Chapter 21: Chapter #21 | Shot of Terror
Chapter Text
Izuku wasted no time in retreating to the buses once the debrief had let out. It was sad that he wouldn't be able to watch over his friends in their exams, but Izuku had to begrudgingly admit that it might be for the best. Even if he knew the president was going to pull something, even he couldn't tell precisely what it was at this point.
He settled into one of the seats towards the back of his bus. It was a newer model, but the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. The ugly yellow seemed to have caught on and never left, and as Izuku tried to force himself to relax, he let the faint rumble of the vehicle soothe his nerves. If it was necessary, he'd be able to escape out the back quickly or set up a stable position for his rifle out of the back emergency exit. He was certain that nothing of the sort would be needed, of course, but old habits die hard, and if he closed his eyes, it was almost like being back on a troop transport. Tight undersuit, rifle between his legs, the faint smell of diesel.
The moment couldn't last forever, as it didn't take long for the rest of the students who had been flitting around the parking lot to find their respective buses and load up. He also, as much as he'd like to be, wasn't oblivious to the numerous nervous glances he was getting for his rifle. Izuku breathed deeply as the various buses took off on their short journeys to their group testing zones and did his best to steel himself for what was to come. He knew the test involved robots. He had double, and then triple checked that information.
He hadn't had good experiences with robots in the past. The Phurians would send them into villages as shock units. They were expendable and would follow their orders to the letter. The issue was that the Phurian High Command didn't care if the automatons executed their orders too efficiently. If they were given the order to eliminate the village, then they would perform the order with the decisive, inhuman brutality that they quickly became known for.
Izuku stared out the window and did his best to ignore whatever student was attempting to glare a hole into the side of his head. He didn't know what he'd done to already make someone angry, but he certainly wasn't going to let someone so easily bothered get to him. The volume on the bus had crept into the upper decibels, and it would have been surprising that their proctor hadn't told the kids on the bus to keep it down. Would being the operative word, as their proctor, sitting at the front of the bus, was none other than Present Mic himself, and if anyone was going to be used to the loud noise, it was him.
…
The bus rolled to a stop in front of the large gates to one of the many testing zones under the ownership of U.A. University. Izuku stood once the bus had finally stopped, slinging his rifle up and over his right shoulder. The students were, for the most part, in awe, echoing the thoughts going through his own head. I wonder just how many of these U.A. has built? As much as I like to joke with the president, I've tried not to snoop around in the school systems too much. What must their budget be like if they can build a large number of these, repair them, maintain them, and that is considered normal-
Izuku was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching him from behind. When he felt the person in question's presence come up behind him, and felt a hand land on his left shoulder, he took one large step away, turning his body to see who had decided they needed to speak with him.
"Just what do you think you are doing with a weapon! This is the U.A. entrance exam. Unless your quirk requires that weapon to function, you should not have it! If you are trying to throw everyone else here off by intimidating them, then-" Izuku narrowed his eyes and cut the man off by placing his left hand in the air.
"For as much as you seem to be a stickler for the rules, you clearly haven't read them very well. I am authorized to bring anything that I created during the support course exams into the heroics exam with me. I understand that it wouldn't be your first thought, but try to think of reasons beyond quirks before you decide to berate someone for something."
Facial recognition complete. Iida Tenya, younger brother of the Turbo Hero, Ingenium. Was brought in to take the recommendation exam a week ago but failed, leading to his participation in the general examination today. Izuku had to focus, lest he start smiling at Iida and give him the wrong impression. Silently thanking Phoenix for her timely information, he continued speaking.
"Now if I were you, Iida, I would go prepare myself for the exam. Wouldn't want to fail a second time, hmm?" Izuku turned, leaving a sputtering, confused, and concerned Iida Tenya behind him. In the corner of his vision, he could see Mic climbing the stairs up towards his control room and braced himself for an imminent start to the examination.
There were all sorts of students in the crowd with a plethora of quirks, from what he could see. None seemed like much of a threat. He would still have to keep an eye on a few of them with not so obvious quirks, but he was fairly confident that this wasn't where the president's surprise lay for him.
One student stood out to Izuku, not because they set off any danger alarms in his head, but because she looked like she was about to have a nervous breakdown. She was surprisingly tall, probably just shy of his height, which had capped out around six-four after the last ten months. Her slender build was feminine still, despite her height, and both her hair and her large, round eyes were a warm chestnut brown. The poor girl was muttering to herself and jittering in place, pressing her fingers together and taking them apart in a cycle that only seemed to be getting her more worked up.
Damn it. Why can't I just leave things be? Izuku took several quick steps to the girl. His voice was as soft as the smile he put on his face when he spoke. "You seem to be worried. There is no need for that. I'm sure you'll do fine."
The girl's head whipped around to find the voice speaking to her, and when she caught sight of him, she squeaked before chuckling nervously. "Haha, y-yeah. I guess you could say that. Everyone here seems to have some kind of really cool quirk that could help them with the exam. All I can do is make things weightless…" The girl trailed off and Izuku laughed. How exactly that was possible was beyond him at the moment, but it certainly wasn't weak by any means.
"Oh, is that all." Izuku snorted out a mildly sarcastic comment before calming down and really smiling now. "You'll be fine. Aside from the fact that you can just touch the robots and let them float away, effectively disabling them, your quirk is literally perfect for rescue situations. You'll do great-"
"OKAY, START!" The contestants all turned their heads to where Present Mic was standing. He had somehow gotten on top of the control room and was yelling at them from where he stood. "What's wrong? There are no countdowns in real fights! Run! Run!" Everyone wasted no time piling through the gates and into the testing zone. Despite the crowding and desperation that was in the air, the girl realized two things while fighting her way in. One, she felt a lot better, and two? The guy that had been talking to her was nowhere to be seen.
…
"OKAY, STA-" Izuku didn't even wait until the hero had finished his sentence before he had already taken off into the city. He had a head start on the others here in way of ability, intelligence, and even equipment. But he would be damned if he didn't give every combat situation his best. That was how mistakes were made, how people died. His pride would not be going before his fall.
Izuku sprinted up the main road, rifle in hand, scanning for any sign of movement. It wasn't long before three robots had sped out onto the road, crossing into his path. Izuku dropped into a skid, legs grinding against the asphalt as he slid towards the robots. Taking aim, he placed two bolts through the eye sockets of the robots, forcing the steel constructions to have their insides torn to pieces before their back armor bloomed outwards with the force of the blasts. The third swung its arm at him, missing by a mile when Izuku launched himself out of his slide and up over the robot before slamming his foot into its head, turning the scrap metal into a cannonball as it careened down the road and into yet another robot that was making its way towards him. He could hear several of the faster students rapidly catching up to him from behind. Alright Nedzu, let's see what you've got.
…
Himiko and Kyoka's lungs burned. Their limbs were sore, and they had lost count of the numerous cuts, scrapes, bruises, and mild burns they had. They had known the hero test wasn't going to be a joke. After all, not only was U.A. one of the best hero schools in the world, but the university had an obligation to filter out candidates that wouldn't cut it in the field. Even so, this was overkill. The two girls had been lucky to get the same testing zone and had felt confident in their abilities, especially working in tandem. Izuku always preached working as a group to them, and thus they had practiced as such.
Initially, they had been worried about the point distribution if they worked together. But it became increasingly obvious as they fought their way through the city together that, one, it was no accident they had ended up in the same area and, two, there would be no worries about point distribution. While the test had started out normally, well, as normal as heroics course tests could be, the exam had quickly devolved into them fighting for their lives in what felt like an unending horde. Robots had begun to crawl out of the alleys, off of roofs, and even out of the simulated sewer system that ran below the mock city. But if the numbers were an issue, then the robots using actual tactics was an absolute disaster.
Kyoka dipped out of her cover, rolling under the swipe of one of the robots and leading the rockets from one of the three-pointers into one of the two pointers that had engaged them close up. She came out of her roll only to have to lunge to the side, slamming her jacks into the body of a one-pointer and pulsing her quirk through it to fry the circuitry. Off to her side, Himiko wasn't faring much better. Even if she'd been able to rip scrap off a couple dead bots to function as weapons, the robots were seemingly endless. Himiko rammed one of her makeshift escrima through the eye of a two-pointer before she was forced to roll away from a hail of rubber bullets.
Both girls dove for cover as the three-pointers bathed their area in a hail of gunfire. Both were exhausted and wearing down. Himiko let out a slightly crazed laugh as the bullets rained down around them. "Isn't this fun, Kyo?! And think! If this is what they are throwing at us, just imagine what they are throwing at Izu!" The look in Himiko's eyes sent a chill down Kyoka's spine. She was crazy. She was friends with a battle crazy lunatic. She does have one hell of a point though. Wonder what they're doing to Green.
…
Maijima Higari was a lot of things. Inventor, licensed developer, professor, and when the occasion called for it, a hero. Today had called for him to shirk most of those roles. He'd had a student come in late and create a weapon that, while he, as an inventor, would like nothing more than to take apart, he'd had to let leave the studio and go into a field test without any safety precautions. He'd had to ignore his instincts screaming at him not to allow a firearm into a test with what were effectively kids, even if they were hero hopefuls. Then, to really put a cap on things, when he sat down in the room with the rest of the professors to watch the exams, their president had sat him down at a console to apparently micromanage a group of robots to target two young girls. Even if they were apparently trained before coming in, it was a bit much.
Maijima sighed as he leaned back in his chair. The girls had finally, after several long minutes, eliminated the last of the robots he'd been tasked to oversee against them. He didn't care what the president was going to say. He definitely wasn't about to go all out against two kids. That being said, he was distinctly worried they had overdone it. Not that the girls had failed . If anything, they had passed with flying colors. But if they got the idea that all of U.A. was going to be like that from day one, they could lose two very promising students.
The maniacal laughter from behind him caught his attention now. He'd been under the impression that the chimera had been laughing at the girls being sieged by two dozen robots. The fact that he wasn't made Maijima very hesitant to turn around. When he did, he blanched at the scene unfolding before him. The other professors were weakly protesting but didn't have the courage, not that he could blame them, to interrupt the president when he got like this.
The young genius from earlier was under an onslaught, the likes of which couldn't even compare to the two young girls. At least triple the number of robots were hunting the young man through the city, and that was after he'd already seemingly destroyed at least half of them. Despite this, the young man was easily weaving between the robots and their attacks while simultaneously dipping in and out of cover to avoid the veritable storm of ammunition and ordnance being flung his way. He wasn't just running, Maijima realized. He was actually counterattacking as he went, as well as trying to save his fellow examinees from the insanity, one of whom was actually trying to keep up with and help the poor man.
A plasma bolt here, another there, each and everyone hitting its target. His jaw joined the other professors' on the floor when he watched the young man rip the tail clean off a two-pointer with his bare hands and use it to bat another robot through a building.
The president smiled now. All sharp teeth and gleeful excitement. "It's been so long since I've had this kind of a challenge! Let's see how he deals with this." The president hit the button for the zero-pointer and reached for his keyboard again when Maijima decided that he'd seen enough.
"Oh, hell no." He quickly stepped across the room and picked the president up by his collar. Of course, Nedzu wasn't about to leave his station that easily. Flailing around like a petulant child, he yelled for Maijima to put him down while Maijima yelled back at him. "No sir. I will not put you down. This is an entrance exam, not a god damn-" There was a loud beep and the room plunged into a horrified silence as the zero-pointer announced what button had been hit in their struggle. Final examination procedures engaged. All safety measures disabled.
…
Izuku had found the something that the president had done to make his testing area harder. Or rather, it had found him. Initially, he had planned to carve his way through the extra robots and prove his point like that. It became readily apparent that wasn't an option. Tens of robots were coming out of literally every nook and cranny in the city, and they were all gunning for him.
What should have been only a twenty-minute exam had stretched seemingly into eternity. It was one thing for him to have to destroy all of these bots, he could live with that. Most of the examinees had decided that getting involved in the clusterfuck that was his exam was a bad idea. Occasionally, he'd get help from someone attempting to pick off one or two on the edge of the horde while the bots were distracted, but for the most part, he'd been trying to keep away from the other examinees to keep things fair for them.
Izuku dove under another robot, slamming his fist up and tearing the wiring out of it before moving on. Aizawa had asked him before the examination to refrain from using Phoenix's aid during the exam. He'd agreed, because it wouldn't exactly be fair for him to know everyone and everything's location. Izuku was feeling intense regret at that decision, as once again, he had to dive in front of another person that got caught in the middle of the swarm before launching himself through a nearby window with the examinee.
...
"You alright?" Izuku took a moment to wave dust out of his way and take a look at who he had just saved from getting trampled. The young man looked entirely done with his life. His hair, a mess of indigo with eyes to match, shook as the guy tried to stop the ringing out of his ears. Izuku wanted to snort at the comparison his brain made to Eraser when he caught sight of the exhausted expression and dark eye bags but reminded himself about time and place.
"Yeah, I think so. Just a bit of ringing in the ears. Thanks for pulling me out of the way, I guess." Izuku quirked an eyebrow and wanted to ask what he meant by that when the rubble crunched behind them. Izuku spun in place, knee slamming into the ground as he stabilized and fired a bolt through the two-pointer that had somehow made it into the building. Shit.
"If one made it in then the others won't be far behind it. What's your name? Quirk?" The young man gave him a suspicious look before asking why. Izuku couldn't help but roll his eyes at the suspicion. It wasn't a bad thing, per se. A healthy dose of suspicion could keep you alive. But it should be easy enough to figure out why, in this case. "Because we need to get out of here before those damn bots bring the building down on our heads."
"Shinso Hitoshi, my quirk is brainwashing. If you respond, I can take control of you…" Shinso clearly hesitated before telling him his quirk, and Izuku felt his heart squeeze. He knew full well how a quirk like that could impact someone's life.
"Right, nonphysical, and no use against robots. You've been going after the switches I take it?" Shinso jerked to look at Izuku with wide eyes. He hadn't left him here. He hadn't spit in his direction, and he had responded.
"S-Switches?" Good going, Hitoshi. Respond like an idiot to the first person who doesn't immediately revile you. Izuku sighed before spinning on his heel to launch another bolt.
"I see why Aizawa said that this exam is unfair to nonphysical quirks now. Yes, there are shut off buttons on each of the robots under a thin panel. The button is in the same place on every robot of its type. Follow me, let's get you some points."
"Wha- Why? Why would you help me?" Shinso followed along behind Izuku, who was leading his way out of the building, thoroughly confused.
"Are you serious? We have seven or eight minutes left at best. You will fail if I don't help, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let a quirk that useful to hero work get rejected because of a piss poor testing system. Now speed up. We've not got a whole lot of time."
…
Izuku had made a mistake. Oh, don't get him wrong. Helping Shinso wasn't the mistake. He'd do that again every time, and with the rate he was blowing the legs off of bots and Shinso was finishing them off, then he was safe. The mistake was that he hadn't prepared to fight alongside someone against robots. He was overlapping memories now. It wasn't the same. Different robots, different people, different situations, different reasons. Izuku chanted it in his head as the buildings around them overlapped with the flames and Shinso was replaced by his squadmate shoving a knife into the neck of an automaton. A rubber bullet from one of the three-pointers connected with his ribs and snapped him out of his hallucination with a gasp. Fucking hell. Even wearing the undersuit, that still hurts like hell. He heard Shinso call out, asking if he was okay, and he managed to yell back an affirmative before the ground quaked.
The robots suddenly stopped acting like they each had an A.I. controlling them and reverted back to what he could only assume was their default behavior pattern. It gave him just enough breathing room to look up and see a gods damned building-sized robot tearing a hole in the city.
Shinso's eyes shot wide as the debris from the buildings was sent flying everywhere. Izuku was snarling, and Shinso was struck by how god damn scary the guy helping him was that he could see something like that and not be freaked out by it.
"That must be the zero-pointer. It's not worth getting involved with. Let's clean up these last few bots around here. It seems like whoever was hunting me has stopped controlling the-"
Final examination procedures engaged. All safety measures disabled.
Both of them simply stood there in shock. While Izuku grimaced, muttering something about a damned rat, Shinso could feel his knees wanting to give out. "That can't be right. Surely the staff wouldn't endanger the examinees' lives by-" A cry of pain reached their ears as a young girl was trapped under some of the falling rubble. The zero-pointer drew its arm back, intending to slam it into the girl.
Izuku could see it happening in slow motion. The fist making contact, the pile of meat that would be left over, the blood and fire. A young girl draped over the body of her bloodied mother crying as an automaton reached for her throat. Not again. NOT AGAIN. The earth shattered around Izuku and Shinso stumbled, looking over only to find his companion's rifle in the new crater where he had been standing.
…
Ochako Uraraka had been having a fairly good time of it. Well, far better than she had thought it would go. As it turned out, while the robots were giant slabs of steel, they weren't nearly as heavy as she had thought they were going to be. The guy from before had been right! If she just floated the bots off and dropped them, they would be out of commission. On top of that, she'd been able to untrap several of her fellow examinees! Even if it didn't get her any points, it had certainly felt good to help out.
When the zero-pointer appeared, it all went wrong. There were only a few minutes left, and she needed to get away, needed to find some more points before the exam ended. The debris raining down upon them was problematic, though, as she could feel her quirk's drawbacks piling onto her, and when a slab landed on the back of her legs, she cried out both in pain and because she knew that she wasn't going to be able to float it off of her. When she looked up and saw the fist hurtling towards her, she closed her eyes and cried. I'm sorry, mom and dad. Guess I won't be able to fulfill my promise, after all. The impact never came.
…
Somewhere in Izuku, he knew that what he was doing was stupid, dangerous, and downright unsafe. He could have grabbed her and run. Could have simply avoided the situation he was in now by ramming the fist out of the way. Right now, Izuku didn't care. It was one thing for the president to endanger his life. He was fine with that, he had signed up for that. But there was no way he was going to stand by and let someone else get hurt. No one else was going to die when he was there. The voice still screamed in his head to save her. Not Again.
Izuku stood there now under several tons of steel actively bearing down on him. He had pushed himself hard to close the distance and block the fist that would have killed the girl, and he could feel the muscles knitting themselves back together in his legs from where they had torn. His body was evidently not as settled into its augmentations as he'd thought.
Izuku turned his head, wearing a warm, reassuring smile as he looked down at the young woman that he had spoken to before the beginning of the examination. "Hey there. Looked like you could use a hand. Close your eyes and plug your ears for me, alright? This is going to be a bit loud." The girl stared up at him in awe as he held the fist back before snapping to and vigorously nodding her head. She clenched her eyes shut and plugged her ears as well as she could.
Izuku let the smile shift into a snarl as he drew on the anger that he felt. His eyes shifted, glowing brighter as he turned his head back to the giant robot that he'd been holding in place. You wanted to test me, Nedzu? Well here's what I think of your test. Izuku pulled the fist closer before launching it away from himself and dropping into a low stance. As the robot once again came hurtling down towards him, Izuku twisted his body, coiling, and slammed his fist into the robot's. The world was drowned in the screech of tearing metal and dyed in the orange hues of cascading explosions.