attack and the otherwise disabling attack was channelled into his blades and flowed harmlessly into the ground as their team kept advancing. 

"Onward!" Pony yelled. "For loss!"

Dark Shadow reached for the headbands on Todoroki's neck, flinching back slightly when there was a brief splutter of fire, but pushing forward when it died after only half a second, "I think you mean for victory!"

"Oh, right. For victory!!!"

Uraraka swallowed down the vomit that was threatening to come up as she pushed herself and her quirk to the limit. She grimaced as she grabbed onto the capture net with all five fingers. It would have been better to make Bakugo weightless, but with seconds left on the clock, she'd take what she could get. Bakugo tried to force her way with explosions and she could feel the net jerking away from her as Sero pulled at his tape, but with the angle he was trapped at Bakugo couldn't use his quirk to propel himself, which put their team at an advantage. 

"Thanks, Kacchan." Midoriya reached past her and yanked away as many headbands as he could. "Have a nice fall!"

Hizashi waited with baited breath as the last few seconds ticked away, "And that's time!!! Wowza! In all my years I really don't think I've seen a more intense final few minutes, have you Eraser? I thought the free for all was normally at the beginning of the match!!!"

"Well normally, more than half the points aren't obliterated with two minutes to go." Shouta said dryly. 

He looked out over the stadium. The crowds were eating up the twists and turns to the battle, which had to be good for their ratings and, by extension, good for UA's publicity. Sero had just barely managed to reel Bakugo in without him touching the ground, and Shinso's team was shielding Uraraka from the cameras as she finally released her quirk and the contents of her stomach. Tokoyami was doing well at interclass bonding, it seemed, as he and his teammates patted each other on the back and counted up the points they'd stolen at the last minute and the team from 1B looked smug that they were the only team that had actually managed to keep all the points they'd stolen by the time the 10 million point headband was taken out of play. 

"What's this?!?!" Hizashi yelled, hyping up the crowd as the scoreboard readjusted itself to reflect the final totals. "It looks like a good mix of students will be moving on! In first place, we have team Monoma from class 1B! Then Team Shinso with students from support, gen-ed, and class 1A. Next place is team Bakugo from class 1A, with their impressive teamwork! Finally, in fourth Place is...Team Tokoyami with some points stolen at the very end!!! Oh, and because Team Tokoyami only has three members, one person from Team Tetsutetsu will be moving on as well! I guess you could say that this year is the year of the underdogs!!!"

Shouta looked down at the field again. The teams that had moved on were laughing, crying, and celebrating, but he was paying more attention to Todoroki, who was looking down at his hands and appeared to be in shock. Shouta knew he was imagining it, but he could almost feel the heat from Endeavor in the stands as he realized that his son wouldn't be moving onto the final found. To Shouta's memory it wasn't the first time that the strongest student had failed to make it to the one-on-one battles, but it was rare enough to be notable and he couldn't help but feel that his husband's observation, however dramatic, was correct.

This was the year of the underdogs.

Notes:

More Memes!

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