[Third Person's PoV]
"I should be the one to go in. You still have a class of future heroes to teach," Present Mic said, his tone unusually serious,
"What's that supposed to mean?" Aizawa asked with a growing frown.
"It means I'm expendable, Shota. You're not. Those kids need you more than they need me. If something goes wrong, at least they'll still have a chance," Present Mic replied, closing his eyes as if steeling himself against the protest he knew would come.
Aizawa's jaw clenched, a flash of anger rising like fire in his chest. "Like hell—"
Before he could finish, Present Mic grabbed Aizawa's collar, eyes fierce and unyielding. "Let me be the hero this time. He's our best friend, Shota. What kind of hero would I be if I couldn't even do this? And... I can't bear losing you if things go south."
Aizawa stared into the resolve blazing in Present Mic's eyes and felt his own anger begin to ebb away, replaced by the ache of understanding. He let out a sigh, heavy and resigned.
"Fine," Aizawa muttered, his voice low with reluctance.
Present Mic smile and turned towards Tony, "Alright hook me up–" Present Mic suddenly froze mid shouting before he began falling forwards revealing Aizawa with his hand raised in a Karate chop standing behind him.
Aizawa caught him before he fell to the floor and slowly laid him down on the ground. He rose to find everyone staring at him, shock etched on their faces.
"What?" he said flatly, his expression unmoved.
Eyes flicked between the unconscious hero and the man who laid him out. Aizawa followed their gazes with a slight shrug. "Better me than him. He's out cold, so he won't be doing anything reckless," he justified, rolling his shoulders as though this were a casual decision.
Nezu's small, fuzzy face furrowed in concern. "He's going to hate you for this, you know."
Aizawa sighed, his eyes softening just a fraction. "He'll have to be alive to do that. He'll thank me later. Now, hook me up."
Tony grabbed one helmet, while Melissa grabbed the other, "First, you should stop treating my device like it's going to fry your brains. It's not that bleak. There's only a 40% chance of you getting stuck," Tony said, raising an eyebrow with a touch of bravado as he set the helmet on Aizawa's head, while Melissa set her's on Kurogiri.
Aizawa glanced at Tony, his stoic expression unchanging. "Comforting," he deadpanned.
As Aizawa settled down on his seat and Tony pressed a few buttons, Melissa did the same. She then began to count down, "The Link will begin in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!"
As soon as Aizawa heard the number 1, he closed his eyes.
…
Aizawa opened up his eyes as he didn't feel anything happened, however he blinked as he looked around as all he saw was darkness covered by a deep black and purple fog.
"Hello?" Aizawa called out as he began to walk around.
…
Tony and Melissa then continued pressing a few buttons which gained the attention of both Nezu and All Might.
"What's wrong?" Nezu asked with a growing frown.
"Nothing, just hold up a second… Here we go" Tony said as pressed a button, a holographic projection shot out of both Aizawa and Kurogiri's helmet.
They saw Aizawa walking around in darkness and soon heard him calling out with his hand near his mouth to amply his voice.
"Is anybody there? Oboro"
They then saw another holographic projection of Oboro surrounded in a black sitted mist strapped in a straight Jacket, his eyes closed while his face kept morphing from Kurogiri to Oboro.
"You managed to make a Holographic display of what's going on inside their consciousness?" Nezu asked in surprise and awe.
Tony shrugged, "It was fairly easy, it's not that hard"
"You know that with this you might be able to cure deep seated trauma and mental problems right?" Nezu said, still a bit surprised.
"Or give somebody the tool to create the most powerful mind control device" Tony shrugged.
"True… Seeing this, now I'm curious, What is your IQ exactly?" Nezu wondered.
Tony blinked and put on a confused expression.
"Don't tell me you've never checked?" Nezu asked, taken aback.
Tony shrugged, "Never saw a need to, all I knew was that I was smart, never needed to put a number on it"
"That's surprisingly mature of you," Nezu nodded.
"Ha!" Melissa laughed
Which caused Tony to just stare at her with a look that said, 'Do we have a problem?'
"Did I say something wrong?" Nezu asked in confusion.
"If you know Tony as long as I have, then you would know Mature and Tony don't belong in the same sentence. In fact I can already guess the reason why he hasn't tested it and it's undoubtedly a immature reason that appears mature"
Melissa looked at Tony teasingly as she said, "I'm willing to bet all my money on two things, one: the reason he hasn't tested it is because he's expecting a large number likely in the thousands but knows that isn't the case so he's sparing himself the disappointment. And two, he's so arrogant he doesn't believe his genius can be measured so he doesn't bother"
Nezu and All Might both turned towards Tony to see him blushing slightly as he glared at Melissa, "You couldn't just keep that yourself"
"I'm sorry, but as your assistant it's my job to disprove any slander against you and maintain your reputation" Melissa said with a smile clearly showing that she wasn't sorry.
Before Tony had a chance to retort they heard the sound of groaning and turned to see Present Mic rubbing the back of his neck.
His eyes snapped open as he immediately stood up and saw Aizawa connected to the helmet and the hologram present of him traveling through the darkness,
"That…That…" Present Mic saw that there student present and took back his curse words, "That idiot!! How dare he knock me unconscious! Wait till I give him a piece of my mind" Present Mic grumbled.
Present Mic walked next to Aizawa said, "You better make it out okay, or I swear I will go in there myself and drag the both of you out"
"Mic? I see, so he's awake now" Aizawa grumbled through the hologram.
"Damn right i'm awake, what were you thinking knocking me unconscious!"
"Wait, you can hear me?" Aizawa asked, looking around in surprise, "How?"
"We're seeing and everything you're going through" Present Mic said with a serious expression, "But all we're seeing is darkness"
"It's the same for me, I can barely see two steps ahead of me" Aizawa grumbled in annoyance.
Present Mic then looked at the Hologram of Oboro and narrowed his eyes in contemplation, "Wait a minute, I need to scream in the direction you're facing"
"Really?"
"Just do it"
Aizawa sighed and did as he was told, "HELLO?"
Present Mic then made a pondering expression, "Now turn left and do it again."
Aizawa grumbled, "I swear if you're just doing this to get payback…" He said before doing as he was told.
They soon heard Aizawa's voice and then heard him faintly on Oboro's projection.
"There! Head towards that direction! Oboro is trapped there!"
Aizawa gained a serious expression and began to run blindly through the darkness. He then began to slowly down as he saw something… Or rather someone in front of him.
Aizawa slowly approached and sighed, "Oboro…" He muttered with a sorrowful tone.
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