Chapter 20
The mall trip lasted for most of the day and the entire class of all twenty students showed up. It was almost like none of them ever went out except when others invited them out. The girls really enjoyed the shopping and chatting while the guys enjoyed hanging out and complained about the girls enjoying the shopping. It was a typical teenage outing, even if the girls had to literally drag the guys into the Karaoke bar for supper.
School was the next day and they all prepped for the time they missed, sure that the teachers were going to cram to make up for it. They were right and had to work and study hard for two days before Friday afternoon and their Search and Rescue class. It was going to be held at a hero regulated facility called the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or USJ.
The students were already in their hero costumes when they arrived at the building. Their comments about the different zones for rescuing as being perfect for practising went almost unheard as Thirteen, the rescue hero, gave them a long rundown of the rules.
Just then, a large blackish-purple mass formed in the middle of the areas that was a sort of courtyard that lead to each area. Villains started pouring out of it to form a large group of them that split as one last figure stepped out with a bunch of hands covering him.
“Thirteen! Get everyone out of here!” Aizawa shouted and ran towards the gathered villains.
“Right! Everyone, back to the entrance!”
“I'm sorry, I can't allow that.” A voice said as another blackish-purple mass formed between the students and the door.
“Step aside, extra!” Bakugo shouted and made his hands pop and crackle with tiny explosions.
Tanya and Izuku had watched and planned the last few seconds as the situation developed.
“Both masses are still there.” Izuku whispered. “Have you seen the difference?”
“Yes.” Tanya whispered back and let her rifle go to snap back to her back holster as she drew a toy pistol from her underarm holster with real penetrator ammo inside. “Give me your shoulder.”
Izuku immediately knelt and she braced the pistol grip on his shoulder. “Eight degrees up from center. It looks like a latch.”
“Got it.” Tanya said and charged the pistol and the ammo. She pulled the trigger, ignoring the argument between Thirteen, the villain, and three students. It distracted the villain and that was all she needed to know.
*WHOOP-PA-TING!*
“GAHH-ACCKK!” The villain yelled as the penetrating pellet tore through the metallic neck brace he wore and lodged into his real neck, the only part of his body that his quirk didn't cover. Two more shots hit beside that and his neck protector burst apart and crumpled as it fell to the floor.
“DIE!” Bakugo said and opened his fist right in the villain's face and let off his Cannon Blast.
*BOOOM!*
The villain was thrown back as the explosion impacted right on his completely exposed neck and he fell unconscious. As he did, he seemed to fold in on himself and then disappeared.
“Of course he ran scared!” Bakugo said with a huff. “He can't take it when real heroes fight back!”
Tanya and Izuku exchanged happy looks from Bakugo's inadvertent compliment, then Tanya holstered the pistol and drew her rifle again.
“Iida!” Thirteen shouted. “Run to the school and get the teachers! The communications aren't working!”
“Yours aren't.” Tanya said and touched the red button on the dedicated communications relay attached to her belt. “Emergency! Code Zulu. Invasion by villains at the USJ. I repeat, Code Zulu.”
“Acknowledged.” Nezu's voice said from everyone's earpieces. “We'll be there in six minutes.”
“We can hold out for that long, sir. Out.” Tanya said and looked at everyone's startled faces. “What?”
“You know the principal?” Momo asked, shocked.
“Not the time.” Tanya said and hefted her rifle to her own shoulder and took aim at the villains that Aizawa was fighting. She charged her rifle and started shooting normal Door-busters and not the specialty ammo. Villains started dropping from head-shots around Aizawa and he turned slightly to see her. He nodded and went back to fighting.
“Izuku! Go!” Tanya said. “Flank them on the right. That big guy looks bad. Stay away from him.”
“Understood.” Izuku said as he was covered in little streaks of green lightning, then he was gone at his full speed. It shocked everyone else to see him practically disappear in a green flash.
“How the hell is he doing that?” Bakugo asked, angrily.
“We're getting to the point that we're maxing out his exercise equipment.” Tanya said and kept firing. Thanks to her modifications on the rifle, there was constant air pressure and a lot of shots in each ammo cartridge.
Izuku ran around the right side of the large group of villains and started taking them down with punches to the head and neck that disabled them. He was moving much too fast for anyone to counter him.
“You kids are annoying me! We came here for All Might!” Tomura, the head villain, shouted. “NOMU! Kill Eraserhead and then kill those kids! Maybe All Might will show up then!”
The big guy named Nomu lunged forward as fast as Izuku was running and grabbed Aizawa's arm. There was a sickening snap as he squeezed, then he lifted Aizawa into the air.
“NO!” Izuku yelled and diverted towards the big guy. He poured all of his anger into his fist and felt One for All respond. His arm started to glow and the power responded to his desire protect their teacher. He ran for all he was worth, ignored or ran through the villains trying to block him, and slammed his fist into the chest of Nomu.
*WHABOOM!*
Everyone froze as something like a sonic book shook the area and actually knocked a bunch of the villains away with the shock wave, including Tomura.
“No! It's not possible!” Tomura exclaimed as he looked at the Nomu's caved in chest.
Aizawa was on the floor cradling his broken arm and even he stared at Izuku's fist buried into the large creature's chest. It was gasping for breath and it stared down at its own chest, wondering what had happened to it.
“I swore to protect everyone and become a hero that everyone can look up to.” Izuku said and took a step back into a fighting stance as his feet started to glow brightly. “I will not let you hurt the person trying their best to teach me how to do that!”
Suddenly, Izuku was upside down and both of his feet slammed into the Nomu's face, caved it in, and sent the large creature flying up into the air a fair distance.
“Tanya, I cleared your line of fire. He's all yours.” Izuku calmly said as he changed his attention to the villains still gathered around. “Who's next?”
“AHH!” Some of them shouted in fright and started running.
*BOOOM!* *BOOOM!* *BOOOM!*
The explosions rang through the USJ and everyone looked up at the source, even the villains who were running scared. Izuku took the opportunity to take them out as quickly as he could while they were distracted.
The students, Aizawa, and Thirteen stared up at the disintegrating form of the large Nomu. Both of its arms and one of its legs had been blown off as it reached the apex of the flight Izuku sent it on. A second later, one more explosion hit it and it plummeted to the floor of the arena as just a torso and head.
“Izuku? I can't get a reading from this far away. Is it dead?” Tanya asked.
Izuku stomped a villain into the floor and crushed his scorpion tail to stop it from stinging anyone. “No, it's only disabled. I went all out on it and I was barely able to launch it.”
“Shock absorption?” Tanya asked.
Izuku watched the thing falling and saw the tendrils starting to form on its shoulders. “And regeneration. Probably a strength and reinforcement quirk as well.”
The Nomu thumped onto the floor of the arena and left a little crater.
“It's like he was designed to fight All Might.” Izuku commented.
“He was!” Tomura shouted and lunged at Izuku with his hands splayed.
Izuku turned and slammed his fist into the man's chest, crushing one of the hands there and also part of the man's chest. “Don't touch me, villain! Only my friends have my permission to do that.”
Tomura dropped to his knees and wheezed as he felt severe pain for the first time in his life. I had him. I know I had him. The stupid kid wasn't even looking! How did he do that? He asked himself and charged his hands with his quirk again. I'll get him this time!
There was another explosion and a bunch of people made retching noises as the Nomu's head exploded into mist and the torso stopped twitching and regenerating.
“You must have a hard time seeing with that thing on your face.” Izuku said and pulled the hand off.
“AHHH! NO! NOOOO! Give him back! Father! FATHERRRR!” Tomura yelled and covered his face with his hands to continue hiding his face. Unfortunately, the distraught man completely forgot that he was using his quirk. He didn't have the breath to scream as his face started to decay and crumble.
Normally, people have some immunity to their quirks and powers, otherwise they would fall victim when they did something foolish or stupid. It was just too bad that Tomura was given his quirk by the villain All for One and didn't realize that he wasn't immune. The rot and decay quickly spread throughout the man's head and it started to cave in as his flesh and bones were eaten away.
Aizawa saw this and used his capture scarf to hook the man's arms and pull them away from his face; but, it was too late. The body fell over and the ash-like head hit the floor. It popped apart like a bubble and ash and blackish debris that could only be brains, flowed out like sand.
“Okay. Eww.” Izuku said and stepped back.
The main door smashed open and a large group of heroes ran in.
“EVERYTHING IS FINE NOW, FOR WE ARE HERE!” All Might yelled and posed in front of the other teachers.
“Perfect timing to help with the clean-up.” Aizawa said and stood up. “Does anyone have an aspirin?”
“Sir, you need Recovery Girl.” Izuku said and handed over the requested aspirin.
“Meh. I'm too exhausted for that to work.” Aizawa said and popped the two aspirin into his mouth and chewed them loudly. “Come on. Let's get back to the others.”
“What about the other villains?” Izuku asked and waved at the retreating figures.
“Do you want to spend hours hunting down the dregs that can't leave except through the only door?” Aizawa asked as if he was stupid.
Izuku barked a laugh. “I'd rather go thank my partner for saving us from that Nomu thing.”
“Smart choice.” Aizawa said and the two of them walked back towards where the rest of the class stood around talking. The heroes had already spread out to restrain the villains already knocked out and to go hunt down the evading ones.
Tanya floated down to land beside Izuku. “Good work, Izuku.”
“Most of the underlings were just thugs.” Izuku said with a shrug and then put his arm around her waist as they kept walking. “I really had to pull my punches when a lot of them were just barely stronger than a civilian.”
“I meant fighting the Nomu.” Tanya said.
“Yeah, that was... an experience.” Izuku said and looked down at his fist. “I used it at my full capacity.”
“Really?!?” Tanya asked, happily. “Is that how you knew about the shock absorption?”
Izuku nodded. “When I didn't launch him away with my first punch and only caved in his chest, I knew I had to get him in the air to reduce his resistance to your shots.”
“You two work well together.” Aizawa commented when they reached the others. “You should try not doing that to see what your potential could be.”
“No thanks.” Izuku and Tanya said at the same time and smiled at each other.
“We would rather keep our potential maxed and keep working together.” Izuku said and Tanya nodded. “Why weaken or limit ourselves when we know we can kick ass together?”
“You won't always be together.” Aizawa said and then he felt a pressure on his mind and body that he hadn't felt before. He turned his head slowly and saw two identical looks of anger on Izuku's and Tanya's faces.
“Never say that to our faces again.” Izuku said, his voice low and almost a growl. “Tanya is my partner in all things and no one... not you, not the villains, and definitely no one else... will ever tell us we can't be together.”
“I will split the heavens and the earth to stay by Izuku's side.” Tanya promised and she did growl. “Only he deserves my attention and like he said... no one will ever separate us.”
“Wow, that's so manly and intense!” Kirishima said and made a fist in the air.
Izuku suddenly felt sleepy and his eyes started to close as his head drooped.
Tanya pulled out a toy pistol and turned to point the gun at Midnight's chest. She fired and the Door-buster slammed into the woman's chest to send her flying across the waiting area. She slammed into the wall with a grunt and was knocked out. She slumped to the floor in a heap and everyone stared at Tanya.
“She was using her pheromones on my Izuku.” Tanya said and shook him slightly.
Izuku was now blinking his eyes and was still half-asleep. “Th-thanks.”
“Now I'm doubly glad that we made those dossiers on the teachers and the effects their quirks have.” Tanya said and she placed a hand on his chest. “I'll flush your system.”
Izuku nodded and Tanya's hand glowed for a few moments. He felt instantly better and fully awake.
“Let's get out of here.” Tanya said and made a mental note to report Midnight's assault on a student as soon as they were sitting on the bus. She didn't want that woman's version to be the first filed and when they were on the bus, she had Momo requisition the video footage and sent that along as well.
No one touched her Izuku without her permission.