Chapter XI: Running the Gauntlet
-]|[-
Minutes earlier
"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the I-Expo's reception party!"
Everyone in the room raised a drink in cheer. Toshinori smiled as he sipped gently at his, "Quite a successful opening, I must say."
"You got that right!" Ingenium – Iida's big brother – grinned as he clinked glasses with the Number One. "It's a shame Tenya is so darn intractable. Even with U.A. giving your student permission to come if they had the means to do so, he still refused. He's totally missing out."
"It really is a shame." David said, "I've seen so many interesting costumes from your students so far. Melissa has been salivating and locked herself away to invent all of yesterday. If his costume is anything like yours, I'm sure she would have loved to see it."
"He's always been like that." Tensei shrugged, "I've tried to get him to lighten up, to no avail. Not sure who he got it from, honestly. Of course, since he preferred to stay at U.A., someone from the family had to come."
Toshinori laughed, "Yes, such a hardship. Though I'm sure you're not complaining too hard." He eyed the fancy cocktail in his hand.
Tensei laughed again, and started to laugh harder when the announcer called Toshinori out by name, "No, but I think you're about to be, Number One."
Toshinori sweatdropped as everyone started clapping for him, "Dave, I didn't know about this."
Dave chuckled ruefully, "Why not? After all this time I figured you'd just assume it. It was bound to happen, All Might."
"Jeez…" Toshinori made his way up on the stage, "Thank you for inviting me. I am All Might. I'm not much of a fan of formal talk, so –"
The I-Expo screen behind him digitized red, and started flashing EMERGENCY. Everyone murmured in confusion as the intercom came up, before the doors opened, and armed and masked people came in pointing their assault rifles. Screams sounded as Villains walked in and took everyone in there hostage. "It's as you heard." A man with red, messy hair was smirking as he stared directly at All Might. "We've taken over the security system." His face was covered with a damaged-looking metal mask. "Don't think you're going to put up a fight here. We wouldn't want any nastiness, would we?" He pointed at the screen, revealing dozens of civilians on the streets surrounded by I-Islands very own defense systems. He smirked up at All Might, "What do you say, All Might? Do you think you can save every single one of them all across the entire island before my men upstairs send the command? Every single person on I-Island is now one of our hostages." His smirk widened, "Including you. Do it."
The floor opened up, revealing holes in the floor that had been completely hidden. They flashed, and then glowing blue tape surrounded every single Hero in the room, and indeed, all across the island proper. All Might was the only one with the power to break through them, and even he could not do so, otherwise he would inevitably injure every single hostage with the shockwave. "Shit…" he muttered to himself.
The Villain shot his pistol into the ceiling, getting quiet from the terrified guests. "If you take even a single step, everyone dies." All Might cursed again, and took a kick from the Villain, knocking him to the floor, "Good boy." The Villain walked off the stage, and his eyes glanced over David. His smirk widened, before he looked at Sam. "Don't worry. If you all stay quiet and don't move, you'll be released when our business here is finished."
A Hero with large shoulders on his costume growled out, "Just what are you after?" He ate a combat boot to the face for his trouble.
"You don't follow instructions so well." The Villain chuckled, before looking towards David's blonde assistant. "You're a researcher, aren't you?" He turned to one of his henchmen, "Take him."
"Stop!" David called out, "This man is merely my assistant. What could you possibly need with him?"
"Oh, a bigger fish has come out. David Shield himself." The man grinned maliciously, "You'll come too. Otherwise somewhere on this island, someone's scream will ring out." David's teeth ground together as he marched after Sam. The Villain – one notorious Wolfram – smiled as he walked behind them. Everything was going according to plan.
-]|[-
Everything was not, in fact, going to plan.
"Are you done with this floor?" One of Wolfram's masked goons asked the other as they met up.
"Yes sir." The goon nodded resolutely. "Not sure why they even stationed us here. The floor was pretty empty except for a few stray guards with shitty weapons. Everyone is down on the second floor."
"I'm sure the boss had his reasons." The leader said, "Now let's get going." The other goon started walking, not noticing his leader raise his rifle. He never would either. With a somewhat quiet suppressed shot from his rifle, the Villain was dead, and the first one was taking off his mask. He took a small device from his pocket, and activated it, "Your excellency." He said, his voice turning reverent and fanatical.
"Report." The voice on the other end was as cold as ice.
"My infiltration was a success, as was Wolfram's plan." The zealot declared, "My apologies, your excellency, but I was unable to integrate myself with his group enough to be trusted in the control room. Nor are we close to where most of the scientists currently are."
"It is of no matter." The voice replied, "Annoying perhaps, but no real loss. Our plan can still work. It will just require a modicum more effort."
"Yes, your excellency! I-Island's security is ours for the taking! We were even given a gift! All Might himself was captured in the reception hall!"
"All Might?" The voice's tone didn't change much, "This is a unique opportunity. I am altering our operation."
"Your excellency?" The man asked in confusion.
"Prepare to receive me, as well as my most trusted." The voice stated, with finality.
The Villain's eyes bulged, before a manic grin lit his face.
-]|[-
At the same time that All Might was being taken captive, the kids were down at the entrance to the building. "It's no good. None of our phones have any signal." Itsuka huffed, almost wanting to throw her phone down. "All reports are being blocked."
"The elevator is down too." Yui reported.
Melissa was frowning, "I don't get it. A bomb threat wouldn't make the security system switch to the highest level immediately."
Kaminari looked at her, "You think something is going down?"
Melissa grabbed her chin in thought, "We don't have enough information to make that call."
Izuku took command, "Then we need to make our way to the party." He said, getting them to look at him, "One way or another, All Might is at the reception. We'll be able to find out more there." He looked to Melissa, "Can you get us there, Melissa?"
"That should be easy." Melissa replied, "We can use the emergency stairs."
-]|[-
"Where are you taking us?" David asked, looking at the floor counter reaching the top. He just couldn't figure it out. Had something gone wrong with their takeover that necessitated their help? How had they even gotten in? They should have been cased in customs! Especially with all these guns!
"Why, the storage room, of course." Wolfram declared, smirking at the man. "There's something in there I want. A little device. One a little birdy told me was built to amplifyQuirks."
David paled, "How do you know about that?!" A gun clicked, and David flinched, before looking to the side. "Sam?!" He asked in disbelief.
"I told them." Sam said, his face as hard as a rock, "I had to find a way to convince them to come, after all."
"Sam, WHY?!" David shouted, unable to stop himself. He had trusted this man! He'd left Melissa under his care when she was younger!
"And why WOULDN'T I?" Sam spat back, "Six years David! Six years of my life I gave to that damned device, and I have NOTHING to show for it! I-Island decided to hide it away and you didn't raise so much as a word of protest after they gave their reasons! It was just water off your back! But I can barely even stay afloat now because of those six wasted years! Even if I WANTED a new job, I'm a six-year ghost. Six years with David Shield and not a single thing I can put my name on? I'm taking it back."
"You…" David clenched his fists in growing rage. All of this for money?! FAME?! "Oh, but you can pay to have Villains brought onto the island?" He hissed furiously.
Sam took a step forward, "Fake." Sam smirked, "Actors with pop guns. They sure made a convincing show, didn't they? Don't you worry professor. Once the device is released from cold storage, we'll be on our merry way."
"You KNOW how dangerous that device is!" David tried, even as a sinking feeling entered him. These guys were no actors. There was just no way.
"I know how wealthy it will make me." Sam said as the elevator door opened, "On your way, professor." He waved the gun towards the door.
David ground his teeth impotently before one of the Villains pushed him. Meanwhile, Wolfram could only smirk.
-]|[-
Toshinori lay on the floor, 'Damn it all!' he thought to himself, 'David, please stay safe.' He was struggling to come to a decision, 'Can I save all of these people with this failing body? I know nothing about this security system! Could I disarm it quickly enough? Before anyone gets hurt?' He knew he had to do something. The Symbol of Peace could not be daunted like this!
'All Might!' Izuku's voice entered his head. Toshinori looked up at the area above the reception, seeing his students up there, 'What's going on?' They were all kneeling and being as stealthy as possible, but they were there. Izuku's right arm was even currently a stump, so that the light from his flames wouldn't get any attention.
Toshinori aborted his attempt to struggle loose, 'Midoriya-shōnen.' He closed his eyes, 'Villains have somehow taken over the island's security system. Everyone on the island is a hostage.'
'It was bad!' Melissa's voice sounded shocked, 'How did they get on the island?' She took a quick look around, and a sick feeling erupted in her stomach, 'Uncle Might… where's Papa?'
Toshinori grimaced, 'I'm sorry Melissa. The Villains saw Samuel and made to take him away, so David tried to stop them. They were both taken somewhere else in the building.' He looked at them, 'All of the Heroes were captured, and civilians are being held hostage without even knowing it by the security systems. It's dangerous. You all need to get away to safety.'
They all looked at each other, "You heard him…" Kinoko whispered, "We need to follow All Might's instructions."
Some of the other students could only clench their fists impotently. Izuku closed his eyes and took a breath. 'All Might… we're the only ones on the entire island who can help and are free to do so. You said it yourself. All of the other Heroes have been captured and the security is under their control.'
'Absolutely not!' Toshinori thundered, 'You all are not even out of your first year of school yet! You're not even out of your first semester!'
Momo took a breath of her own and followed her love's lead, 'And yet we've been through quite a lot already, All Might. This situation isn't going to resolve itself. The entire island is locked down. Communications are down. Even Melissa's special phone isn't getting any signal. The Villains can do whatever they want.'
'Uncle Might…' Melissa said softly, 'I know the security system like the back of my hand. If we can get up there, I should be able to reboot it.' She told him, 'Everything is located on the top of the tower. We can make our way there and free everyone.'
'And if you run into Villains, Melissa?' Toshinori asked, 'If ANY of you get hurt?'
'We're training to be Heroes, All Might. Getting hurt was what we signed up for.' Izuku said, before he carefully left the heads of his classmates except for his girlfriends, Inasa, and Melissa, 'Besides… your time limit is ticking. What will they do if you deflate in the middle of the floor?'
"Damn it…" Toshinori cursed to himself lowly.
'Besides.' Nejire chimed in, not smiling for once, 'Even if they don't, I do have my provisional license, All Might.'
'We got this, All Might!' Inasa declared, looking like he was about to punch his palm before freezing. He didn't notice some of the other student's eyes narrow.
Izuku left Inasa's head as well, 'All Might, we can do this. You chose me and then Momo because you believed in us. Let us help.'
All Might hated this. Hated this feeling of uselessness. If this was how he felt now, he could hardly imagine what retirement would feel like. But at the same time? He couldn't help but feel so proud he wanted to burst, 'Very well.' He said, half in defeat, 'Am I connected to all of you?'
'Yes!' Izuku said, before quickly connecting to the others again.
'Alright students. I am giving you all permission to act. Your mission is to make your way to the top of the tower and reboot the security system. That way, the Heroes on the island may once again act without fearing for the lives of civilians. Above all else, you must STAY SAFE. If you can accomplish this mission without being discovered, all the better. If you are unsafe and your life is at risk, you will RETREAT. Is that in any way unclear?'
'No sir!' They all replied, with varying levels of timidity.
'Good. If you can subdue Villains, do so, but the security system takes priority. Your secondary mission is to locate David Shield and his assistant Samuel and bring them to safety, if you can. They were taken to the upper floors, so perhaps you will cross paths with them. Once the security is back in our hands, you all are to disengage if doing so will not put yourself or someone else at risk.' Toshinori finished his orders, "Spiral-chan, you are in command. If for some reason you are unable to give orders, Eon is in command. If he is unavailable, then Izanami. Then Battle Fist. Then Automata."
'Yes sir!' They all answered, and quickly made their way back to the stairwell. They needed to plan and then execute.
'Stay safe, kids.' All Might thought to himself, hoping he was doing the right thing.
-]|[-
"Okay, so what's the plan?" Inasa asked, punching his other hand.
"First of all, who needs different clothes?" Momo asked, "I'm guessing all of the girls do?" There were grimaces all around. As much as they'd like to not waste time changing, fighting in heels and dresses was a bad idea.
Setsuna groaned, "Well, at least we won't ruin them…" She sighed heavily, "Drat, and I was looking forward to teasing Zuku all night."
"Ignoring that part, are we just using the stairs to get up there?" Todoroki asked, "Will they not see us?"
"It's possible." Melissa confirmed, "But these guys clearly aren't well versed with it, otherwise they probably already would have caught on that something was wrong. I doubt we'll get all the way to the top, but there's always a chance."
"Even if there is…" Itsuka bit her thumb, "Should we?" They looked at her in confusion. She dropped her hand, "I know All Might means well in trying to keep us safe, but if we get to the top we're going to have all of the Villains up there."
Nirengeki grimaced, "Kendō's right. That's a lot of guns and unknown Quirks, and probably in an enclosed area to top it off."
"Divide and conquer?" Yui asked, looking to the leaders of their group.
Nejire took command, "Melissa-chan, are there any floors in the building with a LOT of open space?" She looked at Izuku, "And do you think you could catch any bullets fired at us?"
"I'd have to be able to react to them unless I just keep a psychic shield over all of us at all times, and I don't know how well I could do that." Izuku replied, "Grabbing their guns and crushing them should be easy enough, but what if they have snipers?"
"Let me handle that." Inasa smirked, "My wind will be our shield."
"Good. Melissa?" Nejire turned back to the blonde.
She nodded, "There are. About halfway up the tower is a botanical garden with direct elevator access."
"Good." Nejire nodded, "Then here's the plan." She quickly outlined it out, "Questions?" There were head shakes all around, and she smiled, "Good. Come on then. Momo can make us some new clothes."
"Come on girls." Momo waved them down the set of stairs, "Izu, make sure no one peeks."
"I will." Izuku said, before turning to Melissa who hadn't moved and looking at her meaningfully. She stared back, before she smiled and ran down the stairs after the rest of the girls.
"Midoriya," Todoroki said, drawing his attention. He looked quizzically at the boy with two hair colors, "At one point when talking with All Might, you pulled out of my head, and likely some others." Izuku's eyes widened, along with Inasa's, "Yoarashi made motions as if he were animatedly talking back, and yet we were no longer hearing any voices. Why?"
"Is this really the time?" Inasa asked, staring hard at the boy.
"We're waiting for the girls, aren't we?" He asked frostily.
Izuku stared hard at Todoroki, "I pulled out because our discussion involved something private." He said finally.
"In a disaster scenario? You're keeping secrets?" Todoroki asked him, narrowing his eyes.
"And you aren't?" Izuku shot back, "Care to tell us why you keep misusing your Quirk?"
"Misusing?" The air turned slightly frosty.
"Yes, misusing. What else would you call denying half of who you are?" Izuku shot back, "So care to enlighten us?" The other guys looked worried, and Kaminari looked like he wanted to try diffusing things.
"It's none of your business." Todoroki said, after a moment.
"And what we were discussing was none of yours." Izuku shrugged, "But I will say this. What you're doing, Todoroki-kun? It's not good for your health. Denying your Quirk and not using it never ends well for anyone."
"And I told you before." Todoroki ground his teeth, "I won't use his Quirk. I won't be like him."
"It's your Quirk." Inasa said, glaring at Todoroki, "Not your father's. Yours. It may have come from him originally, but that doesn't mean anything. Or are you saying your Quirk siphons fire directly from him?" For the first time, Todoroki had something other than cold fury in his gaze. He looked surprised. He made to speak, but Inasa wasn't done, "And if your goal is to not be like him then you're doing a real bang-up job." The sarcasm was so thick even the emotionally stunted Shōto caught it. Todoroki's fists clenched and the air got even colder. Inasa took a breath and glanced at Izuku, before glaring back at Todoroki, "I met your old man before, you know? I idolized him when I was younger. He was my favorite Hero. I thought he was even hotter than All Might." Todoroki's expression closed off, "And then I met him."
Todoroki blinked, "…"
"Yeah, shocking. Meeting a popular Hero in the flesh. None of us ever did that." Inasa snorted, "Except instead of meeting my favorite Hero, I met my most hated. All I wanted was an autograph and maybe some words of inspiration from my favorite Hero. Your father didn't even spare me a glance when he knocked me to the ground and ruined the poster I had brought to be signed. Didn't even help me up." Everyone in the stairwell winced. Even the girls downstairs were carefully listening in, looks of disappointment on their faces as they changed.
"That's fucked, bro." Kaminari grimaced. He couldn't imagine meeting his favorite and being knocked to the ground by them.
"I…" Todoroki looked shocked and confused.
Izuku spoke up after glancing at Inasa and getting a nod as the taller boy leaned back on the wall, "You know Inasa almost refused his recommendation?" Everyone's gazes snapped to him, "Took me quite some convincing to get him to come here, you know. And it was all because of you."
"What?" Todoroki's eyes opened wide, and he glanced back and forth between Izuku and Inasa. Some of the other students also gasped. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Mhm." Izuku said, "He had that bad experience with your father, but he was willing to let that be water under the bridge. But instead, you showed poor sportsmanship at the exam. You rejected any friendship or even rivalry with him. You wouldn't even shake his hand when he offered it to you… You couldn't have hit any more of his buttons if you tried." Izuku glared at him, "My best friend almost chose to go to another school because he didn't even want to be in the same building as you."
Inasa spoke up again as Shōto gaped in shock, "In the short few months I've known you, you've been a poor loser at least twice. You almost killed our classmates in a training exercise, and you almost got yourself killed fighting Villains because you just kept feeding their Quirks with more ammo. AND you put the rest of our classmates in more danger than they would have been to start with because of it!"
"I…"
"Todoroki-kun…" Izuku said, facing him, "I don't know what your problem is with your father. But if you want to be different from him, maybe don't act just like him." Todoroki reared back as if Izuku had struck him. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
"Enough," Nejire said, quietly as she came back up the steps. Momo had made a perfect recreation of her costume, since Melissa hadn't even started on her upgrades, "This isn't the time for an argument like this. Focus up." She put a hand on Todoroki's shoulder, "You good to go?"
"I…have a lot to consider." Todoroki whispered, his eyes closed, before he took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes back up, they were sharp and alert, "But that's for another time. Let's do this."
Slowly, the girls came up the steps. Momo came up next, and her costume was completely different than it had been the last time he'd seen it. Melissa had given her costume the highest priority, and the changes were massive.
First, the design of the leotard was completely different, though it kept the same beautiful red color. It resembled a competitive swimming suit crossed with a crop top, held together by tough-looking black straps. One For All's addition had allowed her to create items directly via the energy she emitted, but after some heavy experimentation with Melissa, she learned that more complex items were far more tiring to make that way compared to popping it out of her body directly. Therefore, she still exposed quite a bit of skin. All of her abs were exposed, as were her sides, and most of her back. Her breasts were completely encased in her top, though there was a zipper in the front in case she needed to take it off quickly. Her single yellow utility belt had been replaced by many smaller ones around her left thigh and her hips, with one additional bandolier on her right shoulder. Her left arm was already encased in a Mark II Full Gauntlet, one that seemed to have lost the ability to shrink via Melissa's Nanotech in favor of the improved OMNI-Tool replica. On her right hand was a set of fingerless gloves, and both of her arms were reinforced with slightly darker burgundy bracers and elbow guards. Her boots had also been replaced, with what looked like reinforcing shin-pads and knee-guards.
OHMYGODSHELOOKSAMAZING! Izuku screamed in his head.
Or not. Momo blushed, "Thanks, Izu." She pecked him, "This is more like a Mark 1.7 costume though. Melissa wasn't completely done with it, so we had to improvise."
Izuku swore steam was coming from his nose, and he gave her a thumbs up, "The basic design is excellent… though I do still worry about injury with the exposed skin."
Momo smirked, "Don't you worry about that, Izu. Melissa does good work."
"YES SHE DOES!" Mina sprang up. Her costume hadn't changed overly much in overall design, but the gauntlets certainly had. "How do I look, Midori?" She spun around, revealing that the back did look quite different.
"Amazing!" he blushed, and then the conga line of girls came up. Camie's suit also hadn't changed much, though she had her new Electric Gauntlets already. She also had some bandoliers and utility pouches, and under her ears were what he assumed was the Nanotech mask Melissa had talked about.
Setsuna also had her Crush Gaunts, though they looked a little off. Like they were too big and bulky for Setsuna and her costume. Clearly, this was a rush job, not that he blamed Momo or Melissa. It HAD been a heavy time crunch, after all. Mina's gauntlets and parts of Camie's costume had the same issue.
The girls from 1-B had no work from Melissa, and Momo had to improvise. Itsuka had not changed out of her dress and instead was just wearing boots to protect herself. She had slipped on a reinforced corset that stopped just under her chest. She had also slightly torn her cheongsam so that it wouldn't get in her way as much. The other girls ended up in catsuits mimicking Camie's or Setsuna's since that was easier than trying to describe their Hero costumes. Komori especially was enjoying how it made her look and contemplating making a costume change as Kaminari drooled over her.
"Okay boys, let's get you some shoes!" Momo said, and immediately popped out more appropriate footwear for Izuku. The boys quickly lined up and got their own shoes made by her, and quickly stripped off their jackets and started stretching out in their pants to break them in.
"Man, this is such a drag. These were such nice clothes." Kaminari drooped, before cracking his neck.
"I've got the bill." Momo promised, "Once this is over, I'll have everything replaced."
"Whoo! Thanks, Yaomomo!" He cheered.
"Now, does anyone have any requests?" Momo asked, looking around at everyone.
"I do." Kaminari raised his hand sheepishly, "I need a harness, and some sort of club I can electrify."
"Easy." Momo said, and popped out the harness and then, after some thought, carefully pulled something from her back. It looked like a cross between a club and an electrical transformer.
"Whoa!" Kaminari gasped, "That thing looks wicked!" He took it from her, "Oof! And heavy!" He backed up and took a swing with it, "Nice! Thanks, Yaomomo! Actually…. Sorry to be a pain in the ass, but can you make just my jacket from my Hero costume? It has some special goodies to help me out."
"Of course! And you're welcome!" Momo smiled and rapidly took care of any other requests, "Are we all ready?"
"I am!" And then Melissa came up, and jaws dropped. Her hair had been put into a slick ponytail, and she was in what he could only describe as a Zero Suit from Metroid, just with no high heels and in the colors of All Might's current costume. It looked painted onto her, and left absolutely nothing to the imagination. It also looked like she was hiding quite a few goodies in it via nanotech, if the look of confidence on her face was any indication. Her face was partially obscured, with her wearing some sort of gadget on her head. It wasn't bulky, but he wasn't too sure what it did.
Izuku gulped, and Setsuna smirked as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders from behind, "She looks hot, doesn't she?"
"…Yeah." He squeaked quietly without thinking, before blanching and looking at Setsuna.
"Good. We gotta be honest in a relationship like ours." She said, and Nejire nodded sharply, "And she does look like a snack, doesn't she?" She grinned, showcasing all her sharp teeth.
Melissa was blushing and Momo cleared her throat, "Enough. Melissa, how does it feel?"
"Perfect." Melissa let out a smile, "You outdid yourself, Yaomomo. I was half certain you couldn't get everything perfect on your first try, but you did. It feels amazing!" She bent her knees and jumped, and their eyes opened wide as she touched the bottom of the stairs above them. That was beyond a jump a baseline human (even when born in this day and age) should have been capable of. Melissa seemed to do it with ease, "It's working flawlessly!"
"Good!" Nejire took command, "Melissa, you're on point."
"Yes!" Melissa said, before she pointed her left hand at the floor, and it lit up. A hologram projected from a glowing doodad on the back of her hand and showed the building's layout, "We're here, on the fourth floor." A red dot was glowing, "Our goal is to make it all the way to the final floor: number 200." A blue one lit up far above them. "Just below the midway point is the Botanic Gardens." The entire floor lit up, "That would be the ideal place to draw them to for a fight, while a smaller team continues up." She smiled, and for the first time it was a little nasty, "After we draw them down, we might even be able to have Izuku hijack the elevator with Phoenix Force to take us up most of the rest of the way."
"Then we have our plan." Nejire said, "Everyone be careful, and from now on, Hero names only!" She turned and smiled at Melissa, raising an eyebrow.
Melissa flushed as the rest of them turned to her. She took a deep breath, before she gave them a confident smile, "Call me Minerva. Let's go!"
"Right!" They all started racing up the steps, where a clear dichotomy of athleticism showed up. Izuku, Momo, Inasa, Todoroki, Mina, Setsuna, Melissa, Nejire, Camie, and Itsuka were firmly in the lead. All of them were in exceptional health and worked out hard. Melissa wasn't in quite as good shape as the rest of them, but the suit she'd daydreamed of for years and designed for herself leveled the playing field for her. By the time they reached the fiftieth floor, others were slowing down dramatically. Kaminari was right behind them, but was weighed down by his new club and hadn't drained any electricity in hours. Nirengeki, Honenuki, and Yui were all panting behind him. None of their Quirks really involved endurance, and they were beginning to realize that they had drastically underestimated just how active Heroes were.
Kinoko was another matter entirely. She was sweating heavily and practically gasping for breath as she tried to continue up the stairs. "H-holy shitake…" She breathed as they slowed down. Izuku realized they had started losing someone and had the group take a small breather.
"Shemage!" Kaminari came back down a few steps, "Are you okay?" She nodded, even though she couldn't speak. She looked pretty tired already after only fifty of two hundred floors. Kaminari chewed lightly on his cheek, "Minerva!"
"Yes?" Melissa asked, taking slow, deep breaths herself.
"Will they notice if I draw on any electricity? There are outlets here, right?" Kaminari asked her.
"They shouldn't. Not unless you can drain enough to cause a blackout." Melissa responded.
"Right on!" He grinned, and glanced around to find an outlet. Luckily, there was one. No one wanted to be the cleaner with a dead battery a hundred floors from a supply closet. He went up to it and stuck his arm out as if he were grasping for it. Electricity started to spark from the outlet, draining up his arm and visibly recharging him. He started looking a little livelier than he had been, "Thanks for the meal." He smirked, coming back to Kinoko, and just casually forcing her into a piggyback.
"Eek!" Kinoko blushed, "K-Kami-kun, so bold…" She wrapped her arms tighter to hold on.
"Let's go!" Kaminari said, and they started making their way back up the stairs. Floor sixty came and went, and then seventy.
"I wasn't expecting the shutter!" Melissa bit her thumb tip, "Okay… this is floor eighty. The botanical gardens are right through there." Melissa said, as she turned around and pointed at the door near Yui. "But once we either break the shutter or open that door, they're going to know we're here." This was it. Kinoko in particular looked very nervous. "Do we split up here or after we get to the gardens?"
"Garden." Izuku, Todoroki, and Nejire all said the same thing. They raised their eyebrows and threw Todoroki an olive branch, giving him the floor.
Todoroki inclined his head and spoke, "The gardens give us a wide-open space to fight and elevator access. If we split up here, not only is one of our groups going to have to fight in an enclosed space, but likely on stairs as well. Further, we have no idea how strong or weak the Villains are. If we're all together, we may be able to just defeat them entirely and continue up as a unit."
"Well reasoned." Nejire praised with a smile, "Good work, Todoroki-kun." He nodded to their senpai. "Time to say hello." She focused up, marching to the door, and gripping the handle. "Everyone ready?" She glanced at Kinoko, who took a deep breath and nodded. "Now!" She yelled, slamming the door open and running through. The rest of them took off after her.
It was obvious that the Villains had noticed them, because as soon as they got a couple hundred feet down the hall, shutters started coming down both ahead and behind them. Nejire seemed to glitch, and then she was ahead of where she had been, her spiraling waves of energy blasting a foot-thick solid steel shutter apart.
Izuku sped past her, before veering right and using his tie to slice a deep gouge into the giant door leading to the garden. He then leapt at it at the same time that the lightning-covered Momo landed next to him, and together, they smashed the door open for the rest of them.
On they ran, up until they spotted the elevator. It was coming up, meaning that several Villains had left the ruined party down below. "That's not what we want." Todoroki said, glaring at it, "We wanted them to come down, not come up."
"Evaluate their strength." Nejire said, sharply. "If we can continue together, we will. If not, get Minerva to the top!" She held her hand up.
"Right!" They yelled, as the elevator dinged. The door started to open, and immediately, Nejire blasted the doorway with her Quirk. The Villains only had a moment to look surprised before the bigger one threw himself forward and grew huge and purple.
"RARGH!" He roared as Nejire's waves hit his massive, bulky arms. But he withstood it, and was only pushed back a tiny bit.
"What the hell?" The smaller, furrier man snarled. He had a head shaped somewhat like a goat, "You kids are something else, huh?" He raised his right arm and it enlarged into a huge, webbed claw. He swiped it forward, and the air in front of him visibly warped.
"Do-" Nejire went to yell, but Melissa jumped in front to their shock.
Melissa set her feet and held her left arm out in front of her. Her OMNI-Tool sparked to life, and a white-blue set of hard light hexagons started forming in front of her, creating a blazing tower shield in front of her. The warp impacted the shield and made it flare up and the individual hexagons wobbled, but dissipated the attack harmlessly. Behind her shield, Melissa smirked.
"What the fuck!?" The goat man yelled, "How the fuck did she block my Quirk?!" He ground his teeth and took off running, revealing himself to be so speedy his legs turned into blurs. It really was shocking just what the human body was capable of nowadays. He was even running on the water! He started swiping at them, and Melissa hurried to block all of the displacement blasts his Quirk caused.
"Enough!" Kaminari yelled, raising his arm, and shooting a bolt of lightning at the goat man.
"Tch!" The man clicked his teeth after just barely being able to avoid the snipe. "You damn ki-" He cut himself off with a curse as more lightning bolts shot out at him, forcing him off the little lake and back onto dry land. His eyes bulged as Izuku swiped his tie at him, unleashing a Psycho Cut that was carving the ground up. "Holy fuck, you're not-"
Everyone's eyes widened as blood erupted from his front. Many little blood splatters. "Chk…" He managed to get out, raising a shaky hand up to his front, and fingering the arrow buried in his sternum. Before the kids shocked gazes, he fell to his knees and then onto his face, a growing puddle of blood beneath him.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" The other Villain, who had been pinned down by Nejire's Waves, roared in anger. "NOBU! WHO-"
"RAAAARGHHHH!" He barely had time to look before something crashed into him from above with such force that he died instantly. A plume of smoke and dirt erupted in front of them. All they could see was a massive, hulking shadow behind it. And then a much smaller shadow started bouncing towards them, before bursting from the smoke. The object rolled, and came to a stop a few meters away from the group of kids.
Kinoko screamed, before hiding her face behind Kaminari's back. She just barely kept from throwing up.
The smoke cleared, revealing a hulking behemoth with pale gray skin, and even bigger muscles than All Might himself. He had a relatively small head, with beady orange-yellow eyes and a wide set of teeth that looked almost mask-like. His fingers were covered in spiraling red… things that looked almost like crystalized blood. The same appendages were coming from his head, looking almost like tubes. And he was standing on the decapitated corpse of the Villain they had been facing.
"So…" A much more cultured (if utterly ice cold) voice came from above them. "You're the reason the security activated." He looked at them disdainfully as he floated down from the upper level. His blue skin was luminescent, and he had a shaved head of dark blue hair, with a goatee, a mustache, and arrow-shaped earrings. He wore a dark red robe with some high-tech-looking support equipment on his hands, a golden belt, and various glowing blue orbs all over him.
"Who are you?" Todoroki demanded, his eyes sharp and cold, "Clearly you're not with them." He inclined his head to the head with just a touch of discomfort in his eyes.
A young woman landed behind them, boxing them in a triangle formation. "You are in no position to demand anything of His Excellency." She said darkly. She had an athletic build and mint-green hair and eyes. She was wearing a sleeveless gray combat suit with a mask obscuring her face. On top of that, she wore a hooded green cloak and had a quiver strapped to her back. Her left thumb and pinky fingers had formed into a bow, which she had nocked with an arrow she had just pulled out of the dead Villain Nobu.
"Oh great." Inasa said sarcastically, "A zealot."
The Leviathan before them roared and the woman pulled back on her arrow, but the blue man held a hand out. "Now Beros, children will be children." The two Villains with him relaxed slightly, "You are correct. We are not with the group that took over the facility, though we shall graciously use the opportunity they provided."
"And what do you want?" Melissa asked, trying to keep her hammering heart from becoming audible, "And how did you even get here?"
Izuku's eyes started to glow as he tried to enter their minds. He was able to enter Beros' mind easily enough, but the hulking guy was practically mindless except for instinct to follow the man Villain's orders and fight. But the main Villain himself? He couldn't touch his mind at all. It was almost like he was getting rebuffed, and he didn't want to push his luck and be discovered, otherwise, they might attack immediately. So, he focused on the woman as she spoke.
"One of our members infiltrated their group on His Excellency's orders, once we heard of this plot." Beros said, "He used his Quirk-" And the way she spat the word made it clear what she thought of them, "To switch places with us once the tower was secure." Izuku learned that the man's Quirk allowed him to switch places with his own body parts, and anything attached to them would come with. He'd infiltrated the Villain Wolfram's group when they got rumblings that they had a way onto the island. This was an inside job! The man had removed his toes and given one each to Beros, Leviathan, and the leader Flect Turn, and switched with them once they were ready.
…What a name.
As for what they wanted? Izuku got flashes of their plans from Beros' mind. The three were here to completely take over I Island and kidnap every single scientist here to force them to work on their plans. And those plans involved bombs full of an enhanced version of the Quirk-Enhancing drug Trigger detonated in every major city on the planet. The entire cult feared nothing more than the Doomsday Quirk Singularity theory, and were determined to wipe out 80% of the planet in order to return the world to Quirklessness in order to prevent it.
These people were insane.
Izuku realized it with growing horror as he dug deeper in her mind. There was no reasoning with them, and every single one of them already had hundreds of murders under their belts. Beros had been grimacing as he started going through her mind with greater urgency, and then snapped a hand to her head in pain.
The jig was up, Izuku realized as Flect Turn's eyes narrowed, and some mechanical devices popped out of his belt. He pulled out of Beros's head so fast she got whiplash and crumbled to her knees. The air around Izuku's flaming arm warped and roiled before he thrust it forwards. The strongest Force Push of his life screamed out, this time appearing like a proper punch from All Might, if a weaker one.
Flect Turn simply stood there and waited, before being engulfed by it. A huge plume of dust engulfed the man. "Eon!" Nejire yelled in shock.
"They're Doomsday Cultists!" Izuku yelled back, "They intend on kidnapping all the scientists here to force them to work on their genocide plans! Take them-"
"Futile." Flect Turn's voice was cold as he was revealed. A giant… tornado? Of black energy was spiraling behind him. "Kill them." The energy behind him snapped forward, shooting right back at Izuku and the students behind him.
"Not on my watch!" Izuku yelled, glowing emerald, and thrusting his hands forward. A giant barrier made of translucent energy raised in front of them. Something he'd just gotten the idea from, after seeing Melissa's shield. The reflected attack crashed into the barrier and broke upon it, but since it was his own power it forced Izuku to one knee. The barrier flickered.
"What even is that Quirk?!" Kaminari gasped.
"It must be some form of Reflecting Quirk!" Momo analyzed rapidly.
"Correct." Flect Turn said carelessly. It wasn't as if it mattered if they knew what his curse did.
"RAAAAARGH!" Leviathan roared with fury as his crystalline fingers started to spin rapidly before he thrust his hand forward. The spiraling digits seemed like little drills as they extended and became almost needle-like. They raced towards Izuku and almost instantly pierced the weakened, nearly spent barrier.
Nejire's eyes widened, and she sparked to full power instantly. She practically teleported in front of Izuku and grabbed two of the hardened spikes. The third slipped by and sliced her thigh wide open, drawing a pained scream from her.
"Spiral-Chan!" Itsuka yelled, grabbing the spikes half a second later as Nejire's knee wobbled. Her fists were gigantic as she held onto them.
Kaminari practically turned into a lightning bolt, fury blazing in his eyes as he raced towards the behemoth. He had his club in hand, "HOW DARE YOU HURT OUR SENPAI!" He roared as he swung the club directly into Leviathan's jaw.
The behemoth let out a roar of pain as he was launched backwards and upwards, colliding into the central pillar. It was practically an explosion as reinforced concrete rained down to the gardens.
"You kids are… irritating." Flect Turn said, as one of his Arachne crystals started to glow. A laser erupted from one, racing to pierce Kaminari's head mercilessly.
Kaminari's enhanced nervous system meant he could follow it, and he ducked immediately, blurring as he did so. "Fuck you too, buddy!" He said, releasing a trio of Lightning Rockets at the Villain. They almost hit him, before again, the energy was absorbed into an electrical storm behind him, and snapped back at Kaminari. Kaminari took the single attack and reabsorbed it, grunting and grinning.
"How dare you!" Beros snarled, "Diseased humans such as yourself shouldn't even look at His Excellency, much less attack him!" She nocked three arrows and shot them, aiming for Izuku, Nejire, and Kaminari.
"You guys are nuts!" Inasa rose into the air as a tornado of wind erupted around the group. The arrows got grabbed by the wind, "Too bad I'm an archer's worst enemy!"
"Are you?" Beros struggled, and the arrows started glowing and redirecting through the wind. It became a battle between the two, one which Beros was only technically winning. The arrows were so slow they could all easily dodge them. Itsuka went one better, and grabbed an arrow out of the air with a leap.
She snapped it on her knee, while Yui grabbed a second and enlarged it. She swung at the villain, and Beros glared, being forced to abort. She dodged backwards as the giant arrowhead narrowly missed her. "Hn." Yui said triumphantly, a small, smug smirk on her face. The arrow shrunk back down, smaller than ever, and Yui casually snapped it with one hand and dropped the pieces. Kaminari was easily able to blast the last arrow, lighting it on fire and burning it to a crisp.
And then Leviathan, who wasn't beaten quite yet, landed in the gardens again with a snarl and blood dripping from between cracked teeth. Before the fight could continue, alarms started blaring through the facility, and the light in the room turned red. Shutters opened in the rooms before dozens, and then hundreds of security bots started raining into the room.
"Shit!" Mina cursed as she witnessed it, "I don't suppose they're here to help, huh?"
"I doubt it." Setsuna said grimly.
Nejire stood from where Izuku had just finished healing her leg. She realized Izuku was getting ready to fight again, "No!" She held her hand out at him, "Eon, get Minerva and GO!" She looked at him seriously.
"But!" Izuku gasped, ready to argue.
"Don't argue with me!" The normally bubbly girl's voice cracked like a whip, "Don't forget the mission! We NEED to take back control of the island!" She paused for just a second, "Eon, Izanami, Minerva, Shemage, and Rule. All of you get out of here!" She bit her lip, "Sorry, but we're going to need the rest of you here, I think. That's all we can spare." She glared at Flect Turn.
Izuku clenched his teeth, but emerald surrounded him and all of the others Nejire mentioned, and they erupted towards the ceiling. Kinoko squealed and grabbed onto Yui like a Koala, screaming into her shoulder.
"As if we would let you simply leave." Flect Turn said, before shooting lasers at Izuku. Izuku turned as the rest continued upwards and hardened his sword. He slapped away the lasers before blitzing up and blasting a hole through the floor onto the next level.
They all panted as they touched down before Momo got to her feet. "Let's go! We can't waste a second!"
"Right!" The others yelled, as Melissa again began leading them up the tower. Something was bothering her though, "I just don't get it!" Melissa said in frustration, "How did TWO Villain groups get on the island at the same time?!" She cried out as they came upon a shutter. Momo sparked up and crashed through it, blowing it open and continuing to run in one smooth motion.
"It was an inside job." Izuku said, grimly.
"WHAT?!" She shrieked in response, almost stopping before he grabbed her hand and kept her moving.
"I pulled it out of the female Villain's head." Izuku replied, "Someone started making overtures to get Villains on the island for a purpose I don't know. That person let Wolfram's group in. He was the one that took over the island. One of his Villains was a mole. Their Cult – one called Humarise – heard of the operation and managed to sneak in a spy. The spy killed some other members of Wolfram's group and then used his Quirk to switch places with his leaders." He went on to explain what else he'd pulled out of Beros's head.
Momo was as pale as snow, and Yui and Kinoko didn't look much better. Melissa looked like she wanted to spontaneously develop a fire-breathing Quirk. "Then we don't have much time. We need to get the Heroes freed quickly! LET'S MOVE!"
"Right!" The others shouted, redoubling their efforts.
They quickly made their way up the floors, with Momo needing to piggyback Kinoko after a while. As she ran, she asked Kinoko about her fungicides so that Kinoko would be able to actually use her Quirk around them. Momo cursed when she realized she didn't actually know the chemicals involved. "I don't know any of those." She lamented, "And the encyclopedia function on the OMNI Tool isn't working."
"I'm so sorry, Izanami." Melissa was incredibly apologetic, "I never imagined every single satellite we have being taken over and service denied like this. Especially not our special SENTINEL satellite!"
Izuku shook his head, "It's not your fault. This definitely wasn't something we could have planned for."
Momo nodded, "We'll just have to make sure the Mark III has the info loaded directly onto it, rather than relying on a connection."
"Sorry guys!" Kinoko was almost crying, "I'm going to be useless at this rate!"
"No, you won't." Izuku said resolutely, "There's more than one way to take care of a problem. If Momo can't make fungicides for you, then I'll shield all of us with my power if you need to use-"
A shutter started coming down, this time timed so that it was going to crash directly into Izuku's head. He reacted immediately, reaching up and gouging the door with a psychic blast. Melissa glared at it, "They were trying to herd us."
"Now they're trying to kill us." Yui said, quietly. They came upon a lab with a glowing green helical structure on floor 130. There wasn't much beyond that in the room. Just various structures below a catwalk. But that didn't mean it was safe to pass through. Dozens of the security robots were lying in wait, and they needed to get through here. They'd gone a different way, but there had been hundreds of the damn things waiting for them. Izuku had sealed the shutter back up and then mangled it to prevent it from rising. "How do we get past them?"
"I can make a cannon." Momo started to smirk as she said that, preparing to make one of her favorites, but Izuku held a hand up, "Eon?"
"I have a better idea…" Izuku slowly smirked as he looked at Kinoko.
The girl paled and started to sweat, "Can we talk about this?"
Beat.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Kinoko squealed, streams of tears escaping her eyes as her glowing body flew through the lab environment and spewed spores on all of the security bots and the left door. "I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS, EON!" She screamed as POP POP POP started sounding throughout the room, her mushrooms forming an almost solid mass on all the bots and gumming up their servos.
"Good job, Shemage!" Melissa cheered as Izuku gently set Kinoko down on the catwalk, fighting to keep from laughing.
Even Yui was smiling lightly as she passed, "Good job." She held a hand out, and Kinoko took it and shakily stood.
"'Go to I-Island,' she said. 'It'll be fun,' she said. 'You can take Kami-kun on a boyfriend trial run, she said.'" Kinoko started huffing behind them, still crying melodramatically.
It was only eight more floors before they ran into trouble again. When they entered the floor with all of the servers, everything seemed quiet. That lasted until they were about halfway through. The door behind them slammed shut and shutters came down behind them, and then hundreds of the damn security robots started entering the room. "Oh no!" Melissa gasped, "This is the server room! We can't damage anything in here or else we might damage the security system too!"
Yui was a bit paler than usual, "We can always go back, but they know where we are for sure now." She muttered.
"Minerva." Momo said, "As long as we don't damage the servers, it's fine, right?"
"Yes?" Melissa said, wonderingly.
A slow smirk rose up on Momo's face, "And there's nothing important ahead of us?" She was already formulating and calculating as she did so.
"Nope. We can go right through." Melissa confirmed, "Though there's a lot of them!" That made her worried. Not that they couldn't handle it, but that, "IS THAT A CANNON?!"
Momo had sparked red, with a massive barrel popping out of her shoulder. A belt of 30mm shellswas coming out of her side and feeding into the receiver. She effortlessly held the massive anti-tank rifle with her enhanced strength, as if it weighed nothing. As she aimed it, the security bots almost seemed to back up a tad. And then Izuku went into action. His eyes became emerald LEDs from the glow, surrounding all of their eardrums.
"Hmm." Yui hummed appreciatively as all sounds except for their voices deadened. She knelt and put her hand on the floor. Immediately, the metal beneath them began to warp in a wave, and protective barriers made of enlarged, hardened steel rose in front of the server racks.
"We're good to go, Momo!" Izuku yelled as Yui gave him a thumbs-up.
Mina, Setsuna, and Camie had been bad influences on her. She never would have considered the following words before Camie had led her down the rabbit hole. Her smirk widened, "Bitches love cannons!"
BOOM!
The first 30mm shell fired in a brilliant burst of flame from the end of the barrel. The backblast ruffled Izuku's looser clothes though it did nothing to the skintight catsuits the others were wearing. The force even moved Momo back about 15cm. The anti-tank shell hit the first bot and annihilated it, before continuing through and piercing every single security bot in its path and then burying itself five feet into the hardened, reinforced concrete of the tower.
Every bot seemed to go haywire after that, with the lights on them changing. So, Momo just set her feet, activated One For All, and started blasting.
-]|[-
"You've gotta be fucking me." Swordkil, Wolfram's second in command, said as he gaped at the monitor, "These kids are fucking nuts!"
"Report!" Wolfram's voice came through the radio.
"Sir, things aren't going well. These kids are from U.A. and they're way stronger than some Pro Heroes we've dealt with! One of the crazy bitches just started destroying the security robots with an automatic, belt-fed anti-tank rifle!" He swallowed, "And that's not even getting into the situation downstairs! I have no idea who this second group is or how they got here, but the leader has some sort of Reflect Quirk and seems untouchable. Nobu and Daigo were both killed by the second group, and they're fighting with the larger group of kids on floor 80. We lost contact with Sekingar, and Narinki is in range but not answering. I think we had a mole that got them here, somehow."
Down below, Wolfram clenched his teeth and thought to himself. "I'm authorizing lethal force on the group approaching the top. Get all of our guns and keep those kids from getting to the control room at all costs. Kill all of them."
Swordkil nodded, "And the second group of intruders?"
"Once I have our prize, they won't matter." Wolfram replied, "In fact, the longer we can keep them busy, the better our chances are. Set any remaining bots to help the kids against the more dangerous group. Once they're defeated or we have our prize, put them on lethal mode too. Over." Wolfram hung up before Swordkil could inform him that the bots on floor 80 were dwindling rapidly.
Unknown to him, All Might's incredibly sharp hearing caught the entire thing, 'A second group? With a reflect Quirk? Damn it all! Stay safe, kids!'
-]|[-
On the eightieth floor, Nejire's group faced off with Humarise. "Everyone be careful." She muttered, "Our healer is gone. Do not get hit by those lasers." She bit her lip, "Mudman, Conduit, handle the bots and then help with the big guy. Battle Fist, Double Tap, Discordia, the big guy. Amina Acid and Automata, the archer. Frozone and Gale Force, you're with me!"
"Right!" They all shouted back.
"Nejire Snipe!" Nejire yelled, pointing her index and middle finger at Flect Turn. It started to glow with her Wave Motion energy.
"Have you not learned yet?" Flect Turn asked, nonplussed as Nejire fired, "Your attacks cannot work again-" A shattering sound interrupted him as the beam went right by his head, and he looked to his left. His eye twitched. One of the focusing crystals on his Arachne had been shattered.
Nejire smirked as she rose into the air, "Jackpot~" She said, teasingly. "Your Reflect is strong, but it only covers your body or perhaps a small area around you. Your support items aren't in that range." She analyzed rapidly, "It's weird, you know. With such an amazing Quirk you could have been a great Hero."
"Amazing…" Flect Turn seemed to visibly have an aneurysm before them. A giant vein started pulsing on his head, "WHAT ABOUT THIS CURSE IS AMAZING?!" His Arachne activated, and the five remaining arms all aimed at Nejire, blasting at her with malicious intent.
Nejire gasped, before blurring out of the way, even as the beams chased her. They were hot enough and carried enough force that they were carving right through parts of the tower and the ceiling as they chased her.
Todoroki frowned, "Enough." He said, stomping down and sending a glacier at the Villain. Perhaps force didn't work, but could he absorb the sheer cold his ice generated? The tip of the icy wall smashed into Flect Turn's chest, drawing his attention. The cold irritated him, but the force did nothing. His Quirk had no weaknesses for these brats to exploit.
His cold attitude had returned, "Futile." He said calmly as the tornado behind him snapped back and shattered Todoroki's ice wall. The boy had prepared for the possibility, and had strengthened the ice wall. It crumbled before him, revealing him to be unharmed.
Inasa had realized something, "Hah! Your Quirk only ever reflects back in the direction it was hit from!" He called out, "So try this on for size!" He had been compressing the air in the exact same way he'd done against Blazing-chan! The tight ball of air was practically pulsing in the air, "URSUS SHOCK!" He finally named it after a nerd night with Izuku, and of course, One Piece provided once again. The ball impacted the ground beneath the floating Villain, and then exploded.
A shockwave and gale force winds buffeted the evil man, and were absorbed even as the ground beneath him cratered and cracked. The tornado of absorbed energy did in fact appear above Flect Turn, rather than behind him like all previous times. "Your analysis was good." Flect Turn gave credit where credit was due, "Unfortunately for you," Inasa's eyes widened as Flect Turn's Arachne went to work, shaping the energy and aiming it, "I am well aware of that fact as well."
The tornado ripped through the sky, forcing Inasa to dodge and try to redirect it. He lucked out in that the enemy's aim was off. Nejire's shot hadn't crippled the machine, but it had robbed Flect Turn of some control. He managed to evade it for long enough that the energy dissipated, though not harmlessly. Hundreds of pounds of metal and concrete from the ceiling and walls were raining down from the attack, luckily far away from them.
The rest of the students weren't idle. Mudman had immediately sprang into action the moment Nejire had fired at the Villain. He had liquified the ground beneath the bots on the left and then dove in like it was a swimming pool. The bots had begun to sink down and tried to fire their powerful servos to leap out. But even as they did so, there was nowhere to really land. They just sank back down.
Honenuki was thanking Momo for her Quirk. She'd been able to make him a set of Crush Gaunts of his own, and had almost perfectly recreated his helmet. He swam, popping up near bot after bot and pulverizing them with his newly reinforced fists.
On the other side, Kaminari was grinning and hefting his club. His entire body crackled with electricity, "Time to rock out!" He clicked a button on his belt, and immediately his jacket started playing a guitar sound. He leapt into the air as The Immigrant Song started belting out, before he impacted right in the middle of the mass of bots away from his friends. Over a dozen of the robots shorted out as they were buffeted by the lightning and the shockwave from his attack. He swung his club into the nearest enemy, flattening it and throwing it into another. He rapidly started swinging, each of his blows erupting in a flash of lightning and an accompanying rumble of thunder.