Chapter 51

We've been shuffled into one of the buildings in the mock city, this one set up as more of a headquarters while the others are likely empty, safe for some cameras to keep a good eye on us. I have quickly located the best corner that would allow perfect sight of All Might yet keep me out of the way enough for me to have some time to myself. Nitsu and Shinso seem to have had the same idea as both are against a wall nearby, Shinso watching the scene and Nitsu probing at his suit. It's dark grey, almost black, and consists of cargo pants and a heavy jacket. I guess he didn't try much either. His quirk is magnetism so I expect there to be hidden metal and iron on him to utilize in battle and should I come up against him I'm not attempting to test who's stronger in this department and will relieve myself of anything metallic without much prompting. I am curious to see just how strong his ability is since I've known only one person to use such an ability and he wielded it quite powerfully. Watching him as I am I get to see parts of his suit detach in the form of small pieces that would look like sand were they not so dark and he moves and shapes them as he wishes. Ah, I guess his costume isn't simply cargo pants and a heavy jacket. It's laced, how nice.

"This will be an indoor battle" All Might declares once things have quieted down a bit and my attention would be on him were Mineta not creeping a bit too close to Momo.

I'm not the only one who notices and before I can flick him away like the insect he makes himself out to be, Jiro beats me to it and nudges him away with her foot. It's a warning, it can be read in the hard look she aims at him and the way she moves to pull her foot back. If he doesn't listen she'll kick him this time.

He's not stupid and realizes it's best he disappears.

His costume has gone through vital changes and admittedly looks pretty good on him. Gone are the diaper pants and now he wears simple free moving baggy pants that look a thousand times better than his weird diaper. Some combat boots - yellow. A nice little utility belt - purple. Some lightweight armor makes him look a bit stronger than the scrawny appearance of his original costume. And his cape isn't - well it won't get him killed at the very least. It's yellow, around his neck like a scarf, and floes down nicely - just above the ground. He has some nice gloves and the longer I stare at them the more I'm convinced they're meant to be grappling hooks in there. He should equip a wrist-mounted gun meant to fire off his sticky balls.

I will never feel comfortable saying that.

"Most acts of villainy or committed indoors" I look back to All Might just as he says this. "Imprisonment, house arrest, black market - in this hero saturated society, why any villain with intelligence would lurk in the shadows"

And those who don't are either extremely powerful or incredibly in over their head - it's usually the latter.

"For this exercise, you'll separate into hero and villain groups for a two on two team battle"

"So glorified hero vs villains" Shiru the speedster voices with gloved hands behind his head and face hidden behind a dark domino mask.

"Yes, if that's how you'd prefer seeing it"

And so the questions come flying in one by one and it's amusing to watch All Might try to catch them all until he politely asks them to go one at a time.

That goes on while I entertain myself with my visors - goggles I'm not sure what to call it. It's reflective and has a nice sharp double u shape on the bottom and without that defining shape, it would likely be ski goggles. A light touch has it lighting up near the middle of each glass, eye-like animation staring back at me, wide and unblinking. Alissa had made them for me after she had started mass producing led-type visors. This is the first one she had been satisfied with and decided to gift it to me because she thought I would like it. It's thoughtful so I have taken good care of the thing and went and paired it with my costume since I needed something to hide my face. Everyone is required to have some mask of some kind, so it works out.

I've decided to name them visor goggles. Visor ski goggles? No, visor goggles.

With glowing eyes that copy my own eyes - that's the fun part. If I wink the digital and cartoonish eye winks as well, which sounds fun.

I have a respirator as I had promised myself and it's attached to the utility belt should I need it. I'm starting to consider adding an oxygen tank - a small one - for the future. The drawback of my aerokinetic ability is basically asthma so it would help to have some oxygen on hand when I can't supply myself with the stuff. And I wouldn't be able to take a break in battle to try and catch my breath.

"Pros are often forced to make impromptu team-ups with heroes they may not be familiar with," All Might says as an explanation for the lottery that'll be used to pick the teams.

I'm near one of the last to go. It is when I get my letter that I realize there are forty-eight of us meaning they'll be twenty-four teams, should be fun.

"I got I," I say holding up my ball

"We're a team then" another holds up the same ball. "Should be interesting"

Ha, it's Yoroi.

"Once opponents now teammates" I joke and she allows a laugh. She a bit taller than me, bigger too in the sense she has more defined muscles than me. Good muscles too because she could overpower me if she so wishes. She's fairly well versed in hand-to-hand combat but has admitted that she's more used to weapon-based fighting.

She's gotten rid of the bangs today and keeps them clipped to the rest of her hair with a black pen.

Soon enough the pairings are announced and what do you know, we're the villain team.

"Oh wow," I hear Eijiro say from where he stands next to Kendo, his teammate. "Zena's the villain, sucks for whoever have to play heroes"

That earns him a look from a class B kid. He's tall, has white hair, a lipless mouth, basically looks like a mini attack titan. He looks cool, I'll admit.

Sadly he's been paired with Bakugo and I don't know how he's gonna deal with the walking mood swing. At least Iida doesn't have to suffer in his company this time around, but he did get paired with Alissa, so I'm not so sure how lucky he is in this scenario.

Somehow Izuku still ends up with Uraraka despite nearly all the original pairings having been altered.

His costume is almost the exact same, even the bunny ears that were supposed to be a call out to All Might. His respirator isn't attempting a smile however and just has a simple design. He has familiar guns holstered on his hips and seems off in thought after having learned who he'd be facing. I heard him talking about Aizawa's scarf the other day and I'm surprised he hasn't added one to his costume. Perhaps he will do so at a later date.

I notice now that he's not staring oddly into space, but merely into the goggles he wears. I see then, if he can't carry his laptop into battle it would make sense for him to create something to take its place.

The first match takes place and I watch while my mind goes off. Hey, it's a good fight and keeps my eyes on something at least. The heroes to my villain are Todoroki and Hiryuu - scales kid from B - which may be a perfect match. Hiryuu with his scales can be both a close-range and mid-range fighter and Yoroi should be able to take him in a fight one and one with that quirk of hers. It's titled infernal armory and allows her to pull weapons out of thin air. Either she has a hidden inventory or it's magic. It explains why she's more comfortable with weapons. She can materialize weapons for close combat or long-range, since bows and long staffs are some of the weapons she can summon.

That leaves Todoroki and me. I'm a better match for him with my elemental quirk as well as the knowledge I have of his quirk - because of course I do and it's similar to two of my own. From my observation, he's still very much an edge lord so the chances of him freezing over the entire building as he did originally are high. That won't work because I can get out of the situation quite easily and counter, so he'll have to fight. He's gonna use ice alone and throw big ass ice creations that he stopped spawning later down for some reason.

The nuke or bomb or whatever the big thing is in our possession has to be protected so I can build something around it as to not leave it defenseless and should one of them get past us they won't get to the bomb easily. Maybe I'll set a trap triggered when they get close enough to our doomsday device.

I feel bad for the person Izuku shot down and watch pityingly as he stumbles in both shock and pain. They're rubber bullets, but I'm sure they hurt just as well. He's up against the guy from B who solidifies the air he breathes out. I'm not sure how Izuku got ahold of this information, but he's made sure the guy doesn't get the chance to breathe and he jabbed him in the chest, knocking the breath out of him and swiftly deals a kick to his temple that has him slamming against a wall. I'm convinced that if this were not a friendly training exercise Izuku would have punched him in the throat. The gun is drawn again and his teammate is shot before he could get to the doomsday device and Uraraka reaches him quickly.

She moves to restrain him but he puts up a fight, a good fighter, far better than Uraraka currently is, and quickly overwhelms her. Wait till she trains under Gunhead, then you'll see how easily you can subdue her.

He goes to restrain her but starts lifting off the ground and to his surprise, Uraraka quickly spins out of his hold and kicks him up further, sending him floating towards the ceiling and away from the bomb.

Nice save.

I'm pretty sure Izuku knocked the other guy out as he rests him against a wall, his hands secured in front of him. He's likely not getting up soon.

He walks up to Uraraka, slaps a nice high five, and is weightless himself. He's far more graceful going up than the other guy and reaches him quickly, when he touches him, however. His hand gets stuck to him and the boy grabs him by the collar to wrestle him.

Doesn't work as well as he had planned because Izuku gets his hand free, gloveless now, and wrestles the other into a chokehold. They come tumbling to the ground abruptly and Izuku catches himself somehow and doesn't release the other.

See I'm pretty sure that kid welds things and people to other things and people. So I'm certain he had welded Izuku's hand to himself to somehow immobilize him and keep him from getting away. Now the thing is, maybe Izuku saw it coming and managed to not get his actual hand stuck and just his glove. Or he had been quite lucky there.

Safe to say Izuku and Uraraka win that match.

Katsuki's match went as expected with him leaving his teammate behind to fight the poor souls who are his enemy, only he gets his ass handed to him by one Setsu Shiloh from class B. I'm not sure what her quirk is and she hasn't utilized it in an obvious way, or maybe she has and I just haven't noticed, but she sure beat the breaks off Katsuki.

That should teach him not to underestimate an opponent.

Alissa had the best time of her life, that much I can say. She was popping in and out of walls so much she surely made her opponents wary of any - and everything. It was hard to fight her when she can disappear before your eyes and makes you sink away into a different reality where she has complete control and the fun part is that no one can understand what her quirk is. She stuck someone through a wall, literally, and left him there - the person being Monoma. The first time he had escaped after copying her quirk, but Alissa realized what he could do and made it her mission to put him back in the wall and keep him from copying her quirk again. That's how he ended up in a wall, slumped and defeated. The welding kid wonders if she has a similar quirk to him and another says her quirk is similar to one of the top students - Mirio - and others think it's a good mix of both.

They are all wrong of course.

Despite how Alissa is towards Iida, she worked well with him, communicating with him, planning, and making sure to have his back through the whole match. After it though, she was back to ignoring his existence.

At least she doesn't let her feelings for him get in the way of the important stuff.

"I don't feel so good" Monoma complains after the match leaning against a wall and sliding down rather dramatically.

"Oh yeah, here" Alissa hands him a pill and urges him to swallow. "Yeah, it's not a good idea to be between dimensions"

You're the one who put him between dimensions.

"What?" Monoma asks dumbly, pill almost falling out of his mouth.

"Hmm?" Alissa already has her attention on something on her costume. "Being between dimensions is a terrible, horrible idea unless you're me of course, or have a similar ability"

"You say that so casually"

"It is what it is" she shrugs. "The only reason I left you there was because I was certain you could handle it. After seeing you copy my quirk it clicked that your body's adaptable in that manner, so it's not hard to assume you wouldn't die"

There's a blinking device that she pulls off the side of her utility belt and forces open with a multi-tool. Either she doesn't notice the stares she gets for so plainly stating that anyone else may have suffered fatally from her actions or she doesn't care.

"That was a very reckless act!" Iida is quick to scold

"Oh shut up" The device springs open finally. "He used my quirk once already, meaning his body had been compatible and capable of traveling as I do. It's basic shit, don't question me when it comes to knowledge of my abilities and how I use them"

Yeah, if there is one thing you don't do is question Alissa's judgment when it comes to the use of her quirk. She has been experimenting with her abilities for years and made it her goal to have full mastery of them before she becomes a pro.

Iida wants to say more, I can see it on his face but no words leave him. He looks a bit sheepish now, having been scolded in such a manner. Or perhaps he realized that Alissa was deadly serious and should he bring up the issue once more it won't end too well for him.

Good on him.

~~~~~~~~~

What I'm understanding from the situation I have been placed into is that I'm a villain set on destroying either the city or the building - it's likely the former when looking at the sheer size of our supposed doomsday device. It's massive in size, taller than All Might Making it over seven to eight feet. Yeah, this is definitely meant to blow up an entire city, several blocks of houses at the very least. Having it sitting out in the open isn't the best of ideas, however. There's five minutes loaned to us that's meant to be used to strategize and get a decent understanding of our teammates.

Yoroi moves silently, either because of padding in her boots or natural talent, I'm not sure. She stands at my side, watching the bomb just as I am until I feel her gaze on me. When I look at her I meet warm amber eyes, sharp brows, and an almost inquisitive expression. She's dressed for combat in a suit that allows free movements as well as a good defense. It's mostly black and grey - the look I had originally been going for.

"You have a plan?" A question or statement, I wouldn't be able to tell from her voice alone. She has a nice voice, that I'll admit, elegant and confident, yet oddly soothing. "You've been eyeing this thing for some time now"

"I do" I have something close to a plan. "I think"

I take some steps away from the doomsday device and Yoroi mirrors my movement, standing a good distance and watching me again. She's not very shy with her interest, is she?

"The device needs to be safe," I say simply, moving my feet flat across the concrete floor, satisfied with the vibrations obviously felt despite the boots. That had been the purpose of the thin soles then. The concrete is thick, stronger than I had first imagined, good stuff. My first attempt is rigid, hands moving slowly and feeling the slightest hint of movement under my feet. This place has a good foundation. I move my left foot back, plant my right firmly on the ground, bring one hand up, practically feeling the weight of the floor beneath my feet.

"Elementumkinesis?" Again, it's hard to tell if it's a question or statement from the tone of her voice - an odd thing - but I nod.

I'm still for a moment, one breath. Swift and forceful I bring my hands down, palm open and the floor shakes and breaks with my movements.

Careful, Zena.

Cracks begin to form around the doomsday device growing bigger and bigger with each passing second. Move back again, hands up in front of me, and push. The cracks become obvious gaps in the floor. Hands up. The separated part of the floor comes up around the device, forming something of a wall between it and anyone who would attempt to get to it. The area around the weapon is now missing and we can see down to the floor just below us. If our opponents try to get to the bomb, they'll have to attempt to work around the massive floorless circle around the device. Todoroki could manage, I'm certain, but I don't plan on giving him the chance.

"That's concrete" Yoroi comments, standing closer than she had been before. Her boots are padded, I can tell through the vibrations. That explains the silence with which she moves. "Impressive"

"Thanks" releasing my position I relax a bit, rolling my shoulders and all but sagging. That was a bit strenuous, I should get some more practice with my Terrakinetic abilities.

"Hiryuu and Todoroki," she says absently before looking at me. "Hiryuu's ability allows him to form scales along his body and is skilled in close quarters combat and fairly competent in mid-range battles. I can handle him while you go after that classmate of yours, he has some elemental ability, no?"

"Yeah, ice and fire" I admit, I'm surprised she even knows that. "He's likely to freeze over the entire building once the match starts"

That does earn me a bit of a wide-eyed glance from Yoroi, who's right to be surprised by those words. This building is pretty sizable after all, to freeze it all would be an amazingly impressive feat.

"Surely he cannot be that powerful" she finally says, incredulous.

"Alas, he is" he is powerful and could construct these massive ice attacks with minimal effort. I don't know why he suddenly stopped showing off his proficiency. "But not to worry, I can make sure you don't get stuck in ice and I am certain I can tackle him in a fight"

"You're sure?"

A nod is all I could give her because in the next instance the entire room is frozen over and I'm left to blink at the very visible air I breathe out. I shiver once until my body quickly works to balance my temperature to resist the cold. The same couldn't be said for Yoroi who huffs, either surprised or incredibly cold as ice climbs up the left side of her body. A simple touch to the affected area has the ice retreating into droplets of water.

"I guess I was right," I say absently, looking around as I will the air around me to climb up and up in temperature. I'm almost tempted to defrost the entire building - just to prove a point - but I refrain and only defrost our current base of operations.

"I'm starting to get the feeling you could do the very same if you wanted to," Yoroi says, standing near the missing parts of the floor and looking down about ready to jump. There's steam building in the room as the ice meets hot air and soon enough the room is filling with water, but that too is diminishing.

I think about her words and shrug "Maybe"

"Would you be able to tell me where they are?"

"Straight down" I point through the missing floor.

"You can drop through all those floors"

"Yes"

"Could possibly hurt someone" she muses. "But we're villains"

"Exactly"

~~~~~~~~~~

Hiryuu is very sure he'll suffer frostbite from this amazing yet terrifying experience. When his teammate so casually said that he would be freezing the building and that he should stick close, he had not taken him seriously, because he did not imagine someone his age capable of such a feat. How wrong he was. One moment the place is nice and warm, a comfortable temperature, and the next there's a sudden drop and chill running up his body as ice takes over the walls, floors, ceiling, and windows, leaving him cold and shocked.

On the plus side he's sure no one would have seen such a thing coming and Todoroki has surely caught them in his ice, making their mission that much easier. All that needs to be done now is locate the doomsday device where the villains are sure to be and mission success.

At least that's what seemed to be the plan.

He surely didn't plan on having the ceiling come crashing down on him. He's certain he saw his life flash before his eyes in the time it took for him to make a mad dash away from the danger and he slides on the ice, almost falling on his ass in the process.

There's nothing but dust and rubble in the air when he looks at the scene and he can't even see Todoroki, though there is a wall of ice to be seen through the dusty air. What in the world?

"Hello Hiryuu" a familiar voice greets him and he scrambles to his feet, scales already climbing up his body as he readies for the fight that's sure to come.

Yoroi couldn't have made the ceiling come crashing down, but it is something she would think to do.

"I could've died"

"I doubt it"

She's smiling as she wields a long staff, a silent challenge.

"You're incredibly nimble"

Why of all people does he have to fight the girl who can use any weapon to her advantage? He wallows about his luck until something behind Yoroi catches his attention. Todoroki manifests a massive ice construction that travels across the ground like a river of spikes, heading straight for Yoroi. He thinks to warn her before he remembers that she's the enemy in this instance and he would appreciate the help.

He's rethinking his luck when orange flames intercept the ice, burning even from where he stands and the ice under his feet begin to melt away.

The fire user is a blur of black and orange and suddenly she's in front of a surprised Todoroki who just manages to summon an ice wall to block the kick heading for his head and even that does little to stop it. Her leg is covered in flames as soon as the wall forms and her entire body twists as the attack goes straight through the created wall and makes contact.

Hiryuu doesn't get time to gawk as the force of that kick alone sends his teammate almost flying back as he has his opponent to deal with.

"Whoo!" Zena whoops as she falls out of the air, grinning as she looks at the bewildered Todoroki. "Thank god for leg guards, eh?"

Todoroki says nothing, she doesn't expect him to and when he moves she does as well, closing the distance between them again, leaving fire in her wake and warmth in the air that hinders how quickly Todoroki can form his ice. If he plans on fighting using ice alone she'll make it incredibly difficult for him to attack. If the air is constantly fizzling with warmth, it's logically harder for him to form his ice. While he attempts to drop the temperature, Zena increases it steadily, unfazed by the heat burning under her skin when her suit works in tandem to regulate her temperature.

"You're pretty useless unless you use both abilities, pal" Zena declares as she goes through another ice wall, this one not as dense as the last. "Not that I mind or anything"

She's his total opposite in this instance and that only proves to frustrate the young Todoroki who throws attack after attack at her, ice forming faster than one would expect with spikes all intended to stop the sly Fox that is Zena. She moves far too easily, it's infuriating. That smile on her face is almost mocking and those cartoonish eyes of her visor do not work to make him feel much better.

It's hot, terribly hot, and when he blinks he's in another part of the building altogether, far away from his teammate, which had likely been a purposeful thing. With how hot the air is he doubts the other two would fair very well compared to Zena and him.

Sweat builds and rolls down his face and hard heterochromia eyes glare at the almost nonchalant Zena who tilts her head, animated led eyes blinking at him.

He breathes as steadily as he can and focuses on bringing the temperature down to something he can use and it doesn't work as well as it had been working before.

"You need to lower the temperature to form your ice," Zena says matter of factly, chuckling in a very unsettling manner. "I need a high temp to better use my flames, so you see why we're at odds right now, don't you?"

He's not completely powerless in this situation, they both know this. He has as much of an advantage in this as Zena does, he just refuses to use it. They both know this. That is why Zena smiles and he scowls. That is why she's so infuriating.

What's more, is the fact that she has far more control over the atmosphere than him. She's overpowering his abilities when he had thought his own to be quite capable. Even if she's increasing the temperature, had he been stronger he would be capable of forcefully dropping it and he attempts just that.

Zena wonders if Todoroki knows what happens when cold air rises to meet warm air?

She looks up interestingly as mist becomes thicker and thicker above their heads as Todoroki attempts to control the air around them. He can try and he's likely to succeed because when cold meets warm it forces hot air up and when it goes up, it drops.

But that just makes stormy weather and that's why she wonders if he's aware of the circumstances he's creating with his attempts.

Mist darkens and becomes denser, forming what can only be described as clouds, and Zena quirks a brow now. The air is noticeably colder, exactly what Todoroki had wanted. When she looks at him there's something close to victory in his eyes and when he attempts to create his ice once more, it works.

She simply watches, eyes back on the massive cloud that fills the room.

Ice heads for her, fire moves to catch up - she watches the cloud above her head.

Water hits her face, she smiles.

"Look, we've made a cumulonimbus cloud"

He doesn't look, no he has no time for distractions and ignores the water suddenly falling on him in favor of the one standing in front of him. With the cold air, her flames aren't as powerful as they once were but even that doesn't seem to matter as she simply moves her hands up and around, sending his own creation following her command until she has it circling back towards him fully.

She's infuriating.

The water once gentle has now become insistent and on instinct he does look up, blinking as water falls into his eyes with no remorse, and light hides between the dark cloud that settles above their heads.

He blinks.

"Cumulonimbus clouds," Zena says, sounding oddly fascinated. "Storm clouds"

As if needing to confirm her words there's a flash of light quickly followed by the deafening sound of thunder.

What?

"You really don't know what happens when cold air meets warm, do you?"