23

Shigaraki's entire body contorted in rage as he frantically looked around for whoever was speaking, "You're the cheater who switched up the levels! Who are you?"

Izuku looked to Mei, who was looking at him with wide eyes. There was no way he could tell Shigaraki his real name. The villain would be able to track him too easily and that would put Mom, Mei, even Katsuki's family in danger because Shigaraki could choose to target any of them to get to him. He also couldn't say he was Deku for many of the same reasons. He'd grown up with that nickname and it was way too strongly associated with Izuku Midoriya. It wouldn't take more than a few days of asking around to figure out who Deku really was, if Shigaraki asked the right people. 

As his thoughts whirled, a memory of something that Shigaraki had said earlier popped into his mind and Izuku had to hold in a breathy sigh of relief. 

"What kind of a question is that? You said it yourself, Shigaraki." For this to work, Izuku needed to be someone Shigaraki could respect. Someone confident and an opponent who he knew could counter him at every turn. He gave a cocky smile and leaned back in his chair, hoping to channel that same energy into his voice. "I'm Cheat Code."

Nedzu was beginning to understand Yamada's panic now. 

He was torn between bursting with pride for his student's quick thinking and wanting to ground him until he was thirty for his recklessness. Why did he have to call attention to himself like that? The villains had a warp quirk for goodness sakes, what would happen if they simply warped over to the main campus and attacked Midoriya directly?! He was quirkless and didn't have any strength or training to defend himself with! Nedzu didn't want to lose his student before he'd even really had a chance to teach him!

But now wasn't the time for panic, now was the time for his intelligence to shine. It was the time for damage control and protecting his reckless student from himself so that his reckless student could protect the other children from the villains. Was this what parenthood felt like?

"Everyone, please only refer to Midoriya as Cheat Code from now on." Nedzu ordered. "Especially when we arrive at the USJ. We don't want him to become a target."

"Yes sir." All Might's voice echoed over the comms. "Young Iida is heading your way, he tried to stop me, but I decided to leave him to you."

"Ah, I see the little listener now!" Yamada said. 

Iida was kicking up dust as he headed their way almost slid as he saw the teachers and skidded quickly to a stop, "Teachers! There is an attack! I wanted to warn All Might, but he ignored…"

"We know, young'un. We done been told by…" Snipe trailed off and glanced at Nedzu, who shook his head. Snipe nodded resolutely, "by a third party. Come with us, you best give your report on the way."

For a moment, Nedzu thought that Iida would collapse in relief, but after a second, he squared his shoulders and started running back the way he had come as the teachers followed, "Yes sir!"

As Iida filled in the gaps and described the attack, Nedzu couldn't help but feel like they couldn't get there soon enough.

On screen, Shigaraki was attacking his neck like it had personally offended him, "Where are you, Cheat Code?! Tell me!"

"That's the way your warp quirk works, isn't it?" Izuku asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. "You can't come stop me if you don't actually know exactly where I am. That's why you were so angry when your signal blocker couldn't tell you my location."

"Iz...Cheat Code." Mei said softly. "I've unlocked the doors. Most of the students are evacuating now, but there are a couple overachievers I'm having to keep away from the plaza."

Izuku nodded in acknowledgement. Faintly over the comms, he heard the sound of people cheering and smiled. It had been two minutes.

"That's the thing about having the cheat codes, Shigaraki." Izuku said. "Not only can I change the levels, but the boss is on my side."

"What the actual Goddamn fuck!" Bakugo growled as yet another wall collapsed in front of them, blocking their path for the fifth time in five minutes. 

Eijiro was secretly relieved, "Dude, have you noticed that the walls only collapse if we try heading toward the fight? Maybe if we try heading toward the entrance…?"

"Shut up, Shitty hair!" Bakugo screamed. "I'm gonna take down their stupid escape route and a few walls aren't gonna be enough to stop me!"

"But did you hear that dude on the intercom?" Eijiro asked. "This Cheat Code guy is probably doing this! He's probably working with the teachers, so if we just leave…"

"I'm not gonna let some coward who won't even show his face get in my way!" Bakugo yelled and exploded another piece of rubble so he could get through. "Now are you gonna help me or not?"

Eijiro instinctively hardened as an insane burst of wind pressure whipped through the USJ and he hoped he wasn't imagining the booming voice that followed.

"I am here!"

Toshinori wasn't smiling. The situation was just as bad as young Midoriya had made it out to be. A broken Aizawa was pinned under a massive villain that he assumed to be the Nomu that he had been warned of, so now, his main duty was to save his coworker. If only he'd been here!

Toshinori lunged forward, calling the full power of One for All into the punch. Dust whipped up from the force of the attack and Toshinori was just getting ready to grab Aizawa and get him out of there when he realized that the villain...no, the monster, hadn't even budged. 

"That's not going to work, All Might!" A young man with dirty blue hair and a hand over his face cackled loudly, "Nomu has cheat codes of his own to kill the big boss! The only way you're going to be able to beat him is to slowly gouge out his flesh, and I don't think he's going to let you do that!"

"Shock absorption." Young Midoriya muttering echoed around the plaza. "But he had a strength...no super strength was never his quirk, was it? That's why he was still able to hurt Eraserhead, even with the net, which should have blocked…"

"You're not as smart as you like to pretend, Cheat Code!" The young man, who Toshinori realized must be Shigaraki, the leader, said gleefully, "Are you forgetting that Nomu is a mod? He doesn't have to follow the rules!"

Toshinori really should read up on the teenagers lingo if this was how the next generation of villains were going to talk, because seriously, they might as well be speaking greek. All that he got from that was that Nomu was dangerous, but he'd already known that. 

Young Midoriya's observations, however, were much more useful.

"Shock absorption, huh?" Toshinori rushed the Nomu and grabbed him from behind, yanking him up and forcing him to let go of Aizawa. "Thanks for telling me how to beat him!"

He bent backwards, careful to avoid the unconscious Aizawa as he supplexed the villain into the ground. If he could just stop him from moving…

Ow...that couldn't be good.

Izuku turned on some fans so that the dust would clear faster and he could get a clear visual of the fight. All Might had managed to get a hand on the Nomu, but unfortunately, the Nomu had also gotten a hand on him. Kurogiri had created a warp gate right where All Might had tried to bury the Nomu and created another one under All Might so the villain could grab him. The Nomu was digging his fingers into All Might's side and had apparently managed to open his old scar, if the blood staining All Might's shirt was any indication. 

All Might desperately tried to pry the Nomu's hands away from his left side, but the angle was all wrong and Izuku still couldn't get his mind off what Shigaraki had said about Nomu not following the rules. What had he meant by that?

"Good work. Kurogiri!" Shigaraki grinned. "We've got him right where we want him now!"

"Normally, I wouldn't want blood dirtying the inside of my warp gates." Kurogiri said calmly. "But for a hero such as yourself, I am willing to make an exception."

Izuku's eyes widened as he realized what their plan was. The Nomu was strong, so if he was able to pull All Might halfway through the portal...Izuku couldn't let that happen, but what could he…?

He muted his connection to the USJ's PA system, "Nedzu, how far out are you?"

"We can see the building." Nedzu said. "We'll be there momentarily."

Izuku's mind raced as he thought about the quirks they had available, "Is Iida still with you?"

"Yes, he is." Present Mic said. "But we were about to send him to check on the other little listeners."

"Alright. Here's what you need to do." Izuku kept an eye on the plaza, where Shigaraki seemed to be taking his time toying with All Might before killing him. "Cementoss, liquify the cement under your feet so you can slide easily and have Iida use his quirk to push you to the USJ and get you there faster. If you can harden it right after you've passed so Iida doesn't have to worry about slipping, that'd be best. When you get inside, use your cement to immobilize the villain holding All Might. Present Mic, you use your quirk to tell the students to get out of the way. Got it?"

"YEAH!!! Hey, kids! Clear a path for us, ya dig?!?!"

Izuku noted that the comms were programmed to decrease the volume of Mic's voice when he activated his quirk. He'd definitely have to take a look at that coding after this was over, that was so cool! He listened to Cementoss briefly relay his instructions to Iida and then there was a sound of an engine before a grey and white blur launched through the front doors, stopping just before the steps. Within seconds, the cement under the plaza had come alive and hardened just short of All Might, neatly encasing the monster. 

"Crap!" Shigaraki scratched his neck. "The heroes are here!"

"Perhaps it would be best for us to make our exit." Kurogiri said, already making a portal to leave. 

"No! We can't let them get away!" Izuku yelled. "Does he even have a real body to target…?"

"Iz..Cheat Code-kun!" Mei yelled and pointed at the screen. "If he's got armor, he's got a body, I overheard Rock-kun and Bomb-kun saying something about it!"

"And armor is made of metal, which…" Izuku scanned through the weapons until he found a taser, then reconnected his audio, "Wasn't your objective to kill All Might?"

That set Shigaraki off, "Show your stupid face you cheater! If it wasn't for you changing the rules, our quest would be done by now!"

"Tomura Shigaraki, calm down."

Kurogiri was so distracted trying to calm Shigaraki's most recent tantrum that he didn't see the attack coming until the electricity hit him in the back. Immediately, he seized up and fell to the ground unconscious and the mist surrounding his body temporarily dissipated just enough for Izuku to see the man underneath, though the effect disappeared before he could get a good look at the villain's face. Knocking him out had also caused the portal to close, slicing the Nomu in half.

Izuku felt like he was going to throw up. Sure, the Nomu didn't seem human, but he probably was and it was Izuku's attack that caused the portal to close and kill him...wait, how was the Nomu still moving?

"I told you, Cheat Code," Shigaraki gloated as the Nomu completely regenerated his missing limbs, "Nomu doesn't follow the rules!"

"H-how?" Izuku watched in shock, "Multiple quirks? That would change everything we know about…"

"Fight now, nerd later." Mei reminded him. "Man, these students really wanna fight, don't they? It's just these three, but I'm running out of stuff to throw at 'em."

Izuku muted himself and looked over at the screens Mei was working with. It was Katsuki and Kirishima on one and Todoroki on the other. All extremely powerful students and all probably itching for a fight. Izuku knew he couldn't trust Katsuki not to try to explode Shigaraki the moment he saw him, but one of the other two...well maybe it'd be worth the risk to get Aizawa out of there so that All Might could fight without worrying about hurting him even more.

"Let Todoroki through." Izuku ordered. It would be too difficult to separate Kirishima from Katsuki. "I'll handle it from there."

Mei looked at him skeptically, "Are you sure? Nedzu said…"

"I'll take the blame if something happens, Mei-chan." Izuku said. "Just do it."

This was the oddest villain attack Shouto had ever been a part of, not that he had many other experiences to compare it to. First, the villains breaking into a secure facility, then the absolutely pitiful efforts of the front line, and finally, the way that the building itself had seemed to come alive to prevent him from helping in the main fight. That last one was probably due to Cheat Code, whoever that was. Shouto had heard his father ranting about idiots in support who didn't know when to shut up and take orders, by which he meant to say that they thought they could tell Endeavor what to do. Cheat Code must be someone like that.

Which basically meant that Shouto liked him already.

That didn't mean, however, that he was going to stop fighting. He had been training his entire life to be a hero, so he could more than handle these weak villains. It was stupid to make Aizawa keep fighting alone and outnumbered when Shouto could help. Cheat Code, however, seemed determined to make him leave, which meant that it was both relieving and incredibly suspicious when the environment suddenly stopped fighting him. Shouto wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, so he rushed toward the plaza as quickly as he could and took stock of the situation.

It was chaos.

The teachers had arrived and were beginning to fight the last of the cannon fodder that Aizawa and his classmates hadn't taken care of, but they apparently weren't out of the woods yet. A giant villain was matching All Might punch or punch while trying to maneuver around Aizawa, who was on the ground, but appeared to be waking up. The warp villain was on the ground as well, but the leader was using the fight between All Might and the monster to shield himself from any potential attacks from the teachers. Shouto, however, might be able to get a clear shot at him. It would put him at risk, especially since he didn't know what the villain's quirk was, but living with his father was a risk too, so it was just what heroes did. 

It was only years of his father's training that kept him from jumping when a loud voice echoed from a speaker right behind him, "Use your ice as a slide to get Eraserhead out of there and take him to the entrance."

Shouto knew there was no point in looking around, since it was almost definitely Cheat Code giving the orders, "Wouldn't it be better to attack the leader directly?"

"Prioritize the rescue." Cheat Code pleaded. "All Might can't fight at full power if Eraserhead is in the way, and he's in no condition to keep fighting right now."

Izuku held his breath as Todoroki hesitated, looking between Shigaraki and Eraserhead before nodding. Izuku let out a sigh of relief. There had been no guarantee that Todoroki would trust him, especially since the students probably didn't know he was working with the teachers, but he'd been hoping. 

A slick track of ice shot forward from Todoroki's foot and froze the ground under Eraserhead, then more ice piled underneath him until gravity took control and Eraserhead, who was now awake, if extremely disoriented, was able to slide away from the fight. Honestly, on second thought, sliding him probably hadn't been the safest option with his injuries, but it was the only thing Izuku could think of that wouldn't put Todoroki at risk and he'd promised Nedzu that he would protect the students. Hopefully Eraserhead wouldn't be too angry at him.

All Might glanced over to Todoroki with a nod, "Take care of him, young Todoroki!"

For about half a second, Izuku wondered if Todoroki would attack the villains anyway, but then Eraserhead groaned quietly. Todoroki's eyes filled with something unreadable and he nodded to All Might before helping Eraserhead back to the entrance. Good. Now onto the Nomu. 

"There's no way to know what quirks the Nomu has," Izuku broadcasted, grateful that he'd insisted on All Might saving his strength for the fight, "but if he was designed to beat you, All Might, he's probably got what it takes to withstand you at full strength."

"Then I'll just have to go beyond that!" All Might said. "Plus ultra!"

The surrounding fights came to a gradual stop as everyone had to anchor themselves to avoid being blown away from the whirlwind that was created as the two exchanged blows faster than Izuku could see. He couldn't help fanboying just a bit as All Might used a final punch to knock the Nomu through the ceiling, "Whoa…"

"Well, villain." All Might grinned. "You're outnumbered and your ultimate weapon is out of commission. Are you really sure you can beat this level?"

"No! Cheaters!" Shigaraki lunged forward and Izuku's breath caught as he realized that All Might was steaming! Going beyond his quirk's limits like that probably took the last of his strength, but he should have enough left to dodge...shouldn't he?

Shigaraki screamed as Snipe shot his hand and one of his legs, but the rest of the bullets were redirected by a purple warp gate. 

Izuku swore and reached for his keyboard. When had Kurogiri woken up? Had they all been so distracted by All Might's fight that no one had noticed? He tried to think of something to stop the villains, but the warp gate was already passing over Shigaraki, taking him to god knew where.

Izuku caught one final complaint from Shigaraki right as the portal closed, "Sensei lied to me! All Might's not weaker at all! Why didn't he tell me about the cheater?!"

He sighed and muted his mic as he sat back, suddenly extremely tired as the adrenaline he'd been running on for the past thirty minutes left him in a rush. Next to him, Mei was in a similar state. Present Mic had taken Eraserhead from Todoroki and was now handing him off to paramedics, who were also taking Thirteen and a maxed out Kaminari. Katsuki looked pissed and Kirishima was trying to comfort him as Hound Dog escorted them out of the building. Cementoss created a rough wall to block the student's view and nodded to All Might, who took that as his cue to deflate with a bloody cough. It was only after he deflated that he seemed to remember about Izuku and Mei and he looked at the nearest camera in panic.

Mei's eyes widened at All Might's small form, "What the…I don't think I was supposed to see that."

Izuku glanced over at her and he knew he should be way more worried about her finding out All Might's secret, but quite honestly, he was too tired to panic anymore, "Yeah. He does that sometimes."

For his part, All Might looked slightly exasperated, "Young Cheat Code, this is serious!" 

"Eh, it's just Mei." Izuku shrugged. "Better than the villains or all of class 1A. That's part of why we needed to keep the students away from the fight, in addition to protecting them. Didn't want anybody seeing that, you know? And she's not gonna tell anyone, All Might, right, Mei?"

"Right…" Mei collapsed back into her chair. "Ok...yeah...whatever, the number one hero has some secret transformation quirk. No big deal."

All Might coughed again, "I, uh, greatly appreciate your discretion, young…"

"Cheat Code?" Nedzu cut off All Might's rambling before it could begin, making both Izuku and Mei jump. "Are you and your assistant alright?"

Izuku and Mei exchanged a look and she giggled, "We just beat the crap out of a bunch of villains, we're exhausted! And Izu-kun is my assistant, not the other way around!"

Nedzu chucked knowingly, "I hid a blanket in your desk when I was creating your room. You never know when you'll need a nap after a long night of working, after all!"

Izuku raised an eyebrow as Mei dug through the desk's drawers and pulled out a giant fluffy monstrosity that really seemed larger than should realistically fit where they found it. 

Mei gasped and nuzzled her face into the blanket, "Oooh! Izu-kun! It's so soft!"

"Rest." Nedzu said cheerfully. "You deserve it. You did well."

Izuku froze. Nedzu was..proud of him? Had that ever happened with a teacher before? What was he supposed to do?! Should he say something? How was he supposed to handle this?

Mei quite literally pulled him out of his thoughts as she dragged him to the floor and wrapped both of them in the blanket. Izuku was vaguely aware he should probably be panicking about something right now, but he was too exhausted to do anything but take the comm out of his ear and pass out.

And if Shinso happened to take a few pictures for blackmail purposes when he dropped by during lunch, well...Izuku could always find a way to hack his phone later and steal them.