CHAPTER 6: Let me show you something Class 1-A!
-Inside the Battle Trial Building-
The door to the last floor opened and from it came Iida and Bakugo. Immediately, Iida went to look at the bomb, lightly tapping it.
-"So this is the weapon we must protect. Fake of course."
-"Hey!" Bakugo called out.
-"Hm?"
-"Do you really think Deku has a quirk?" Bakugou asked, without even looking at Iida.
-"You saw how he threw that ball. Though I think his power hurts his body.
-"Tch." Katsuki spat.
-"Why is it that you seem especially angry when it comes to Midoriya?" asked a worried Iida -'Should I be worried about that during this fight?'
Bakugo was PISSED! -'Was that nerd seriously just tricking me all these years?' he got prepared and made a face that was screaming for a fight -'I'm gonna roast that damn nerd today!'
And Iida wasn't the only one worried about Bakugo's attitude in this fight. A figure that peeked both of them through the window saw how angry Katsuki was at the moment, but that wasn't why he was there.
-Outside the Building-
Izuku and Ochaco were looking at the plans for the building, trying to come up with a strategy of their own.
-"You expect us to memorize this building's floor plan? It's so big! You know." commented Uraraka. -"All Might's just as cool in person as he is on television! I'm glad he's not threatening us with some kind of punishment like Mr. Aizawa. We can relax-" as soon as she looked at him, she saw that he was more worried than anything else -"Ah! You're sweating through your costume!"
-"Uh. Well." responded an insecure Midoriya. Even after Ben's words for him, he was still very much uncertain about fighting his childhood friend, his admiration for him was too great. -"It's just because we're up against Kacchan. Plus there's Iida, too. We should be on our guard, who knows what they'll pull."
-"Deku, I know Bakugo is always making fun of you, but maybe this is your chance to prove him wrong!"
the boy looked at her, intrigued -"H-How?"
-"By winning this thing!" she said smiling at him -"If we win, Bakugo will probably recognize that you're strong too and then stop treating you like that!"
Midoriya knew Bakugo better than anyone in his life except for his mother, they've been friends since they were kids after all, but even having the certainty that Bakugo wouldn't change his ways so easily, there was a small glimpse of hope. Hope to be equal with him. With that, he put on a brave face and remembered that he's in the same school for heroes as everyone -"You're right Uraraka! I refuse to lose today!"
Ochaco simply smiled at how he was showing his confidence again, like yesterday at the exam -"So it's a faded battle between rivals!"
Izuku quickly dropped back to his nervous attitude again -"Oh, not that I'm trying to get you wrapped up in my fight or anything!"
-"Are you kidding? We're a team, right? Let's win this!" she pumped her fist up.
Midoriya smiled, finally getting the support he always wanted from friends.
The speakers on the outside and on the inside flared to life, with All Might's voice coming from them. -"All right! Let's begin the indoor combat training! Team A and Team D, your time starts now!"
-Monitoring Room-
When the teams are fighting on the field, the rest of the class, along with All Might, are watching the whole confrontation happen in a dark room full of television set up in the images of the cameras inside the buildings.
-"Pay attention kids. Think about what you would do."
A girl with purple hair and plug-like earphone jacks hanging from each of her earlobes whispered to Yaoyorozu, -"You think Green Boy's plan is going to go well?"
-"I don't know, Jiro." she responded -"He seems confident in himself, but that can be a fault for some heroes."
All Might put on an earpiece to talk with the combatants individually, -'Young Midoriya, in this class, you're just another student. I'll grade you as I would anyone else. Without playing favorites.'
He then looked at the screen where Ben was being watched, -'And you are no different young Tennyson, I truly hope you know what you're doing.'
-Inside the Building-
Izuku and Ochaco were walking through the corridors of the building, with Izuku going first to see if there's anyone from the enemy team waiting for them. The walls all looked reinforced with metal and the only windows were the ones from the front side.
-"Careful, there are a lot of blind spots." said Izuku, protecting Ochaco. -'We didn't form a plan, but if I know Bakugo, then I know what to do so we can win.'
They turned more corners and still no one in sight -'Still, I have basically no control over One For All, I can't risk using it. If I did, I'd probably just end up killing someone.'
What Izuku was talking about, was his quirk: One For All. A powerful quirk that can be passed down, generation to generation and that was handed to him by the number 1 hero himself, All Might, after learning that the man will eventually have to retire and was looking for a successor at U.A. Luckly for All Might, Midoriya had appeared in his life, remembering him of himself, having the spirit of a true hero and next symbol of peace.
Back to the situation at hand, Midoriya figured that that wasn't a lot of options at the table for them, and he couldn't count on Ben since he didn't even know the boy's quirk or fight style. -'We'll just have to win with Uraraka's Zero Gravity and whatever I can do without a quirk.'
Another empty corridor, just after getting onto the next floor as well. -'I've gotta use my head. I took a lot of notes on indoor battles and fighting in tight spaces.'
-"I can do this." he whispered to himself.
Suddenly out of one corner, came Bakugo in the air in a surprise attack, launching an explosion with his right hand aimed straight at Midoriya!
Boom!
Luckly, Midoriya had gone out of the way and tackled Uraraka along so that she wouldn't get caught in the blast as well.
Izuku immediately turned to see if Bakugo would attack right away again, but still asked worried: -"Uraraka, you okay?"
Ochaco turned as well, -"I'm fine, thanks!" She noticed half of his face was showing, his mask half destroyed, -"Oh! Deku!"
-"It's just my mask."
The smoke from the explosion was cleared by Bakugo -"What's the matter, Deku? Afraid to stand up and fight me?"
Midoriya slowly stood up, -"I knew you'd come at me first. And I figured you'd try to catch me by surprise."
-Monitoring Room-
The class was watching as the fight was starting to unravel.
-"He almost got the jump on them!" exclaimed the short boy with purple balls for hair.
-"Sneak attack, Bakugo? What kinda man pulls cheap crap like that?" angrily said the boy with red spiky hair.
-"It's a viable strategy. He's playing the part. Acting like a true villain would. Speaking of…" All Might put a hand on his ear and spoke through the coms, -"If you can hear me Young Tennyson, it's your turn now."
-"Alright!" Ben said.
Before the class even had time to see what Ben was doing, a bright green flash covered the screen that was recording him, and in the place of Ben, there was just the backdoor of the building, opened.
The people got confused, -"Wait, where is he?" asked Jiro.
-"There was a light, and he was gone!" said Yuga.
-"Maybe that's his quirk?" asked the frog girl.
All Might wasn't worried, he knew Ben had just gone inside the building really fast, but he still couldn't find him in any of the cameras. But there was a plan in case Ben were to ever go rogue, and that plan was right on the rooftop of the next building over, with his own set of cameras.
-Inside the Building-
Bakugo went on the attack, with a wicked smile on his face, -"I won't hurt you so bad they'll have to stop the fight, just close!"
He pushed his right arm forward to attack, but Midoriya caught it mid-movement. -'What'
Izuku then twisted himself and pushed his body back to raise Bakugo in the air.
Katsuki was more confused than anything -'Impossible! How'd he know? He's not that good!'
That sheer confusion was his downfall, literally, because Midoriya brought him overhead and slammed him down to the ground! All using just his natural strength!
Uraraka, All Might and the rest of the class were impressed by that! They all stood even more in attention to the fight now.
While Bakugo was still grunting on the ground, Izuku went to explain, -"Kacchan. You always use a big right hook to start a fight. I know because I've watched you for years."
Bakugo looked back at him surprised -"Huh?"
Izuku continued -"I analyzed every amazing hero, even you. I wanted to learn everything I could about them. It was all in the notebook you burned and threw away."
All Bakugou could do was grunt hearing all of that.
-"You can call me Deku, but I'm not the same helpless, defenseless kid anymore! You hear me? I've changed. I got into the same school as you, I made friends who don't make fun of me, I have the power to achieve my dream, so from now on, DEKU IS THE NAME OF A HERO!"
At that moment, Uraraka, who was watching the whole thing, realized the difference she made. She was the one to suggest that Deku sounded like a hero name and she was the one using it to refer to Izuku in a nice way. And now he had the courage to go against his bully with said name. She smiled, -'You go Deku'.
Bakugo on the other hand, could not be more furious, that a damn nerd like Deku could challenge him like this and try to say 'Deku' was a hero name. -"You're shaking in your boots, you're so scared."
Indeed Izuku was shaking, but not because he was scared.
-"But you wanna fight me anyway. That's why I hate you!"
Through the comlink, Tenya was worried why his partner wasn't responding. -"Bakugo! Come in! Give me a status report. Where are you?"
But Bakugo wasn't having it at the moment -"Just shut up and defend the weapon! I've got more important things to worry about."
-"Are you forgetting what our mission-" Bakugou simply hang up on him.
-Monitoring Room-
-"Hey, who's Bakugo talking to? I'm not hearing anything."
-"He's got a radio in his ear so he can talk to his partner. I gave it to them before the match started. Along with a map of the building. Also, this! A roll of capture tape! Wrapping this around your opponent means you've apprehended them, and they're out for the rest of the game."
-"So, there's a 15-minute time limit, and the good guys have no idea what floor the nuclear weapon is on, right? It sounds like the heroes are at a disadvantage" The girl with pink hair summarized.
On the screen it showed the time limited, which had 13 minutes left for the hero team to complete their objectives.
-"Correct Young Ashido! Real Pros have to outwit villains on a daily basis. That's life. Even when the odds aren't in our favor, we fight!"
-"Hey, where's Ben? Shouldn't he have already found them?" asked Mina.
All Might wouldn't say it, but now he was getting worried about Ben not having shown up yet.
-"Monsieur. He's on the move." pointed out Yuga to the screen.
-Inside the Building-
-"ARHHH!" Bakugo screamed as he went to attack Deku.
But before reaching even close to him, his arm stopped mid-attack. -"What the-"
Midoriya and Uraraka had the same reaction, they were all confused as to why Bakugo simply stopped.
-"Need some help there buddy?" a voice from seemingly nowhere said.
-"Who said that?!" Asked an angry Bakugo.
-"Damn…" The voice said, which revealed itself to be a previously invisible… lizard? It's appearance resembled a large purple salamander with darker purple camo-esque spots all over his body and a short tail. He wears a black helmet with three triangular colored lenses, the left one being blue, the right red and the middle green, which hide his three eyes. The helmet also has a spike-shaped fin on the back of his head. He has four-fingered hands and three toes on his frog-like feet. He also has a wide mouth with sharp teeth. This was Ben's Merlinisapien form, Chamalien, -"...you're an angry one Bakugo."
-"WHAT THE HELL?" Chamalien was still holding his arm with extreme strength, so he couldn't get away -"Who are you?!"
-Monitoring Room-
-"What the heck is that?!" exclaimed the red haired boy.
-"It looks like a giant lizard… with three eyes?" asked a very confused Jiro.
-"But is it part of the training?" asked the boy with six arms.
To clear everyone's confusion and worry, All Might spoke up -"That, young ladies and gentleman, is young Tennyson making his entrance!"
-"No way! He can transform into a lizard?! That's gross, but also so cool!" said an excited Mina.
-Inside the Building-
-"Wait…" Midoriya interrupted, noticing the Omnitrix symbol on Chamalien's chest -"Ben?!"
-"Hey guys!" he released Bakugo and went scaling through the ceiling to Midoriya and Uraraka, -"How you two doing?"
-"You can transform into a lizard?!" asked a baffled Uraraka.
-"That's amazing!" exclaimed Midoriya with wide eyes.
-"And that's not all I can transform into. By the way, nice speech Midoriya." He gave him a thumbs up.
Midoriya smiled at the support -"Thanks!"
-"Hey!"
All three turned back to the matter at hand with Bakugo.
-"Don't just ignore me like that! Who the hell do you think you are, interrupting our fight!"
Ben was already getting tired of this guy's screaming, and he was ready for a real fight. It's been days since he got one, -"Uraraka..." he called out -"...can you go after the bomb by yourself while we take on this prick?"
Ochaco looked at all three of them being battle ready and saw that this indeed was a good opportunity to escape and look for the bomb, -"Yes!"
-"Then go." Chamalien said, and she just ran through one of the corridors.
Bakugo called out to them again -"So what, you think an oversized lizard and a nerd can beat me?"
-"I think... you need to get down a few notches."
Suddenly, Ben sprinted forward to try to attack Bakugo, but he didn't activate his camouflage.
Midoriya tried calling out to him -"Wait! He can still see you!"
Bakugo grinned and went on the offensive again, throwing a big explosion from his right hand right at Ben's face, who at the last moment blocked with his two arms, and the last thing that happened before the attack hit was a green light engulfing the room.
BOOOM!
The smoke from the explosion took the whole corridor. Midoriya was scared that Ben might have been hurt, that was a big attack after all, but couldn't see it just yet. The people at the monitoring room were thinking the same thing. But just when the smoke started clearing, and Deku saw Bekugo grinning, he also saw that there was a much larger being in Ben's place.
Bakugo then tried to push his arm away from what he assumed to still be Chamalien, but couldn't because there was someone holding it in place... again. But with a much stronger grip now.
-"Let me tell you something Bakugo, Midoriya's old friend and rival..." as soon as the smoke cleared, they all could see what was holding Bakugo, and there was only one word to describe it: Feral! It resembled an orange and white bipedal tiger with a black claw protruding from each wrist and no tail. He was muscular and had green eyes and black stripes on his shoulders, head, legs, and upper body, as well as a white jaw, neck, chest, stomach, hands, and feet. The Omnitrix symbol was in the center of his chest. This was Ben's Appoplexian form: -"RATH DOESN'T LIKE BULLIES! SO RATH'S GONNA KICK YOUR ASS NOW!"
Before any of them could react, Rath simply spun around, still holding the Bakugo, and threw the boy into the wall across the hallway, using only ONE hand!
-Monitoring Room-
The class watching was both surprised and confused.
-"Wait, hold on, I thought Ben could transform himself into a lizard, not a tiger. What is his quirk exactly?" asked a very confused student.
-"It seems like he can transform into different types of animals." guessed the ear-phone girl.
-"The last one was a lizard, and that's pretty different from a tiger." said the small boy.
All Might simply continued watching the teams while listening to the students. While he knew where Ben's true power comes from AND the cover-up story he himself helped make up with Tsukauchi, he would let the class try to guess Ben's power until the boy himself explained to them what his 'quirk' was.
-Inside the Building-
Deku was simply so surprised someone had handled the person he considered the best fighter so easily! But he couldn't let his shock get in the way of the fight. -"BEN!" he called out.
Rath turned around and stared at Deku -"What?!"
Midoriya almost took a step back when seeing the giant freaking tiger look straight at him. -"I can keep Bakugo distracted, you go look for the bomb or look for the other villain!"
-"LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING MIDORIYA, RATH DOESN'T LISTEN WELL AND RATH WANTS TO TAKE DOWN THIS BULLY RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, YOU UNDERSTAND?!"
The green haired boy could only look in disbelief at Rath while he continued screaming. For someone who wanted to 'take Bakugo down a few notches', he sure sounded a lot like the explosion boy himself.
The people in the monitoring room were having the same reaction, except they couldn't hear what Rath was saying, so they only saw that he was VERY MUCH screaming at Deku… for no reason at all.
-"SO LET ME BEAT HIM TO A PULP IN THIS EXERCISE OR ELSE I'LL-"
Boom!
Neither of the heroes realized that Bakugo was still up and had just launched himself at them at max speed, raising up his arm and sending an explosion that sent Rath to the other side of the hallway. Deku was lucky enough to have noticed that and dodge Rath's body before it could hit him.
CRASHHHH!
Lucky for Ben, Rath is really tough, so he was okay.
Deku turned around and saw Bakugo standing where Rath was, ready to attack again, with a sick grin on his face, -"Looks like you can take a punch, new guy. Let's see how well you do against the best!" he screamed as he was taking position to attack again.
Running to see if his teammate was okay, Midoriya heard him groan a little under some rubble -"Ben! Are you okay?!" he asked, worried.
-"Ughh… Rath didn't like that." he rubbed his head while getting up.
-"Be- I mean Rath, we should take him together. I can't use my power just yet, but I know all of his moves. If we work together we could take him down."
Ben thought for a second, -"Alright Deku, hero in training, Rath will work with you, but if I don't get to beat him down a lot, RATH WILL BEAT YOU INSTEAD!"
The boy gulped. Deku already had a theory that Ben's tiger/Rath form makes him more violent than usual, but he hoped this threat didn't carry after he turned back into his usual form.
-"How strong are you in this form?"
Rath smiled -"A lot."
-"Alright, try to tackle him and hold him down so I can use the tape to capture him."
Rath nodded and brought his hands up, preparing to fight -"Alright."
-Monitoring Room-
The student could see how the two, even if they outmatched Bakugo, could come up with an easy tactic to beat him, without using overwhelming power against him.
-"The little guy is really good."
-"He's holding his own and hasn't even used his quirk yet."
-'Not surprising. He's always been good at taking action in crisis situations. Plus, he has spent years taking notes on different heroes. He internalized everything he learned. Those lessons are in his blood now. That fanboy knowledge is paying off.'
-"It kind of feels like he's leaving all the heavy work to Ben though." the boy with a black jacket commented.
-"I don't think that's true." said Momo. The student looked at her, expecting an explanation, -"While Midoriya himself has yet to fight Bakugo in a true one-on-one, Ben seems to be just as much of a hot-head as Bakugo is, if the large amount of talking they are both doing to each other suggests at least."
-"Nice observation young Yaoyorozu!" All Might pointed out. In truth, the hero was watching Ben more to make sure he doesn't go too far, as Yagi knew the amount of experience the boy had fighting villains. But fighting another student who was a beginner? That was another thing, and it worried him greatly.
-Inside the Building-
The fight resumes as the large tiger lunges at Bakugou. Reacting fast, he sends explosions to Rath's feet to try to make him stop, but Rath is tougher than he thinks and hits the blonde across the jaw sending him down the hall, skidding across the stone floor before colliding against the wall at the end of the hall.
-"Ugh…" groaned Bakugo while getting up and preparing for another fight. -"I'll kill you bastard!" Bakugou yelled as he began to bounce fast through the air, carried by his explosions… only to be caught by Rath.
-"BIG TALK BY THE BLONDE IDIOT GETTING HIS ASS WRECKED!" He yelled before slamming Bakugou into the wall nearest to him, the force of which cracked the concrete. The blonde, still up, popped off a larger-than-usual explosion allowing Bakugou to wriggle free of the tiger's grip, launching upwards and attacking Rath with two large explosions to the face knocking him backward into the wall.
-"AHHGRH!" exclaimed Rath, wiping his eyes from the smoke of the explosion.
-"YOU DAMN TIGER!" He continued his onslaught of attacks on the prone Appoplexian, eventually the Tiger was pushed into the next corridor.
At this point the Explosion user was lashing out at Ben without regard for insults wanting to put him into his place.
But he made a mistake, he was blind to the real reason Rath was just taking his hits. -"I'LL SHOW YOU NOT TO GET IN MY WAY WHEN I'M FIGHTING!" he continued to blast Rath none stop, also avoiding any swings the tiger was making at him -"ESPECIALLY IF THE ONE I'M FIGHTING IS THAT DAMN NER-"
He didn't even finish the phrase before noticing his mistake. In his rage, he had forgotten about Deku at all, just to try to get one up on this new kid that had taken his explosions and easily walked them off.
Bakugo instantly stopped firing at Rath and looked behind himself, just fast enough to catch Midoriya a few centimeters away from him, going for his arm to try to wrap it in the capture tape.
-"DEKU!" Bakugo screamed, evading the attack.
Said boy widened his eyes, but he knew that Katchan wasn't dumb, that he would notice him and try to avoid it in time, but Deku planned for this, he grabbed his arm, avoiding the explosion Bekugo had prepared for him, and delivered a swift kick to the boy's stomach, making him gasp for air.
Bakugo clutched his stomach in pain, but quickly recovered and went to attack Deku with a FURIOUS look on his face. Before he could do so however, Deku called out to his partner, -"NOW!" Then in a swift move, resembling american wrestling, Rath grabbed him, hugged him hard and held him down on the ground.
-"LET GO OF ME YOU BIG TIGER IDIOT!" But no matter how much he tried, Rath's grip was simply stronger. He tried to set off some explosions, but Rath was unbothered by them, almost as if he was holding back before. Bakugo could only look at the large tiger's eyes while he growled like an animal to him.
And then… There was a sound that made Bakugo simply fall limp. He looked down and saw that his hands were tied together with the capture tape All Might gave them… and Midoriya was the one who tied him down.
-"It's over Bakugo… You're under arrest." said a determined and confident Deku while looking straight at the explosion boy's angry eyes.
-'No… This… can't be!' was all Katsuki could think. He simply didn't understand how he lost like this. His power didn't affect the new kid and Deku had outsmarted him. He was supposed to be the strongest one!
A voice coming from the comms of the three students fighting sealed the boy's fate in this battle -"KATSUKI BAKUGO HAS BEEN CAPTURED BY THE HEROES!"
During this, in another part of the building, Uraraka had found Iida and the fake weapon and was about to contact Midoriya, but she heard Iida talking to himself and paused.
-"Bakugo definitely has a villainous side and that's exactly what we need to succeed on this mission. Hmm. I need to temporarily devote myself to criminal intent." He looked at his hands. -"Yes. I won't fail this trial and risk bringing shame down on the Iida family name."
His voice became even more serious as he steeled himself, -"That means… I must embrace evil… to become a hero!"
Iida's entire persona changed. Like a high school drama student doing his very best mustache-twirling evil caricature, Iida's voice became one filled with pretentious indifference to the suffering of man.
-"Behold! I am the personification of villainy!" and then, Iida's twisted 'evil' persona came to be.
Uraraka couldn't hold it in and escaped a laugh -'He's so serious! Hahaha!'
Unfortunately for her, Iida heard her laugh and turned to face the pillar she was hiding in -"Huh? Uraraka is that you?"
She mentally hit herself for letting that laugh slip up, but revealed herself nonetheless since there was no point in hiding anymore, -'I screwed up!'
-"I knew you would come here alone the instant that Bakugo ran off by himself and engaged with Midoriya!" he said it, turning his voice into a more… evil(?) version of itself: -"Your quirk allows you to float anything that you touch… but I prepared for that!" he opened his arms -"BY HIDING EVERY OBJECT IN THIS ROOM SO YOU HAVE NOTHING TO USE AGAINST ME DO-GOODER!"
It was at this point Uraraka realized she REALLY needed help.
-"My dastardly tricks have rendered you helpless!" Uraraka watched Iida in disbelief as he spouted his 'evil' plan in front of her. -"You've blundered, hero!"
Iida started to perform his best evil laugh as Uraraka practically sweat-dropped in surprise at her friend's roleplaying antics. -"He really is… playing the part."
-"Uhm Deku?" Uraraka contacted him through the comms.
-"I'm here, how's it going?" said Midoriya, switching his attention to the bomb situation and Uraraka, leaving Ben to watch Bakugo.
-"Ilda knows that I'm here, sorry. But right now he's monologuing."
Midoriya could hear Iida talking in the background like a whisper -"I am a Mastermind!"
-"Where are you?"
-"In the middle of the 5th floor"
-"Me and Ben have captured Bakugo, we'll come and help you out. Stay there and hold on."
-"Alright!"
At this point, noticing that Bakugo stopped trying to move, Ben turned back into human form. Midoriya went to talk with him -"Uraraka needs our help, we need to go."
-"Ok. Where should we leave him?" he pointed at Katsuki.
-"He's already out, but just in case, strap one of his hands to that metal pipe from the broken wall over there."
Ben nodded and took Bakugo there. Midoriya meanwhile, was formulating a plan in his head.
When Ben was finishing tying up the boy to the pipe, Bakugo whispered to him -"Why?"
-"What?"
-"Why are you helping this damn worthless nerd?" Bakugo asked while grinding his teeth. -"He's no good for anything! You're only feeding into his delusions that he can be a hero!" Ben could feel the deep anger Bakugo had at the mere thought of Deku becoming a hero like him -"WHY ARE YOU ON HIS SIDE?!"
Ben had gone up against bullies before, but just like he suspected, Bakugo wasn't just a casual bully, it truly seemed like he wanted Midoriya, and everyone else for that matter, to stay behind him on this. But Ben Tennyson would have none of it.
-"You know why I wanted to beat you so bad? Because of something Izuku slipped into a conversation before we started this fight."
-Flashback-
-A few minutes prior to the battle-
-"Izuku..." Ben put a hand on his shoulder, -"...it doesn't matter if he is or not stronger than you. It doesn't matter if he is or not more confident than you. You know why? Because he uses that strength and that confidence to enact bad things to other people. To make them feel inferior. A true friend wouldn't do that."
Izuku thought about that for a few seconds… -"Bakugo was never really nice to people, or even to his own friends, after he got his quirk. But I don't blame him for the things that he did, because I always believe his attitude could change."
Ben looked at the eyes of the boy telling him all of this. There was pain behind it, but there was also… hope.
-"It doesn't matter how many times he told me to shut up, to stay in my place, to give up or to hope that I'd be more useful in the next life, I still think that behind all of that mean attitude, he can become a great hero in the future. Just like I will as well."
-"Midoriya…" Ben said in a serious voice -"...what do you mean he told you that you'd be more useful in the next life?"
Izuku paled and realized he had said something he shouldn't, -"I-It was just a one time thing. He didn't really mean it! He was trying to make me give up on coming to U.A, but… he just said some stuff that was a bit too far, he didn't really believe I was going to jump." Izuku was sweat-dropping at this point. He just wanted the conversation to be over.
-"JUMP?! D-Did he tell you to-"
-"Let's not focus on that right now Ben, come on, let's go to the building." With that, Izuku quickly left, in hopes that Ben would stop talking about it. He really didn't want Bakugo catching more flack because of something he said almost a year ago. But no matter how hard he tried, Ben's words still stuck in his mind. Was Bakugo really his friend if he always acted like this? He would have to think about that later.
The same thought was going through Ben's head. If what Izuku said was true, then he had a pretty good idea of what kind of person Bakugo was, but he would leave that to the fight and afterwards.
-"I may not know exactly whatever happened between you and Deku, but I saw how he treats you, and how you treat him in return. That's not a healthy friendship. I know because I've had my fair share of unhealthy relationships as well… mostly coming from my part. So… if I discover that I was wrong, then I'll apologize. But if I'm not… then you can be sure that I'll use all my transformations to stop whatever you want to do to destroy Deku's future as a hero or his mental state. You got it?"
The explosion boy stared at Ben's angry eyes. He truly was protecting that nerd, he thought. He cared about him as a true friend.
And that pissed. Him. OFF!
Before Bakugo could try anything though, Midoriya interrupted -"We need to go, we probably don't have much time left now." The teen saw Ben nod and follow him -"We have to finish this fast or they win."
-"Stay there Bakugo, we'll pick you up on the way back." Ben joked.
With that, they both left Katsuki alone with his thoughts.
Meanwhile, Uraraka was thinking of a way to distract Iida and gain time for her allies to come help her. Fortunately, he didn't know that she could use her quirk on herself!
Thinking that, she rushed to meet him, only to touch her fingertips together and jump above and beyond him, reaching for the bomb. -'I just have to touch the weapon! In one move this will all be over'
As expected, he was caught by surprise with this move, -"Since when could she make herself float?!" Iida exclaimed.
With a smug face, Uraraka put her fingertips together to deactivate her quirk -"Release!"
But unlucky for her, Iida was prepared again. He used the engines on his legs to quickly grab the weapon and move it out of her reach, making Uraraka fall to the ground with a thud.
-"Admiral attempt, but your quirk's no threat if you can't touch anything." he started monologuing with his villain voice again -"I can easily keep this weapon out of your reach until time runs out! MUAHAHAHA!"
Ochaco started getting up from the ground, when she looked at her feet, then at the room they were in, and came up with a plan in her head -'It's not over. I won't let my team down!'
Standing straight, she looked Iida right in the eye.
He noticed that and stopped laughing -"Huh? What is it hero? Do you admit defeat?" he mockingly asked.
She put on a brave face and started running around the room clockwise, to reach the bomb.
Iida, confused by her actions, asked -"Do you really expect to win just by charging at me?". He then grabbed the bomb and ran with it in the opposite direction.
But that was exactly what she had planned. Uraraka touched her fingertips, jumped in the air, and when she reached a wall, she propelled herself onto Iida's trajectory.
Safe to say, he wasn't expecting this. While she wasn't as fast as him, having to carry the bomb out of her reach did slow him down enough for her to keep up. And the propulsion she got from the wall was very troubling for him.
As minutes passed by, the two continued the chase through the large room. The pillars made it very difficult for Iida, and it didn't help that she could turn her trajectory faster than he could, with the extra weight and all.
What Iida wasn't seeing though, is that Ochaco wasn't letting him take even a single second to think of anything else besides protecting the bomb. Because if she let him, then he would most likely leave the room, and chasing through the corridors would be way harder.
Eventually both of them stopped, one in front of the other, while trying to regain composure and air.
-"We… can't keep doing this. You've already lost… Uraraka." said Iida, taking pauses to breathe. -"You know you will never outrun me."
-"I don't need to outrun you Iida…" she said, sporting a confident smirk -"I just needed to keep you focused on me and waste your time."
-"Huh?" he asked. It was then that he saw in the corner of his eye, both Ben and Deku in the doorway, essentially trapping and surrounding him in the room.
-"Hey there speedy, surprised?" said a smiling Ben.
-'Damn it! Uraraka really was distracting me. how did I forget about these two?!'. Iida was scared. He didn't want to lose the first challenge at U.A., but with Bakugo not being a team player, it didn't leave him many choices -'I have to find a way to get past them. If I can do that, then maybe the labyrinth of corridors will keep them occupied enough until the timer runs out.'
Ben took a step forward and crossed his arms with confidence -"What's the matter Tenya? Weren't you monologuing just now about how she should just give it up?"
-"Tennyson…" he said with venom in his still mock-up voice -"...I didn't take you for a jokester in this kind of grave situation."
-"The only grave situation here is on your end pal. We surround you."
-"It's over Iida." said Deku -"Surrender now and we'll just take the bomb."
-'Damn…' Ben thought -'This whole thing brings back memories... with Gwen and Kevin.'
Iida looked at his surroundings. Ben and Izuku were close to the exit, probably to block it, Uraraka was back on her feet and ready for action again, Bakugo was still not communicating, but he was most likely either captured or knocked out. There truly didn't seem like there was any way for the boy to win here.
-'My only shot is to try to evade them and get past the ones at the door.' But before he could do anything, he saw that there was movement behind the heroes right at the exit.
And what he saw made him widen his eyes, as it was none other than…
-'Bakugo?!'
-Minutes earlier-
-'They beat me…'
That was the only thing inside of his head as soon as he was alone.
-'How did I let myself get beaten by that nerd with his bastard new green friend?!'
His teeth grinded like never before. The anger he felt was so great, that if you could kill a person just by thinking of it, both Ben and Deku would have been dead 50x times over.
-'Do they really think they can just get away with treating me like this?!'
He clenched his fists tightly. Getting up from the ground, all Bakugo could think about right now was those two. The ones that humiliated him. One by tricking him for years and the other by beating him in a fight.
He didn't care about the exercise anymore, he was more pissed than anything. He would take them on even if it meant being the villain this training wanted him to be.
-'I'll show them who they're messing with.'
And with a single motion, he ripped the tape out of his arms and went to the bomb room, where they most likely were.
-Present Time-
Izuku noticed Iida was looking at something behind him, but before he could see what it was, the sound of a voice he thought he didn't have to hear anymore called out to the room.
-"Hey Four Eyes!"
Everyone shot their eyes to the doorway. And there, standing and pointing his big gauntlet at the ones in front of him, was the sadistic and angry face of Katsuki Bakugo.
-'What's he doing here?! We captured him!' panicked Ben, already thinking of what transformation to use.
Before anyone could properly react though, Bakugo sent a single message to his partner -"Run!"
And without wasting any time, he pulled the pin of his grenade shaped gauntlet.
Click!
And not even a second later, a large explosion enfolded the entire room.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
It completely destroyed almost all the pillars in the room, along with leaving a clear open ceiling and debris from the floor all over the ground. It was so strong that all the windows in the building broke, and it left a giant hole in the direction it was aiming at.
But the large amount of it was aimed right at Izuku and Ben, with both boys being caught in the blast radius of it. But wanting to protect everyone from this blast, Ben dived right in front of Deku and Iida, even if he wasn't fast enough to transform by himself.
Luckly, Ben didn't need that, as the Omnitrix itself calculated that its user was in mortal danger and instantly transformed him into the one of the only forms in his current playlist that could take on such damage and come out alive.
Though its usual green flash was obscured by the explosion.
-Monitoring Room-
In the eyes of everyone watching them, things were not looking good. And as soon as Bakugo made his presence known with that explosion, the students grew even more worried.
-"He can't do that!"
-"Bakugo was captured, he's cheating!" exclaimed the boy with red hair.
-"That blast could have killed them!"
-"You need to stop this sir!" suggested Momo, worried that Bekugo was breaking the rules. She looked at All Might and saw that he was whispering to himself -"Sir?"
But it wasn't to himself, it was to someone else connected through his ear piece. -"Can you two handle the situation on your own?"
-"The smoke is still too thick. We can't see if anyone got hurt."
-"Could you have gotten a look at Bakugo before the explosion went off?"
-"Not from here. I'm watching from the side, I couldn't see anyone coming from the door… since I didn't think anyone would." said the male voice.
All Might had his mind in turmoil. -'I knew I should have paid more attention to young Bakugo after seeing the way he reacted today. If anyone got hurt, it's my fault.'
-"I can act fast if either Bakugo or Tennyson get out of line."said the female voice.
-"Got it, but just keep me informed, you're our last resort. If things escalate, I'll step in as soon as necessary."
-"Roger." Both voices responded.
-Inside the Building-
The grin that Bakugo sported was nothing more than satisfying. He made sure to only pull the trigger as soon as he saw Four Eyes starting to move. But that wasn't his main objective, nor the reason he was happy.
He was happy because he saw that bastard American throw himself right at the front of the blast. And Bakugo knew he could take the hit and survive, if he had simply shrugged off his previous explosions, then this would just make him unconscious or at the very least, too hurt to keep fighting.
While the blast had been aimed at him, someone had pushed Deku out of the way from most of the fire. Getting up, he shot his eyes open to look for and call out to his friends -"Uraraka! Ben! Can you hear me? Are you okay?"
He heard someone groan from the other side, it was Iida! -'It looks like he got caught in the blast too! What was Bakugo thinking! I didn't even know his gauntlets could do this much damage!'
The smoke in the room started dissipating and everyone could see a body on the ground next to the exploded wall. It was Uraraka! And she was bleeding for her head, but clearly still alive as they also saw her moving, but only a little.
-"Uraraka!" Izuku called out. He immediately ran to her side to see if she was okay. She wasn't opening her eyes very much, -'She probably has a concussion!' he guessed.
Iida didn't know what to do, this exercise had gotten way out of hand. -'Should I still play the part? Uraraka could be seriously hurt… and it was my fault for not trying to communicate with Bakugo.'
And the only question left standing was 'where's Ben?'.
Luckily, some pieces of debris falling from the next building answered that question for all.
Everyone looked at where the sound was coming from, and all they could hear now was a growl. And from the smoke came the source of it. It was Ben, transformed into Rath, growling and staring at Bakugo, like an animal waiting for its prey. He jumped back into the building everyone was on.
And as soon as he made himself present, Bakugo's smile dropped as fast as his explosions did. -'H-How? That was my strongest blast and he still looks fine!'
-"Now you've done it kid. You messed up. And Rath's gonna make sure you never pull this again." The large tiger then cracked his knuckles, preparing for a fight.
-"Oh yeah?! THEN COME AND GET ME YOU CAT BASTARD!"
-Monitoring Room-
All Might was scared as soon as he saw the face Ben was making towards Bakugo. -'No! This has gone too far!' he thought. -"Young Bakugo and Tennyson, stop right now! I'm calling the fight over!" he called in the microphone.
But due to the explosion, everyone's earpiece had fallen off. And the voice speakers in the room were destroyed, they couldn't hear him.
-"Sir you have to do something!" Momo called out.
-"They're gonna kill each other out there!"
Without a second thought, All Might rushed out of the monitoring room and into the battleground as fast as a speeding car.
-Building-
The two locked eyes with one another, waiting to see who would make the first move. Rath was not the brightest of Ben's transformation, and right now, this boy made him very pissed.
Izuku noticed that they were preparing to duke it all out and called out to Rath -"Ben! Don't engage! Uraraka could be seriously hurt!"
Iida stood his ground and agreed with Izuku -"He's right Bakugo! There's no point in fighting anymore! We lost!"
But it felt like the two were in their own world, only wanting to prove who was the strongest.
-"Ben! Help me!" Midoriya called out one last time.
And that was just enough to make the tiger break eye contact and look at his friends on the ground. Seeing them needing his help made him come back to his senses for a moment. And with clarity, he grumbled and started to turn away to help Uraraka.
But that only served to piss Bakugo off even more -"Are you ignoring me?!" His eye twitched and his teeth grinned -"I'll show you, you DAMN IDIOT TIGER!"
Bakugo charged towards Rath, who noticed and went on the defensive.
However, before both could engage, a big figure appeared in front of them dropping from the sky. -"STOP YOU TWO! NOW! TRAINING IS OVER!"
-"WHAT?!" complained Bakugo.
-"As of right now, I declare the hero's team the winners! The villains are being disqualified due to young Bakugo's misuse of his power, alongside breaking the rules of the training, and also destroying your own bomb." All Might said, as he pointed to the half fake bomb dropped on the ground, shattered and missing its other half.
Katsuki was at a loss for words. He truly lost… by trying to prove he was better. In his mind, he finally understood, but still fought it was unfair. But nothing could compare to the absolute angry look All Might was giving him at the moment.
-"Now let me take proper care of young Uraraka here and get her to the infirmary. I want the rest of you to go back to the monitoring room and wait for me there."
-"Yes sir!" Izuku and Iida responded, while Ben transformed back to normal and gave a nod.
But when the three of them were leaving, All Might called Ben out -"And young Tennyson… I wish to speak in private with you when I return." he said, completely serious about the situation.
Ben got the message, and with his head down, feeling guilty about the whole deal, he responded in a sad voice -"Yes sir."
And with that, the first battle of the day was finished.