Chapter Text
The morning is filled with annoying bird chirping, light dew on manicured grass, and a crisp breeze traveling through the field before the colossal walls of Ground Theta. Yet, overshadowing the somewhat beautiful day is the apprehension of the extras about the exam that was to take place in just under 10 minutes.
Group one of class 1-A stands around the hulking archway that leads onto the main street of the faux residential district the grounds are based on. All of 1-A are all decked out in their hero costumes, with some small changes courtesy of the support department. Iida flits between them, giving out the earpieces.
Katsuki watches Shitty Hair fiddle with his as he gives his two cents in about the continued discussion of who they think the fugitive’s leader may be. They had started making guesses yesterday of who they thought it was, and the continued argument was starting to fray on Katsuki’s nerves. And all of their stupid guesses are wrong anyways.
“I think Nagahata would have been chosen as the leader. They all appear to defer to his judgement, he is attuned to the needs of his friends, and he presents a rather trustworthy image,” Ponytail explains. While her confidence is no longer shit, after some heavy modifications to her hero costume based on Midnight’s own design, she still fiddles with shit when she speaks her opinion. Though on the battlefield she is a fierce opponent.
A low murmur washes through the group, most taking into contemplation what the girl said while also trying to fit that in with what they themselves have witnessed, while others flat out refuse it.
“I don’t know, Yaomomo. Kasuyumi always acted like a leader when we were able to watch their training. And she is honest and forthright with her thoughts while also being polite,” Racoon Eyes interjects, all while filing her nails like they weren’t about to take an exam that determines their final grades.
Eyebags deadpans, “She’s loud. Doesn’t mean she’s their leader.” Mina pouts at him before going back to her task at hand.
With each passing comment and no end in sight to this argument, Katsuki can feel the anger of his rise inch by inch, an itch to just explode in the middle of their group until they decide which one of the Shiketsu fuckers is the leader so they can be taken out. Though they have to choose the right one otherwise all of this is pointless.
“The nerd is the fucking leader,” Katsuki lets out before he can stop it from leaving his mouth. Kirishima fumbles with his earpiece in his hands, nearly dropping it into the dirt in the surprise of him finally speaking up. Everyone else turns to look at him with mixtures of shock and wariness on their faces.
Iida dismisses what Katsuki said immediately with a stiff chop of the hand. “He’s quirkless, Bakugou. They wouldn’t be silly enough to trust something as important as the role of leader to someone with such a clear disadvantage.”
Katsuki’s glaring red eyes make their way to Iida. “You don’t know the nerd like I do. He has stalker notebooks that probably contain all of our quirks, fighting styles, and weaknesses written down in them.” Katsuki crosses his arms in front of his puffed chest before continuing, “He’s always been smart, and fast, and now he seems to be strong too. And he has the other’s trust.”
“I don’t think they’d trust him with that kind of responsibility, Bakubro. Especially if their final grade is resting on this just as much as ours is,” Kirishima says while frowning at the ground.
A few explosions pop in Bakugou’s hands and a snarl appears on his face. “Well, even if he isn’t, I’m going to find the fucker and take him down once and for all.”
Before Iida can go into a rant about good sportsmanship and how unheroic he is being, Ponytail jumps in. “Let’s just stick to the plan we came up with yesterday, alright? Five groups of two. Focus on finding and neutralizing as soon as possible. If we get them all out, then we get the leader out so it won’t matter who it is in the end.”
“Allllll right listeners! You have two minutes left until the starting bell! Remember the rules: you have until noon to capture as many fugitives, including the leader, as you can; points are deducted for hurt civilian bots and excess destruction of buildings and properties; and walls of the grounds are boundaries. Bring the captured to either Eraserhead at Entrance B or Ectoplasm across the street from the Police Department Building in sector 4. Go beyond! PLUS ULTRAAA!”
Present Mic’s voice blares over the loudspeakers, a few of their group jumping at the suddenness of it. Katsuki turns his glare to the closest speaker before huffing and doing some last minute stretches. The rest quickly catch on and join him, all trying to keep some semblance of calm for their friends.
The timer starts counting down not long after that, the autonomous voice replacing Present Mic’s jovial one as it echoes through the deserted streets. They all brace themselves in preparation to run, not to be caught off guard like a certain entrance exam. Right as the timer hits 1, Present Mic yells out a thunderous ‘Start!’.
Sounds of sprinting feet make their way into the grounds, but soon are overpowered by a whirring sound coming from the buildings. Then, bots based off of civilians are making their way out of buildings. Their whirring components as they glide across sidewalks and water fake plants and all the other stupid things civilians probably do in their free time.
The ‘heroes’ break off into their pairs as they head in the different directions to the four different sectors Glasses had broken the map into. With the middle marked by the point were the main two roads intersect, the circular grounds were broken into four sectors, with the first sector being in the 12 to 3 area of a clock, sector two being in the 3 to 6 area, and so on.
To Katsuki’s left, team three, consisting of IcyHot and Ponytail, break off down one of the alleyways, both skating across an ice path from Half-and-Half’s quirk, both making their way to start looking around sector three. To the right, Mina and Kaminari break off to start searching sector 2.
The rest of them continue running down the main street, dodging around running childrens bots, a bot walking another dog bot, and bots getting into fake cars that don’t actually move. The three teams, Bakugou and Kirishima, Iida and Tsuyu, and Shinsou and Uraraka, stay together until they break off at the main intersection, an almost town center in a way. A roundabout sits in the middle, a mound of dirt with some landscaping swaying in the wind wrapped in round roads.
Once they hit that mound, Iida and Tsuyu break off to the left while Uraraka and Shinsou head to the right. Katsuki watches them disappear into side streets before looking around with slitted eyes.
The earpieces in their ears let out a crackle before Iida’s voice sounds loudly in his ear. He hisses and glares the way the class president has gone. “Alright everyone, comms check! Coming in loud and clear?”
As affirmatives leak through, Katsuki goes back to looking around the streets, eyeing the bots for any sense of ‘wrongness’ or humanness. Knowing Deku, he could disguise his group to look like bots and move around right under their noses. But no matter what the nerd has planned, Katsuki wasn’t going to lose. The game was on.
~
The soft clinking of drips of metal echoed throughout the cavern that Izuku had wedged himself in in the underground sewer system below Ground Theta. Getting to this place had taken most of the prep time they had been given, a patchwork of maze-like tunnels with more than one deadend, but Izuku thinks it will be worth it. Even if the ankles of his trousers were a bit damp from the rainwater that had seeped into the tunnels and didn’t have a place to go. Or that he could hear every rumbling of moving pedestrian bots above whenever they walk over the maintenance cover to his right.
The smell wasn’t too pleasant either, even with it not being a functioning system. It smelled of must and stale water, a scent that had his nose curling despite himself.
Shaking his head, he flips up the arm-mounted laptop on his arm after curling up in his cloak, and starts typing into the keyboard that expands with one hand. After a few moments, the only sounds being the clacking of keys, his soft breathing, and drips of water, he lets out a soft noise when a bunch of red pins appear in a group near the entrance to the map on the screen. And, with another click of a button, green pins also appear, but this time spread throughout the map.
It wasn’t long before the horn rang, Mic’s voice echoed throughout the grounds, and then those red pins were making their way into the circular map and heading to their different sectors. Izuku watched as they broke off, making note of which teams were going which ways.
If they wanted to complete this exam, the fugitives would have to complete their objectives, which Aizawa had assigned the day before, without getting captured and staying within the time limit. Most of it would be a waiting game, especially for Izuku, who was doing most of the planning and moving people around.
And the heroes didn’t even know that they were being played, their pawns’ and knights’ moves all telegraphed through both the map on his arm and the communication device in his ear. They didn’t know he could see the whole board. They didn’t know he had hacked into their earpieces and could hear their plans. It was like the fugitives’ opponents were thinking they were playing against a bot, not the master behind the curtain.
By the end of this game, the heroes will be in checkmate.
But, first, Izuku has to make sure that his own moves were going to work, that none of his pieces get taken. And to do that, he needs to move them around.
With a deep breath, he presses the top button on his earpiece. “Heroes are on their way in. It appears they went with Plan A for their teams and sectors. Inasa, hold your position as you are about to intersect with Kaminari and Mina. Don’t engage and don’t let them see you. They’re within yelling distance of the Bakugou and Kirishima group.”
A grunt comes through the other end of the line, and Inasa’s version of a whisper, which isn’t really a whisper in all actuality, comes through: “I can lead them off then make my way back?”
“No. They may call for backup or figure out that the house that they were near was the one with your objective in it. Best to wait while they search through the block then just come out when they are gone. Either go underground or take to the roofs.”
“You got it, Midori.”
Izuku flips through his screens to get a timelapse of the path the girls had taken up until that point. “Alright, Kasu and Kimi. You both are almost done searching sector 4 and Mina and Kaminari are near Inasa, so they shouldn’t be a bother as you finish up. Cover the next three blocks to your right and then Echolocation should have swept the whole sector. Kimi, how is your head holding up?”
“Doin’ just fine, green bean! I’ll let ya know when it starts to hurt.”
“We’re going to move on to sector 3 after this one.” Kasu says.
Izuku nods even though neither of them are present to see him. “Todoroki and Yaoyorozu started their search for us near the gate, so by the time you get there, they should have moved on. I’ll keep an eye on them for you, either way. Just be wary when you cross that main street to get to the other side.”
Kimi chirps out a “You got it, green bean!”
“You are doing great. Between both of your quirks and awareness, you should have the explosives and have completed the objective near the two hour mark. Keep a steady pace, don’t lose focus, and don’t overdo yourself.”
Izuku can hear their soft giggles through the earpiece at his tone, and he can feel his cheeks start to warm at just how awkward of a speech that was. He can thank his mother for the slight mother-henning as well, not that he is complaining. He loves his mother, and his friends.
“Kagawa, the bot number is 5341. From the sounds above, there appear to be quite a few bots out and about, approximately two traveling past every 47 seconds. And with a guess of at least one, if not more, for each ‘house’, there should be -”
“Izuku, green bean, as much as we adore your rambling and how much I would love to hear about how many bots there may be, we are in the middle of an operation. You were saying about bot 5431?” Nagahata gently chides, tone cool even through the soft panting Izuku can hear through the earpieces. There is also a whoosh of air and the soft sizzle from using his quirk as he runs across rooftops.
Letting out a soft apology, Izuku lets his fingers fly across the keyboard, the clicking filling the otherwise quiet air. A green flash reflects in his eyes as a series of code starts scrolling on the screen. “The bot’s pre-fixed route goes from a corner store near the edge of sector 4, heads north to the park in sector 1, then to an apartment complex in sector 2. All circuitous, and should take about 45 minutes with a 15 minute reset period.”
“Heading to the park now. Give me about 15 minutes.”
Izuku snorts when he pulls up the schematics for the bot, the bright blond hair and signature glasses standing out like a sore thumb. Though Izuku makes a note to talk to whoever made the design because his hair was an inch short according to the measurements. “Oh, you’re going to love taking out this bot, Kagawa.”
A stumble and soft curse greet Izuku’s ears. “It’s a Mic bot isn’t it.” When all Izuku does is snicker, the other boy groans. “Of course it's a Present Mic bot. Because of course Nedzu knows who my all time favorite hero is and is sadistic enough to make me go after him, even if in bot form.”
A glance shows that the camera peeking in the corner of the cavern was blinking red, Izuku gives it a deadpan look for his friend before snickering once more. At least he has the decency to try to muffle it in his other arm.
“Can you remind me of the two that are in sector 1?”
Pulling up the file on the 1-A class he uploaded early this morning, Izuku hums as he skims through the information that had been gathered throughout their stay. “Shinsou and Uraraka. Brainwashing and gravity negation, respectively. Don’t speak to them at all. Shinsou has a voice changer on his hero costume, so be wary of even replying on comms unless you know for sure it is me. And don’t let Uraraka land five fingers on you, unless you want to be floated into the sun.”
“Good to know. Don’t speak and don’t get caught. Thank Kami that Kimi doesn’t have to go against them, or we’d be down a teammate and points in about twenty seconds.”
“Hey! I’ll have you know-” Kimi starts. As the twins initiate their standard bickering through the earpieces, Izuku flicks through the different tabs to check on everyone. The normalness of the bickering in his ears has some tension releasing in his shoulders.
Explosions rattling the maintenance cover has him whipping his head in that direction so fast that he almost gives himself whiplash. He waits with bated breath, staring wide eyed at the cover, waiting for a beam of light to appear on the floor, but it never does. The sound of explosions, however, do get further away and when Izuku can no longer hear them is when he finally allows the tension in his body to release with a rush of air.
Izuku knows that the blond will eventually figure out where he is camping out. Not only was the blond smart, both academic- and battle-wise, but he had also grown up with Izuku. Probably knew him just as well as Izuku knew the blonde. So it was only a matter of time.
Though Izuku didn’t plan on staying down here for the full duration of the exam. Just long enough to make sure the rest of his team had support so they can finish their objectives then all make it to the safe zone. He just has to make sure none of them get caught by any of the heroes.
A soft curse pulls his attention back to the screen on his arm. Flicking his eyes over all of the pins, Izuku finds the issue quite quickly. The blinking light of Inasa goes through the streets and buildings - probably flying over them - and the pins of Mina and Kaminari chase after it.
“Mina saw me. Heading south away from Gate B.” Inasa’s voice comes through the comms, voice tense as he tries to focus between controlling his flight, talking, and getting away from the two heroes below. The whoosh of air struggles to get cut out by Mei’s additions to the mic, leading to Inasa’s voice being a bit hard to hear.
Izuku says nothing for a moment, listening in on the hero's comms to see if Mina and Kaminari would call the sighting in and ask for backup, but their mics remain silent. With a few clicks, Izuku makes sure that the mics remain muted.
“Lead them to a back alley. And let them know just how much we mean business with the paintball gun strapped on your thigh, yeh? Just don’t make it too obvious what you’re doing.”
Across town, Inasa glides around corner after corner on his wind. He can hear the feet pounding behind him as they try to keep after him, and decides to slow down just a hair. Inasa begrudgingly admits that they have decent stamina and speed to be able to keep up with him.
Veering to the right, he avoids a dumpster by just a hair as he skirts down the dead end alley, which he slows to a stop near the wall blocking the way. His feet meet the ground as he turns back to face the mouth of the alley, hand unlatching the clasp that keeps the paintball gun strapped to his thigh.
The thudding footsteps get closer and after a few moments, Mina and Kaminari swerve around the corner, a rethounding clang echoing throughout the vast alleyways as Kaminari nails his shoulder onto the dumpster that Inasa had narrowly missed earlier. They both stop at the sight of him.
A moment passes where none of them move. Just waiting. Watching. Then they are all moving as one. Mina lifts up her hands in order to spurt her acid, Kaminari doing the same with his support wristband. And Inasa pulls out and aims the paintball gun right at them.
They stop again, the two heroes freezing at what looks to be a loaded gun aimed at them. Inasa, with a guilty thrum in his gut, watches the blood drain from their faces. He almost feels bad enough to lower the barrel, but then Mina starts to shout in her earpiece and he is already pulling the trigger.
“Guys! They have-!”
The rest of what she was going to warn them gets cut off as the paintball splatters against her shoulder and every part of her body seizes up. Arcs of electricity beam around her, the energy emerging from the splatter of red paint that now decorates her costume. And then she falls to the ground in a heap.
“Mina Ashido is out!” Present Mic’s voice echoes throughout the streets, his already loud voice boosted by hidden speakers that litter the road- and alley-ways.
Inasa glances down at the gun in his hands and mutters, “Guess she wasn’t kidding about electrified paintballs.”
“She did say it is based off of some electric shock gumballs from some kids spy movie or other,” Izuku huffs out through his earpiece. “Also, fair warning but I doubt they will work on Kaminari. You have two options. You could get him to use the max number of volts and fry his brain while trying not to get electrocuted yourself.”
Inasa feels a shiver rake up his spine at the thought of getting hit by electricity more powerful than what Mina did. “What’s the second option?”
“Just scare him off.”
Inasa looks over at the still frozen Kaminari. The blonde is staring at Mina with a horrified look, his arm still raised but shaking. With a shrug, Inasa thuds his feet as he makes a break toward the blonde.
Whether it be the loud thudding of heavy boots fastly approaching him, or the bear-like roar that Inasa lets out as he runs, or even the gun still pointed at him, but Kaminari jerks out of his stupor and turns tail, bolting back out of the alleyway with a speed comparable to even Iida’s.
Inasa grunts when he stops next to Mina, watching the electric user turn around the corner after stumbling over some of the fake garbage that littered the ground. After checking to make sure she was mostly unhurt and would be good until the teachers came to pick her up, he straightens up and starts jogging back to his objective.
The house that held his object was rather modern, compared to the more traditional houses that flanked it. It was a bit blocky, gray in color, and wide windows that showed his windswept reflection in stark clarity.
A voice in his ear broke him out of his admiration. “Kaminari appears to be making his way to the central plaza where Bakugou and Kirishima are patrolling. If they all come back, you’re going to have one hell of a fight on your hands. So let’s hurry it up a bit, yeh?”
Inasa takes the advice and hurries into the house following a quick survey of the outside, taking specific note of the security features and dodging around their lines of sight. A bit of quick typing from the other end of his earpiece has the alarm disengaged and reset behind him.
A clean entryway greets him, with a staircase leading up to the second floor and archways to what appear to be a living room on one side and a dining room on the other. All are furnished with simple, yet bold furniture and dark wood floors tie it all together.
He doesn’t get any time to admire however, as Izuku instructs him to go up the stairs and down the adjoining hallway, stopping at the last room on the left.
The room Izuku brought him to is a study of some sort. A grand oak desk takes up most of the available floor space, with just enough space to spare for a rolly chair and a small bookshelf that is filled haphazardly with piles of books and random knick knacks.
A quick look around denies the belief that this objective would be as simple as a grab-and-run, so Inasa starts checking around some of the more obvious spaces to find where the files could be located. It’s just as he is about to pull aside the curtains that Izuku lets out a soft grunt.
“There is a safe located next to -- wait, no -- in the lefternmost wall. I’m not able to open it remotely, so I’m taking a wild guess and saying that is where your files are hidden.”
Pushing the chair to the side, Inasa looks at the indicated wall. Apart from a painting hanging on a wall, there is not even a marking to indicate that there is a safe anywhere in that vicinity.
“Unless..” Inasa pulls off the painting on the wall and the safe glints in its spot mounted in the wall. A ticking becomes apparent and Inasa watches a timer on the safe slowly tick downwards. Underneath it is a panel of buttons.
“There is a panel of buttons, and a timer ticking down. Ten minutes when it started.”
A shaky breath is heard through the static of the earpiece, but when Izuku’s voice comes through, it holds a determined edge to it. “Alright. Look around for any clues or hints. Look under everything, even if you think it’s not important.”
And Inasa does just that. He doesn’t want to find out what happens when the clock runs down to zero. He doesn’t want to let his teammates down. So he overturns everything in his search for clues, starting with the chair and then the desk.
“Frick.” Inasa hears as he is head deep in one of the drawers. He knocks his head against it on his way out but he pushes the pain to the side in order to keep searching.
“They’re on their way, aren’t they?” It’s barely a question. More of a resigned statement on his end. And the small ‘yes’ he receives in return may make his heart race, but it also pushes him to new speeds.
After sticking his head in yet another dusty drawer and seeing nothing of any sort depicting a clue, he decides to just yank the draws out and check all sides of them over. Knowing what he knows about the rat from Izuku, Inasa wouldn’t put it past him to write a clue on some nondescript nailhead in the innermost corner of some piece of furniture.
It’s a good thing he did it, as on the third drawer he yanks out is the first clue. Written on the back in a lilting script and black sharpie, are the words: “How many people is No. 32 Pro Hero Ragdoll able to monitor at any one time?”
Inasa reads the question out for Izuku, because he does not know this.
“Easy. 100.”
Following that stated fact, said as if everyone would know, is the now normal mumbling spree that goes off in his ear. Inasa just listens with half an ear as he moves on from the desk and starts looking under the edges of the rug, which turns up empty, before moving on to the bookcase.
The sheer amount of books littering those bending shelves is daunting in its own way. A whole slew of genres can be found there, ranging from pre-quirk books to a manual about chess, and Inasa has no idea where to start.
But the ticking from the other side of the room has him grabbing a random one and flipping through it. He continues this process, throwing the books over his shoulder once he is finished with them into a growing pile on the floor. Normally he would take better care of them, especially with friends like Izuku and Kimi, but now is not the time to be nice to them.
It is about halfway through the books, tucked under a dust jacket, that he comes across the next clue. Just as he is about to read it out, even when he does actually know the answer, is when he starts to hear the first distant telltale sounds of explosions. That seems to be getting closer with every passing minute.
“What is the percentage of non-quirked, aka quirkless people?”
“20%. Inasa, you have an ETA of about four minutes on the heroes.”
A glance at the timer shows that he has just about six minutes left. Letting out a breath, Inasa continues looking through the books before moving on to the bookcase itself. No other clue appears anywhere on or under the shelves. Looking around, there wasn’t much left that he could look at, without actually tearing things apart.
“I’m watching the street cams for them. Just focus on finding the last clue and stay away from the window.”
With a nod, the tall boy goes back over what he had already checked. He even knocks the desk actually over onto its side to check under it, but there was no clue there.
As the room gets messier, the minutes go by, and the explosions get closer, Inasa finds his frustrations begin to mount as he just can’t seem to find. The. Damn. Clue.
It’s only when he slips on the deposited picture that hid the safe in the first place that he finds the clue. HIs boot had ripped right through the painting and underneath it, on the wood frame backing, was the last clue.
“They’re right outside, Inasa. You need to get that document now.” There’s no mistaking the agitated tone in his friend’s voice.
Of course Izuku would be nervous. It had taken a full week of convincing to even get him to agree to be their leader in this test. There was more riding on it for him then there was for the rest of their rag tag group combined. This was proof to people that Izuku had what it takes to be a hero, as well as proof to Izuku himself.
A bubble of protectiveness bursts in his chest and he kicks the painting away in his haste to make it to the safe. “How many teachers are in Ground Theta at this current moment?”
The door blasting in downstairs cuts off the start of Izuku’s answer, so Inasa takes the moment to enter in the previous codes. The sound of stomping boots and a shout of ‘Where are you Baldy’ downstairs has his heart pounding in tandem.
“-terms there are only two, but Ectoplasm is able to create 30 clones of himself. Though there is talk that he has gone up to 36..”
“Which is it, Izu?” he whispers, turning slightly to face the door, and in his movement he knocks over the haphazard pile of desk drawers he had stacked. They crash to the floor with a resounding clang and Inasa can hear the pause in all their footsteps and then the thudding of them coming up the stairs.
“Put in 1002003!”
Inasa puts in the last two digits just as the thundering group of feet meet the landing. The safe’s door gives a soft click and the door slings open, revealing the neat little pile of the fake documents and the paper with the safe zone location written on it.
Swooping them up, Inasa bolts to the window and launches himself out of it, his wind catching him before he can make any type of descent. And lucky he did because the door to the room he was just in gets blasted open by a nitroglycerin explosion. Kaminari, Kirishima, and Bakugou run into the smoke-filled room.
When the smoke clears, all that is left of Inasa’s passage is the open safe, broken glass littering the floor, and a booming laugh carried on the wind.