I felt an explosion crack against my skin. I swam through it and smashed my fist across my attacker's face. A pair of villains rushed me, punching as fast as they could. They had none of Cow Lady’s skills. I parried their fists across my arms, their superstrength giving their fists some extra pepper, but not enough to truly hurt. I cracked one across the face with a right, then blasted the other with a fireball that sent him flying into a building in a heaping mess.

What a relief it was, to let loose again.

A blast of light flew past me, smashing into a woman who had been trying to jump onto me. Another smacked aside a guy made of tinfoil, with the last hitting a flying asshole. I glanced over my shoulder.

Aoyoma was just behind me, sweating as he danced around the battlefield. When I looked back, he gave me a confident wink marred by the grimace he was trying to hide as his knees quivered.

Damn. Give the guy credit, his aim was impeccable. And he had guts, continuing to fire while his stomach was currently screaming at him. I was impressed.

“Got you!” a pair of long white metal wires suddenly wrapped around each of my arms. I blinked at them, then followed them to the young white-haired woman currently smirking at me, her hair extending outwards to grab onto me. “I’ll hold him! The rest of you, grab the lines and start hitting him!”

“On it!” a pair of muscular types grabbed onto the metal wires, pulling hard, while a guy with fire wrapped around his fist dropped in front of me, punching towards my face.

“Eat this!” he shouted out.

“POOR CHOICE OF WORDS!” I opened my mouth and wrapped it around his flame enveloped fist. His eyes widened in horror before I pulled my head, arms, and legs into my shell.

Then I started spinning.

“OH GOD, NOOOOO!” he screamed as he was pulled into a spin cycle. The metal threads tightened, then pulled with more force than the muscleheads were expecting.

“Oh shit,” the white-haired woman had time to say before she was lifted into the air. I spun at high-speed, pulling the four bad guys along with me as they screamed in unison. The muscleheads let go only to get tossed into the buildings nearby, while the white-haired woman became a living bludgeon, smashing into another group. As her grip on my arms loosened, I came out of my shell, spitting out the arm of the now dizzy fire-user and punching him ‘gently’ in the stomach.

“You wanted to kill us!?” I ran forward on all fours, revelling in the fear in the eyes of the bad guys before I slammed into one in a solid tackle, sending him rolling back. I breathed a short burst of flame, forcing them to split up, then headed right. “We’re just innocent kids!”

“This thing is a kid!?” one guy squeaked before I grabbed him and tossed him up into the air, backhanding his friend.

Well, as far as anyone in this world knew at least.

My short tail smacked another guy in the face as I spun around. Aoyoma sent another blast into the face of a girl with a bat trying to hit him, knocking her out.

“These guys aren’t very good fighters,” I noted to Aoyoma as I blocked a thrown boulder with my arm.

“Y-Yeah!” he said shakily, looking sweaty.

“You doing okay there, Sparkles?” I asked him, hiding my genuine concern a bit with some humour.

“I need a break,” he admitted. “I only have a few more big shots in me.”

“Hmm,” I pretended not to notice when a small rock lifted up by itself and hit a thin gray-skinned man in the head, knocking him out. So that’s where Toru ended up…

As the invisible girl lifted up the dropped baseball bat, I looked around. Fifteen guys and girls left. Fourteen after Toru hit a guy on the chin, finishing him up with a kick to the crotch based on his squeal and dropping into the fetal position.

“How about one big blast?” I moved to shield Aoyoma with my back. “I can act as a platform for you if you need it.”

Aoyoma thought about that for just a moment before nodding. “Very well, Mon Ami! Carry us to victory! Lift me high and sweep across the battlefield! I will take care of the rest!”

I wrapped a hand around his waist, looking over my shoulder. “Ready?”

“Ready!”

I spun around as the next bunch of idiots ran toward us. Aoyoma grit his teeth.

“Raie Dragon Scintillante!!!”

I almost stumbled back at the surprising amount of recoil I felt, but held steady. I held him in front of me, and the kid let loose. A long drawn-out blast erupted from his belly as I slowly turned him in my grip, sweeping it across the field. The bad guys tried to dodge, but they learned the hard way that you can’t dodge light. One thug tossed a rock at Aoyama, but I blasted it out of the air with a fireball, leaving Aoyoma free to finish him off.

When we were done, 13 guys were knocked out, leaving one terrified guy standing there, staring at us.

“...H-Ha! I’m still here!”

A bat smacked him between the legs. He stared at us as he lifted up into the air, then fell to his knees. “...EEEEeeeeeeeeee…”

The guy fell to the ground still wheezing in pain, clutching at his nuts. He didn’t even have the energy to scream. Just drolled on the ground in horror. I lowered my new weapon, Aoyoma falling to his knees to clutch at his belly.

“Damn, Toru, you had to do him in like that?” I mumbled.

“Well unlike some people I don’t have super strength! I gotta take down villains the easiest way I know how!” a girlish voice said.

“We got to get someone to teach you how to fight,” I mumbled. “But with that, we’re clear, I think.”

“What do we do next?” Aoyoma asked as he sat down cross legged. “While I am happy we have defeated these hooligans, the rest of the class might need help.”

“Those badasses? Well, maybe,” I scratched my chin. “Well, we can’t stay here. How are you guys breathing?”

“I’m fine,” Toru said. “I think this place has ventilation, to keep the smoke from hurting students. It’s still really hot though. You can see the sweat all over me.”

“...” Aoyoma and I stared in the direction she was speaking for a moment.

“D-Don’t stare!”

We coughed, turning our heads. “Anyways. I want to get back to the fight.”

“You want to fight more people?” Aoyoma asked.

“Always. But in this case, for a purpose,” I cracked my knuckles. “Those guys came here to fight All Might. The more we take down, the easier we make it for him to clean up. It’s what heroes do, right? Stop bad people from doing bad things, right?”

“Hm, hm!” Toru agreed in that cute way Japanese girls in anime would do. “Which way do we go?”

------

“YAAAAA!” Toru and Aoyoma screamed as I carefully carried them each in one hand, storming towards a wall just ahead of us.

“Aoyoma!” I yelled.

“Ahhhh!” even as he screamed, he fired quickly. Eight blasts of light cracked the concrete in a semicircle.

As he lay back against my chest, I crouched low to protect Toru and him, charging forward at full speed. I slammed into the wall, and felt it crack against me, then shatter apart. We smashed through the wall, erupting on the other side in a spray of dust and concrete, light replacing the darkness and fire we had been surrounded by.

“Woo!” I stretched my arms out gently, putting Aoyama and Toru down. “You guys okay?”

“Hak, hak!” a dust covered invisible girl breathed deeply once her lungs were clear. “Y-Yes! What should we be doing now?”

“I personally think we should head towards where the heaviest fighting is, and I have good money on it being where we last saw our teachers and classmates,” I said like it hadn’t always been on my mind. “I’m going to rush over there. You guys good?”

“I-I need a minute,” Aoyoma said while clutching his stomach. “Go ahead without me.”

I hesitated. Damnit. I didn’t want to leave him alone, but I really wanted to-

“Go ahead!” Toru said, the young girl sounding enthusiastic. “I’ll watch over him, and we’ll come help later. We’d likely slow you down anyway.”

“...Okay. But later we need to talk to Momo about making some kind of comm units for all of us,” I turned around, but still glanced back. “Stay safe. We don’t know how many of those idiots are around. I know it’s tough for you two, but try not to shine too brightly, all right?”

Aoyoma grinned, during which I could see a bit of dust dance happily in the air. “No promises, mon ami.”

I could only snort at that, then I turned and started running on all fours, heading to the courtyard in the distance.

------

Midoriya Izuku/Deku

Moments Ago

On a boat in the middle of a fake lake, Izuku looked out at villains bobbing up and down in the water. “...We have a fight to win!”

It wasn’t a conclusion that he came to lightly. A whole small army of villains in the water around them, and teachers on the way to help. The smart thing to do was to simply bunker down and wait for help. They weren’t trained for this, not really.

But the villains were here to attack All Might. Which meant they thought they had a real chance to kill him. His mentor, his hero. The greatest hero.

Izuku couldn’t let that happen.

“Wha- are you serious?” Mineta grumbled, staring up at him. “The teachers are already coming, right? So they’ll be able to help him! They can’t kill All Might and every teacher here. Besides, if they have something that can kill All Might, then it can kill us too. We shouldn’t go out there.”

“But we won’t be safe here for long either,” the two boys looked over at Asui, the young frog currently looking over at the water. “Once those villains decide to attack, we’ll need to start fighting them off.”

Mineta started. He looked terrified, but quickly recovered. “...You’re right. What should we do?”

“Strike first,” Izuku said, swallowing a bit. “If we can move first, we can leave the boat and get to the others.”

“You just want to go fight,” Mineta pointed out.

“Yes, I do,” Izuku admitted. “But that’s my choice!”

Asui pressed a finger to her lips. “Well. It might work, since they don’t know our quirks.”

It was something he’d noticed. Why send Asui to a water zone? Because sending everyone across USJ had been random.

“Well… at least we all know each others Quirks already,” Izuku mumbled. That was one benefit of the UA Sentai classes. Everyone had spoken enough to be familiar with their basic quirks.

Mineta swallowed. “O-Okay then! I-If we can gather them in one spot, I can stick them together!”

“All of them?” Asui blinked. “How do we do that?”

Easy enough. “We could sink the ship,” Izuku mumbled. As Mineta stared at him in shock, Izuku rubbed his chin. “The undertow would drag them in. But I could also do that with my own power!”

Izuku smacked his fist into his palm, looking up. In another time, another place, Izuku, Mineta, and Asui would have been just slightly less familiar with each other. They would have spent a bit more time discussing things, talking over their quirks. A villain would have attacked the ship after they took too much time, forcing Izuku to break a finger getting away.

This time though. Izuku’s plan formed almost in moments. “If I can do a smash into the water, it’ll create displacement, forcing the villains into one spot!”

“Oh!” Mineta clued in immediately. “Then my sticky balls will make them stick to each other!”

“I can jump far enough to get us over them, kero,” Asui said, the frog girl looked very happy.

“We’ll go on three!” Izuku squeaked, unable to help his nervousness. It would work. It would work! Just stay calm.

Izuku kneeled down next to Asui, while Mineta was grabbed and lifted into her arms. Her tongue wrapped around Izuku’s waist. Mineta started throwing balls from his head out into the water, gritting his teeth in fear even as he kept tossing them. Izuku could hear the villains outside begin to freak out in confusion. Perfect.

“One!”

Stay calm.

“Two!”

He could do this!

“THREE!”

Asui exploded from her crouched stance so fast she was a blur before Izuku felt himself get lifted into the air. He screamed in surprise, but twisted to face the water as they flew through the air, one hand extending outwards towards the surprised villains below.

Focus his power. Let it flow through his muscles instead of just one part. A finger flick would do it. Just reinforce all the parts. Muscle, bone, from the tip of the finger, through his hand, up along his arm, all the way to the shoulder.

Then, force the energy through! His arm came alight, electricity snapping around it.

“Delaware SMAAAASH!”

His finger flicked outwards. He felt his muscles spasm, his finger bruising. The air in front of him exploded, sending them high. The water below them exploded, a massive hole appearing the in the water before it began to flow back in to refill the empty space, dragging the villains along with it. One of them tried to follow, only for a sticky ball to attach to his face, distracting him long enough to get pulled into a big ball of villains attacked to each other by Mineta’s quirk.

“It worked!” Mineta cheered.

Izuku stared at his hand. His right index finger was bruised and throbbing. But… he could still use it! He’d made progress!

“Nice job you two!” Asui said as the water behind them fountained upwards. “You were pretty reliable, kero!”

Izuku almost blushed. But his fears brought him focus. All Might. The villains were still preparing to kill him. He needed to stop them!

As Izuku fell from the sky held in Asui’s tongue, his fists clenched tightly. “The fight isn’t over yet!”

Asui nodded, while Mineta swallowed nervously.

They landed in the water at the shallower end. Izuku immediately began swimming.

“M-Midoriya!” Mineta called out.

“I’m going to help!” Izuku called back, now running through the water as his feet hit the bottom of the pool. He approached the shore and saw Aizawa-sensei fighting in the center of the courtyard. Izuku stopped at the shore, climbing up and running for it.

“Midoriya, we shouldn’t go rushing in!” Asui shouted.

Izuku looked back. “I’m not! But if I can help Aizawa-sensei take down a few of them-” then he stopped, watching in awe for a moment.

Aizawa ducked under a punch, snapped a series of quick punches into the villains throat, face, and solar plexus, then backflipped away from someone trying to tackle him from behind. Aizawa then threw out those long bandages of his, wrapping them around two villains and lifting them into the air as he fell, the two smashing into each other’s heads. His bandages snapped back to him in time for him to slide around a missed kick that he punished with two quick elbows to the face of the fighter.

It was amazing. Aizawa-sensei really was… amazing.

Then… that man, with the hands all across his body, suddenly started running towards Aizawa-sensei. Izuku barely noticed Asui and Mineta joining him to stand on the shore. The man was mumbling something as he approached.

Aizawa moved in to attack… only for the man to dive aside.

“Sorry, hero!” the man with many hands said with a smirk. “But I’m not the final boss.”

Then, that creature with the bird beak… it moved so fast! It appeared behind Aizawa-sensei in a blur. It reached a hand out towards Aizawa-sensei.

“Meet Nomu. Usually I’d take my time about this, but since the teachers are coming, I’ll have him-”

Another blur. Gold and green spinning across the ground, before it snapped out in front of the creature. Claws snapped outwards, digging deep into violet skin, before lifting up and pushing hard. A blast of flame followed, sending the Nomu back several feet.

Aizawa froze. Izuku stared.

And Bowser, standing in front of Nomu, his back to Aizawa and the man with the hand on his face, crouched low, his claws flashing, fire blazing in his throat.

“Final Boss?” Bowser grinned as liquid fire dripped from his lips. “Sorry, Mr. Hands, but there’s no beating the original.”

The Nomu roared, rushing forward. Bowser blasted flames outwards and ran forward on all fours. The two smashed into each other in the middle with an explosion of fire, sending everyone back a step, before the two monsters began to brawl.